kingfisher/README.md

# Kingfisher

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/kingfisher_logo.png" alt="Kingfisher Logo" width="126" height="173" style="vertical-align: right;" />

[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Apache%202.0-blue.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0)

Kingfisher is a blazingly fast secret‑scanning and validation tool built in Rust. It combines Intel’s hardware‑accelerated Hyperscan regex engine with language‑aware parsing via Tree‑Sitter, and **ships with hundreds of built‑in rules** to detect, validate, and triage secrets before they ever reach production

</p>

Kingfisher originated as a fork of [Nosey Parker](https://github.com/praetorian-inc/noseyparker) by Praetorian Security, Inc, and is built atop their incredible work and the work contributed by the Nosey Parker community.

Kingfisher extends Nosey Parker with live secret validation via cloud-provider APIs, augments regex detection with tree-sitter for code parsing, adds GitLab support, and builds a Windows x64 binary. 

**MongoDB Blog**: [Introducing Kingfisher: Real-Time Secret Detection and Validation](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/product-release-announcements/introducing-kingfisher-real-time-secret-detection-validation)

## Key Features

- **Performance**: Multi‑threaded, Hyperscan‑powered scanning for massive codebases
- **Language‑Aware Accuracy**: AST parsing in 20+ languages via Tree‑Sitter reduces contextless regex matches. see [docs/PARSING.md](/docs/PARSING.md)
- **Built-In Validation**: Hundreds of built-in detection rules, many with live-credential validators that call the relevant service APIs (AWS, Azure, GCP, Stripe, etc.) to confirm a secret is active. You can extend or override the library by adding YAML-defined rules on the command line—see [docs/RULES.md](/docs/RULES.md) for details
- **Git History Scanning**: Scan local repos, remote GitHub/GitLab orgs/users, or arbitrary GitHub/GitLab repos

## Getting Started

### Installation

On macOS, you can simply

```bash
brew install kingfisher
```

Pre-built binaries are also available on the [Releases](https://github.com/mongodb/kingfisher/releases) section of this page.

Or you may compile for your platform via `make`:

```bash
# NOTE: Requires Docker
make linux
```

```bash
# macOS
make darwin
```

```bash
# Windows x64 --- requires building from a Windows host with Visual Studio installed
./buildwin.bat -force
```

```bash
# Build all targets
make linux-all # builds both x64 and arm64
make darwin-all # builds both x64 and arm64
make all # builds for every OS and architecture supported
```

# Write Custom Rules!

Kingfisher ships with hundreds of rules with HTTP and service‑specific validation checks (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) to confirm if a detected string is a live credential.

However, you may want to add your own custom rules, or modify a detection to better suit your needs / environment.

First, review [docs/RULES.md](/docs/RULES.md) to learn how to create custom Kingfisher rules.

Once you've done that, you can provide your custom rules (defined in a YAML file) and provide it to Kingfisher at runtime --- no recompiling required!

# Usage

## Basic Examples

> **Note**  `kingfisher scan` detects whether the input is a Git repository or a plain directory—no extra flags required.

### Scan with secret validation

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/code
## NOTE: This path can refer to:
# 1. a local git repo
# 2. a directory with many git repos
# 3. or just a folder with files and subdirectories

## To explicitly prevent scanning git commit history add:
#   `--git-history=none`
```

### Scan a directory containing multiple Git repositories

```bash
kingfisher scan /projects/mono‑repo‑dir
```

### Scan a Git repository without validation

```bash
kingfisher scan ~/src/myrepo --no-validate
```

### Display only secrets confirmed active by third‑party APIs

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/repo --only-valid
```

### Output JSON and capture to a file

```bash
kingfisher scan . --format json | tee kingfisher.json
```

### Output SARIF directly to disk

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/repo --format sarif --output findings.sarif
```

### Pipe any text directly into Kingfisher by passing `-`

```bash
cat /path/to/file.py | kingfisher scan -
```

### Scan using a rule _family_ with one flag

_(prefix matching: `--rule kingfisher.aws` loads `kingfisher.aws._`)\*

```bash
# Only apply AWS-related rules (kingfisher.aws.1 + kingfisher.aws.2)
kingfisher scan /path/to/repo --rule kingfisher.aws
```

### Display rule performance statistics

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/repo --rule-stats
```

