Scanning for Non-Human Secrets in Code

Non-Human Identities are now a silent part of production systems—API tokens, machine accounts, service identities, and ephemeral credentials moving data without oversight. Their velocity is faster than any human pull request. Their mistakes are harder to trace. If you’re not scanning for secrets in code tied to these non-human entities, you’re running blind.

Secrets-In-Code Scanning is more than detecting a stray password in a commit. At scale, it means parsing entire repos for embedded credentials owned by automated agents. These keys often bypass standard identity checks. They exist in CI/CD pipelines, SDK defaults, cloud automation scripts, and container configs. Once leaked, they can be exploited without triggering human anomaly alerts.

Effective scanning starts with high-coverage pattern detection and contextual analysis. Regex and entropy checks catch simple leaks. Source-to-sink tracing uncovers credentials buried in rarely touched branches. Cross-referencing code artifacts with your identity provider’s machine account registry flags unused or expired keys still in commits.

Automated rotation policies only work if the inventory is complete. Secrets owned by non-human identities often live outside the main credential vault. They’re generated dynamically by build jobs, or inherited from templates. Scanning tools need real-time integration with repositories, pre-commit hooks, and CI checkpoints.

The most advanced workflows go beyond surface detection. They link each discovered secret back to its owner identity and validate its current permissions. This closes the loop between scanning and remediation—revoking compromised machine credentials before they’re used.

Ignoring these identities creates asymmetric risk. Attackers target them precisely because they operate without human session limits. A leaked non-human key might allow unbounded API access for months. Continuous Secrets-In-Code Scanning neutralizes this window by treating every credential, human or machine, as equally high risk.

Start scanning for non-human secrets before midnight strikes. See how hoop.dev catches them in live code and closes the gaps in minutes.