GitHub Actions Security: How to Stop Secret Leaks in CI/CD

Originally published on devopsstart.com, this guide explores how to eliminate static secrets and harden your GitHub Actions pipelines against credential theft. Introduction The fastest way to compromise a production environment isn't by hacking a firewall; it's by stealing a long-lived AWS Access Key leaked in a GitHub Actions log. Secret leakage in CI/CD pipelines is a systemic risk because these pipelines possess the "keys to the kingdom", allowing them to provision infrastructure, modify data