### Scan while ignoring likely test files

`--exclude` skips any file or directory whose path matches this glob pattern (repeatable, uses gitignore-style syntax, case sensitive)

```bash
# Scan source but skip likely unit / integration tests
kingfisher scan ./my-project \
  --exclude='[Tt]est' \
  --exclude='spec' \
  --exclude='[Ff]ixture' \
  --exclude='example' \
  --exclude='sample'
```

### Exclude specific paths
```bash
# Skip all Python files and any directory named tests
kingfisher scan ./my-project \
  --exclude '*.py' \
  --exclude '[Tt]ests'
```

If you want to know which files are being skipped, enable verbose debugging (-v) when scanning, which will report any files being skipped by the baseline file (or via --exclude):

```bash
# Skip all Python files and any directory named tests, and report to stderr any skipped files
kingfisher scan ./my-project \
  --exclude '*.py' \
  --exclude tests \
  -v
```

---

## Scanning GitHub

### Scan GitHub organisation (requires `KF_GITHUB_TOKEN`)

```bash
kingfisher scan --github-organization my-org
```

### Scan remote GitHub repository

```bash
kingfisher scan --git-url https://github.com/org/repo.git

# Optionally provide a GitHub Token
KF_GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_…" kingfisher scan --git-url https://github.com/org/private_repo.git

```

---

## Scanning GitLab

### Scan GitLab group (requires `KF_GITLAB_TOKEN`)

```bash
kingfisher scan --gitlab-group my-group
```

### Scan GitLab user

```bash
kingfisher scan --gitlab-user johndoe
```

### Scan remote GitLab repository by URL

```bash
kingfisher scan --git-url https://gitlab.com/group/project.git
```

### List GitLab repositories

```bash
kingfisher gitlab repos list --group my-group
```

---

## Environment Variables for Tokens

| Variable          | Purpose                      |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `KF_GITHUB_TOKEN` | GitHub Personal Access Token |
| `KF_GITLAB_TOKEN` | GitLab Personal Access Token |

Set them temporarily per command:

```bash
KF_GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-…" kingfisher scan --gitlab-group my-group
```

Or export for the session:

```bash
export KF_GITLAB_TOKEN="glpat-…"
```

_If no token is provided Kingfisher still works for public repositories._

---

## Exit Codes

| Code | Meaning                       |
| ---- | ----------------------------- |
| 0    | No findings                   |
| 200  | Findings discovered           |
| 205  | Validated findings discovered |

---

### Update Checks

Kingfisher automatically queries GitHub for a newer release when it starts and tells you whether an update is available.

- **Hands-free updates** – Add `--self-update` to any Kingfisher command

  * If a newer version exists, Kingfisher will download it, replace the running binary, and re-launch itself with the **exact same arguments**.  
  * If the update fails or no newer release is found, the current run proceeds as normal

- **Disable version checks** – Pass `--no-update-check` to skip both the startup and shutdown checks entirely

---

### List Builtin Rules

```bash
kingfisher rules list
```

### To scan using **only** your own `my_rules.yaml` you could run:

```bash
kingfisher scan \
  --load-builtins=false \
  --rules-path path/to/my_rules.yaml \
  ./src/
```

### To add your rules alongside the built‑ins:

```bash
kingfisher scan \
  --rules-path ./custom-rules/ \
  --rules-path my_rules.yml \
  ~/path/to/project-dir/
```

## Other Examples

```bash
# Check custom rules - this ensures all regular expressions compile, and can match the rule's `examples` in the YML file
kingfisher rules check --rules-path ./my_rules.yml

# List GitHub repos
kingfisher github repos list --user my-user
kingfisher github repos list --organization my-org

```

## Notable Scan Options

- `--no-dedup`: Report every occurrence of a finding (disable the default de-duplicate behavior)
- `--confidence <LEVEL>`: (low|medium|high)
- `--min-entropy <VAL>`: Override default threshold
- `--no-binary`: Skip binary files
- `--no-extract-archives`: Do not scan inside archives
- `--extraction-depth <N>`: Specifies how deep nested archives should be extracted and scanned (default: 2)
- `--redact`: Replaces discovered secrets with a one-way hash for secure output
- `--exclude <PATTERN>`: Skip any file or directory whose path matches this glob pattern (repeatable, uses gitignore-style syntax, case sensitive)
- `--baseline-file <FILE>`: Ignore matches listed in a baseline YAML file
- `--manage-baseline`: Create or update the baseline file with current findings

## Build a Baseline / Detect New Secrets

There are situations where a repository already contains checked‑in secrets, but you want to ensure no **new** secrets are introduced. A baseline file lets you document the known findings so future scans only report anything that is not already in that list.

