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Secret Scanner Installation

Before you begin

You'll need:

  • A ByteHide account and project token
  • PHP 7.4 or higher installed
  • Composer package manager
  • Node.js 16+ installed (required by the scanner engine)

Installation Options

Choose your preferred installation method:

Using Composer

Bash
composer require bytehide/secrets-scanner --dev

Or add to your composer.json:

JSON
{
    "require-dev": {
        "bytehide/secrets-scanner": "^0.1"
    }
}

Then run:

Bash
composer install

Basic Setup

After installation, initialize the scanner configuration:

Bash
vendor/bin/bytehide-secrets init

This interactive command will create a bytehide.secrets.json file in your project root directory:

JSON
{
  "token": "<your-project-token>",
  "appName": "My PHP Project",
  "environment": "development",
  "sync": true,
  "fix": false,
  "anonymize": false
}

Security Warning

Never commit your bytehide.secrets.json file to source control. Add it to your .gitignore file.

Verify Installation

After installation, run a scan to verify everything is working:

Bash
vendor/bin/bytehide-secrets scan

The scanner will automatically:

  1. Check if scanning is enabled for your configuration
  2. Scan source code for secrets
  3. Report any findings to your ByteHide dashboard
  4. Export detected secrets to your ByteHide Secrets Manager (if configured)

Composer Scripts Integration

For automatic scanning, add the scanner to your Composer scripts:

JSON
{
    "scripts": {
        "scan-secrets": "bytehide-secrets scan",
        "pre-install-cmd": "bytehide-secrets scan",
        "pre-update-cmd": "bytehide-secrets scan"
    }
}

Then run:

Bash
composer scan-secrets

Or it will run automatically before composer install or composer update.

Scanner Workflow

The Secret Scanner integrates into your development workflow:

  1. Installation: Add the Composer package to your project
  2. Configuration: Set up the scanner via the JSON file or init command
  3. Scanning: Run manually or automatically via Composer scripts
  4. Reporting: Detected secrets appear in your ByteHide dashboard
  5. Action: Export, fix, or receive alerts about found secrets

What's Next?

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Create a project
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Configuration