How is the security of sensitive information ensured during CI/CD automation processes in GitLab?

To ensure the security of sensitive information (passwords, tokens, keys) when automating CI/CD in GitLab, the following methods are used:

• GitLab CI/CD Environment Variables: secrets are stored in project or group settings as protected variables, accessible only in certain branches or for specific roles.

• Encryption and access restriction: variables are not displayed in logs and are protected from unauthorized access.

• Using Vault or other secret managers: integration with external systems for centralized secret management.

• Minimizing access rights: tokens and keys have the minimum necessary permissions.

• Secret rotation: regular changing of passwords and keys to reduce the risk of compromise.

Example of using a variable in .gitlab-ci.yml:

stages:
  - deploy

deploy_job:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - echo "Deploying with token $DEPLOY_TOKEN"
  only:
    - main

Here, DEPLOY_TOKEN is a protected variable set in the project settings.