gitleaks

Scan only Pull Request commits

VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false doesn't make gitleaks analyze only updated files. To analyze only commits on Pull Request, set VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false together with REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_COMMITS_SCAN: true (you have to specify it explicitly), but only works for selected platforms: GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, GitLab Pipelines* (Merge Requests and External Pull Requests)

* Only GitLab self-managed and GitLab SaaS (Premium and Ultimate) are supported (limitation due to GitLab itself) and Merge result pipelines feature has to be enabled.
If MegaLinter with the gitleaks runs on PR on the not listed platform above, then the analysis is performed on the whole repository - default gitleaks behavior (checked-out commits, depends on fetch-depth configuration).
- You can still scan only PR commits in your CI/CD platform by setting MegaLinter envs: PULL_REQUEST=true*, REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_COMMITS_SCAN: true, REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_SOURCE_SHA with last commit sha from your PR and REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_TARGET_SHA commit sha from your target branch (for example, main if you do PR to main branch). Example on how to get source commit sha git rev-list -n 1 refs/remotes/origin/<source_branch> and target commit sha git rev-parse refs/remotes/origin/<target_branch>
  - * PULL_REQUEST environment variable must be set to true only on Pull Requests, so you must calculate the value in your pipeline and pass the outcome.
PR commits scan feature, if applicable, will override your --log-opts argument if you used it in the REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_ARGUMENTS.

Repository checkout on Pull Requests

To scan only PR commits, the shallow fetch for a repository checkout has to be 0. Below is an example configuration for supported platforms:

GitHub Actions

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0

Azure Pipelines

- checkout: self
  fetchDepth: 0

GitLab Pipelines

variables:
  GIT_DEPTH: 0

Git

git fetch --depth=0

gitleaks documentation

Version in MegaLinter: 8.18.4
Visit Official Web Site
See How to configure gitleaks rules
- If custom .gitleaks.toml config file isn't found, .gitleaks.toml will be used
See How to disable gitleaks rules in files
See How to ignore files and directories with gitleaks

Configuration in MegaLinter

Enable gitleaks by adding REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS in ENABLE_LINTERS variable
Disable gitleaks by adding REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS in DISABLE_LINTERS variable

Variable	Description	Default value
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_COMMITS_SCAN	Scan only commits in the current Pull Request/Merge Request	`false`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_SOURCE_SHA	Source commit SHA of the Pull Request/Merge Request	``
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PR_TARGET_SHA	Target commit SHA of the Pull Request/Merge Request	``
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_ARGUMENTS	User custom arguments to add in linter CLI call Ex: `-s --foo "bar"`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_COMMAND_REMOVE_ARGUMENTS	User custom arguments to remove from command line before calling the linter Ex: `-s --foo "bar"`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_PRE_COMMANDS	List of bash commands to run before the linter	None
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_POST_COMMANDS	List of bash commands to run after the linter	None
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_UNSECURED_ENV_VARIABLES	List of env variables explicitly not filtered before calling REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS and its pre/post commands	None
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_CONFIG_FILE	gitleaks configuration file nameUse `LINTER_DEFAULT` to let the linter find it	`.gitleaks.toml`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_RULES_PATH	Path where to find linter configuration file	Workspace folder, then MegaLinter default rules
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_DISABLE_ERRORS	Run linter but consider errors as warnings	`false`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_DISABLE_ERRORS_IF_LESS_THAN	Maximum number of errors allowed	`0`
REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_CLI_EXECUTABLE	Override CLI executable	`['gitleaks']`

MegaLinter Flavours

This linter is available in the following flavours

Flavor	Description	Embedded linters
all	Default MegaLinter Flavor	125
c_cpp	Optimized for pure C/C++ projects	56
ci_light	Optimized for CI items (Dockerfile, Jenkinsfile, JSON/YAML schemas,XML	21
cupcake	MegaLinter for the most commonly used languages	84
documentation	MegaLinter for documentation projects	51
dotnet	Optimized for C, C++, C# or VB based projects	63
dotnetweb	Optimized for C, C++, C# or VB based projects with JS/TS	72
go	Optimized for GO based projects	53
java	Optimized for JAVA based projects	54
javascript	Optimized for JAVASCRIPT or TYPESCRIPT based projects	61
php	Optimized for PHP based projects	56
python	Optimized for PYTHON based projects	64
ruby	Optimized for RUBY based projects	52
rust	Optimized for RUST based projects	52
salesforce	Optimized for Salesforce based projects	56
security	Optimized for security	24
swift	Optimized for SWIFT based projects	52
terraform	Optimized for TERRAFORM based projects	56

Behind the scenes

How are identified applicable files

If this linter is active, all files will always be linted

How the linting is performed

gitleaks is called once on the whole project directory (project CLI lint mode)

filtering can not be done using MegaLinter configuration variables,it must be done using gitleaks configuration or ignore file (if existing)
VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false doesn't make gitleaks analyze only updated files

Example calls

gitleaks detect --redact --no-git --verbose --source .

gitleaks detect -c .gitleaks.toml --redact --no-git --verbose --source .

Help content

Gitleaks scans code, past or present, for secrets

Usage:
  gitleaks [command]

Available Commands:
  completion  generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  detect      detect secrets in code
  help        Help about any command
  protect     protect secrets in code
  version     display gitleaks version

Flags:
  -b, --baseline-path string                                                                             path to baseline with issues that can be ignored
  -c, --config string                                                                                    config file path
                                                                                                         order of precedence:
                                                                                                         1. --config/-c
                                                                                                         2. env var GITLEAKS_CONFIG
                                                                                                         3. (--source/-s)/.gitleaks.toml
                                                                                                         If none of the three options are used, then gitleaks will use the default config
      --enable-rule gitleaks detect --enable-rule=atlassian-api-token --enable-rule=slack-access-token   only enable specific rules by id, ex: gitleaks detect --enable-rule=atlassian-api-token --enable-rule=slack-access-token
      --exit-code int                                                                                    exit code when leaks have been encountered (default 1)
      --follow-symlinks                                                                                  scan files that are symlinks to other files
  -i, --gitleaks-ignore-path string                                                                      path to .gitleaksignore file or folder containing one (default ".")
  -h, --help                                                                                             help for gitleaks
      --ignore-gitleaks-allow                                                                            ignore gitleaks:allow comments
  -l, --log-level string                                                                                 log level (trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal) (default "info")
      --log-opts string                                                                                  git log options
      --max-target-megabytes int                                                                         files larger than this will be skipped
      --no-banner                                                                                        suppress banner
      --no-color                                                                                         turn off color for verbose output
      --redact uint[=100]                                                                                redact secrets from logs and stdout. To redact only parts of the secret just apply a percent value from 0..100. For example --redact=20 (default 100%)
  -f, --report-format string                                                                             output format (json, csv, junit, sarif) (default "json")
  -r, --report-path string                                                                               report file
  -s, --source string                                                                                    path to source (default ".")
  -v, --verbose                                                                                          show verbose output from scan

Use "gitleaks [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Installation on mega-linter Docker image

Dockerfile commands :

# renovate: datasource=docker depName=zricethezav/gitleaks
ARG REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_VERSION=v8.18.4
FROM zricethezav/gitleaks:${REPOSITORY_GITLEAKS_VERSION} as gitleaks
COPY --link --from=gitleaks /usr/bin/gitleaks /usr/bin/