API security
Secret sprawl
Secret sprawl is the uncontrolled distribution and duplication of secrets across systems, code, teams, and environments.
Definition
Secret sprawl describes the situation in which passwords, keys, tokens, or connection secrets are stored in too many locations and handled by too many components without central governance. It increases the attack surface and makes inventory, rotation, and incident response more difficult.
The Ariovis perspective
Secrets must be treated as governed assets with ownership, controlled storage, rotation and revocation. Moving a static secret into a vault is useful, but it does not solve excessive privilege or a missing lifecycle.
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