The easiest way to create a baseline is to run a normal scan with the `--manage-baseline` flag (typically at a low confidence level to capture all potential matches):

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/code \
  --confidence low \
  --manage-baseline \
  --baseline-file ./baseline-file.yml
```

Use the same YAML file with the `--baseline-file` option on future scans to hide all recorded findings:

```bash
kingfisher scan /path/to/code \
  --baseline-file /path/to/baseline-file.yaml
```

See ([docs/BASELINE.md](docs/BASELINE.md)) for full detail.


## Finding Fingerprint

The document below details the four-field formula (rule SHA-1, origin label, start & end offsets) hashed with XXH3-64 to create Kingfisher’s 64-bit finding fingerprint, and explains how this ID powers safe deduplication; plus how `--no-dedup` can be used shows every raw match.
See ([docs/FINGERPRINT.md](docs/FINGERPRINT.md))

## Rule Performance Profiling

Use `--rule-stats` to collect timing information for every rule. After scanning, the summary prints a **Rule Performance Stats** section showing how many matches each rule produced along with its slowest and average match times. Useful when creating rules or debugging rules.

## CLI Options

```bash
kingfisher scan --help
```

## Business Value

By integrating Kingfisher into your development lifecycle, you can:

- **Prevent Costly Breaches**  
  Early detection of embedded credentials avoids expensive incident response, legal fees, and reputation damage
- **Automate Compliance**  
  Enforce secret‑scanning policies across GitOps, CI/CD, and pull requests to help satisfy SOC 2, PCI‑DSS, GDPR, and other standards
- **Reduce Noise, Focus on Real Threats**  
  Validation logic filters out false positives and highlights only active, valid secrets (`--only-valid`)
- **Accelerate Dev Workflows**  
  Run in parallel across dozens of languages, integrate with GitHub Actions or any pipeline, and shift security left to minimize delays

## The Risk of Leaked Secrets

Embedding credentials in code repositories is a pervasive, ever‑present risk that leads directly to data breaches:

1. **Uber (2016)**

   - _Incident_: Attackers stole GitHub credentials, retrieved an AWS key from a developer’s private repo, and accessed data on 57 million riders and 600 000 drivers.
   - _Sources_: [BBC News](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42075306), [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/report-uber-paid-hackers-100000-to-keep-2016-data-breach-quiet/)

2. **AWS**

   - _Incident_: An AWS engineer accidentally published log files and CloudFormation templates containing AWS key pairs (including “rootkey.csv”) to a public GitHub repo.
   - _Sources_: [The Register](https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/23/aws_engineer_credentials_github/), [UpGuard](https://www.upguard.com/breaches/identity-and-access-misstep-how-an-amazon-engineer-exposed-credentials-and-more)

3. **Infosys**

   - _Incident_: Infosys published an internal PyPI package embedding a FullAdminAccess AWS key for a Johns Hopkins data bucket; the key remained active for over a year.
   - _Sources_: [The Stack](https://www.thestack.technology/infosys-leak-aws-key-exposed-on-pypi/), [Tom Forbes Blog](https://tomforb.es/blog/infosys-leak/)

4. **Microsoft**

   - _Incident_: Microsoft’s AI research GitHub repo included an overly permissive Azure SAS token, exposing 38 TB of private data (workstation backups, 30,000+ Teams messages).
   - _Sources_: [Wiz Blog](https://www.wiz.io/blog/38-terabytes-of-private-data-accidentally-exposed-by-microsoft-ai-researchers), [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/18/microsoft-ai-researchers-accidentally-exposed-terabytes-of-internal-sensitive-data/)

5. **GitHub**
   - _Incident_: GitHub discovered its RSA SSH host private key was briefly exposed in a public repository and rotated it out of caution.
   - _Sources_: [GitHub Blog](https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/we-updated-our-rsa-ssh-host-key/)

Left unchecked, leaked secrets can lead to unauthorized access, pivoting within your environment, regulatory fines, and brand‑damaging incident response costs.

# Benchmark Results

See ([docs/COMPARISON.md](docs/COMPARISON.md))

# Roadmap

- More rules
- Auto-updater
- Packages for Linux (deb, rpm)
- Please file a [feature request](https://github.com/mongodb/kingfisher/issues) if you have specific features you'd like added

# License

[Apache2 License](LICENSE)