Credentials are one of the fastest paths into a secure environment.
They hide in vendor firmware, old device images, container layers, and packaged applications that never pass through your application-layer source-code scanners. By the time anyone notices, that test key or shared admin password has already shipped to production.
For product security, AppSec, vulnerability management teams, and third-party risk teams, this is the gap between “source looks clean” and “the image we actually shipped still contains embedded credentials,” whether that image was built in-house or supplied by a vendor. And unless they’re hard-coded into the application source code, they’ll never show up as a CVE.
Secrets Detection is built to stop that from happening by showing you where those credentials live in the entire software package you actually deploy so you can reduce real production exposure without drowning in noise.
The problem: Secrets you can’t see
Secrets in compiled software show up everywhere:
- API keys baked into binaries
- Passwords embedded in firmware and appliances
- Private keys and tokens left behind in containers and packaged applications
Most traditional tools are built for source code you write. They miss:
- Kernel images and device operating systems
- Legacy software with no build pipeline
- Secrets that only exist in compiled artifacts, not in source repositories or manifests
At scale, that gap becomes invisible exposure. You can have clean source scans and still ship binaries that contain credentials an attacker can use on day one.
NetRise Secrets Detection closes that gap by giving you the most comprehensive visibility into secrets.
What you can do with NetRise Secrets Detection
NetRise Secrets Detection gives you faster answers to “where is this credential actually used” and “did we really remove it from what we ship,” whether you are checking a new build before release or validating an image after an incident.
1. Identify where you are at risk from exposed secrets
The new Exposed Secrets view inside the Credentials tab shows secrets issues tied to each asset. Secrets are grouped by category (for example Cloud & Infrastructure, DevOps & SCM, Payments & Financial) and type, such as AWS, Slack, Stripe, GitHub, or Generic tokens. That makes it clear which components, containers, and packages in a given product actually contain credentials tied to specific providers.
2. Get guidance on what each secret means and your options
When you click into a secret, you’ll see:
- The secret type (for example AWS) and severity
- A short description of what that secret represents and why it matters
- Category and location fields showing where it lives in the asset
Combined with the redacted value and a “Reveal Secret” control, this gives analysts enough context to decide whether to rotate keys, revoke access, or adjust the build process without exposing credentials more broadly than necessary. It provides Third-Party Risk Managers the guidance they need to work with vendors to address the issue.
3. See which assets and categories are actually in scope
Secrets Detection shows counts and severities by category across the asset, along with filters for status and type. You can quickly see:
- How many high, medium, and low findings exist in a given image
- Which categories (for example Cloud & Infrastructure or Payments & Financial) are affected
- Which files inside the asset carry those secrets
Filters for status and type let you quickly focus on high-value providers, such as AWS, Stripe, or GitHub, and see how many secrets of each type exist in a given asset. That helps you answer questions like “which builds still contain cloud provider keys” or “where are payment-processor tokens hiding” without manual unpacking.
4. Track and report on remediation
Each secret includes a status (such as Unreviewed) and a Remediate action, and the Exposed Secrets table shows remediation counts per category. As teams work through findings, you can see what is still outstanding and what has been addressed. Combined with the preserved description, location, and severity, this creates a clear record you can point to when closing tickets, validating that cleanup landed in new builds, or explaining to stakeholders how a credential issue was handled.
How NetRise Secrets Detection works
When you upload firmware, containers, or other software assets, NetRise runs an enhanced secrets pipeline alongside its existing binary composition analysis.
Binary extraction of likely secrets
NetRise parses file systems and compiled artifacts to surface likely credentials, such as passwords, tokens, and key material. This builds on the platform’s existing ability to identify credentials directly from binaries, beyond the application layer.
Pattern matching on top of binary analysis
Pattern detection runs under the hood to identify common secret types, including cloud and API keys, private keys, and authentication credentials. Pattern matching is layered on top of binary extraction so you see both obvious values and less visible long-lived keys.
Exposed Secrets view with safer defaults
All findings roll into the Exposed Secrets view inside the Credentials tab. Each secret includes fields such as Secret Type, Location, and Correlations so teams can quickly understand what the credential is, where it appears in builds, and where else they may be exposed across their software inventory. Values are redacted by default and can be selectively revealed with an eye icon.
Severity and deduplication out of the box
Severities highlight credentials that represent meaningful risk, for example cloud tokens in production images or private keys embedded in widely deployed firmware. Deduplication keeps repeated instances of the same value from overwhelming the view, so teams spend time on unique and impactful findings.
Why this belongs in your triage process
Attackers do not need a CVE when they can reuse a credential. Whether the software comes from your own teams or from a third-party vendor, NetRise Secrets Detection helps you:
- Find credentials that never appear in source-code scanners or application-layer SBOMs
- Reduce the time spent wading through raw strings and duplicate findings
- Focus on the subset of credentials that translate into real exposure in production
- Quickly answer “where else does this leaked token appear” across firmware, containers, and applications during incident response
- Apply the same scrutiny to vendor firmware, appliances, and container images that you use for internally built software, so third-party risk reviews are based on all components in the software, not only those in the application layer.
How Secrets Detection extends what NetRise already does
At NetRise, our mission is to eliminate blind trust in software forever.
Secrets Detection advances that mission by:
- Focusing on credentials and key material as first-class findings
- Mapping those findings directly to the binaries, images, and devices you depend on
- Giving security teams a clear path from discovery to triage and remediation
Every connected device and application carries some level of secrets risk. Only a fraction of those credentials are both exposed in compiled artifacts and valuable to an attacker. NetRise helps you find that fraction and act on it.
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