Secrets Management Security: Protecting API Keys, Credentials, and Certificates for Malaysian Enterprises

Secrets — API keys, database credentials, certificates, encryption keys, tokens — are among the most valuable targets for attackers. Secrets management testing evaluates: whether secrets are hardcoded in source code or configuration files, how secrets are delivered to applications (environment variables, secret managers like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager, Kubernetes secrets), rotation policies (how often are secrets rotated? can they be rotated without downtime?), access controls (who and what can read secrets?), and audit logging (is secret access monitored?). Hardcoded secrets in source code repositories are consistently one of the most common critical findings in security assessments.