Betterleaks
Betterleaks is a free, MIT-licensed tool for scanning for exposed secrets such as API keys and credentials.
What Betterleaks is
Betterleaks is a free, MIT-licensed tool for scanning for exposed secrets such as API keys and credentials. It can examine local files, Git repositories, URLs, piped input, and supported sources including GitHub, GitLab, Hugging Face, and S3. Its configurable detection and filtering engine uses context to reduce false positives. Rules can also define asynchronous checks to see whether credentials are active and add identity, account, capability, or severity details to valid findings. Scans detect secrets without contacting credential providers by default; validation and analysis must be enabled. Rules may support revocation, but scans do not perform it. Betterleaks can be used in developer workflows, CI pipelines, security products, and AI agents, and it can be embedded as a Go library. Installation options include Homebrew, Fedora's package manager, Docker, Go, or building from source. The project names Aikido Security and MegaLinter as users, and says MegaLinter includes it out of the box.
Good
- Scans local and remote sources
- Configurable contextual detection rules
- Can prioritize by confidence and severity
- Available as an embeddable Go library
Watch out
- Credential validation is disabled by default
- Scans do not run credential revocation
Who it suits
Betterleaks suits developers and security teams that need secret scanning in local work, CI pipelines, or security tools. Its Go library option may also fit teams embedding scanning in their own software.
Verdict
Betterleaks offers configurable secret detection across files, repositories, and supported remote sources. Its default scans avoid credential-provider requests; teams needing validation or analysis must enable those capabilities.
The facts
Each one read from Betterleaks's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Analysis
- It can enrich valid credentials with identity, account, capability, and severity information.checked 3 Oct 2026
- Credential analysis
- Betterleaks can enrich valid credentials with identity, account, capability, and severity information.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Custom rules
- Users can define contextual filtering, validation, and analysis logic in the configuration.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Default network behavior
- Scans detect secrets without making credential-provider requests by default; validation and analysis can be enabled.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Detection
- Its detection and filtering engine goes beyond regular expressions and entropy to reduce false positives, analyze findings in context, and validate whether exposed credentials are still live.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Distribution
- The project provides Homebrew, Fedora, Docker, Go installation, and source build options.checked 3 Oct 2026
- Embedding
- Betterleaks can be embedded as a Go library.checked 3 Oct 2026
- Install options
- The project documents installation through Homebrew, Fedora's package manager, Docker, Go, or building from source.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The project names Aikido Security and MegaLinter among organizations and projects that use Betterleaks; MegaLinter ships it out of the box.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The project describes use in developer workflows, CI pipelines, security products, and AI agents.checked 3 Oct 2026
- License
- Betterleaks is MIT licensed.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Local use
- The documented commands scan local filesystems and Git repositories, as well as remote sources.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Other inputs
- It can scan files, Git repositories, URLs, and piped input.checked 3 Oct 2026
- Pricing
- The opened maker pages do not state a paid plan or subscription price.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Prioritization
- The project lists prioritization by confidence, validation status, and analyzed severity scores as a feature.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Betterleaks is a configurable secrets scanner designed to find exposed credentials in repositories, CI artifacts, issue trackers, datasets, logs, and other sources.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Revocation
- Rules can optionally revoke credentials, and scans do not run revocation.checked 4 Oct 2026
- SDK
- Betterleaks can be embedded as a Go library.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Security limit
- Credential validation is disabled by default and requires enabling it.checked 3 Oct 2026
- Sources
- The project lists GitHub, GitLab, Hugging Face, and S3 among its supported sources.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Validation
- It can check whether detected credentials are active through asynchronous HTTP requests defined in rules.checked 3 Oct 2026
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