Uncover Hidden Secrets: Nosey Parker Finds Sensitive Data in Git & Text
▼ Summary
– Nosey Parker is an open-source command-line tool designed to find secrets like passwords and API keys in text files, functioning as a specialized version of grep.
– It was developed for offensive security, such as red team operations, and is also used defensively by teams like Praetorian to uncover hidden secrets.
– The tool offers flexible scanning capabilities, working on files, folders, GitHub repositories, and Git history with support for custom input sources.
– It uses 188 tested regular expression rules to reduce false positives and groups duplicate matches to speed up result reviews significantly.
– Nosey Parker is high-performance, capable of scanning gigabytes per second on multicore systems and handling datasets as large as 20TB.
Nosey Parker is an open-source command-line utility designed to uncover sensitive information and secrets concealed within text-based files. Functioning as a specialized alternative to grep, its primary purpose is to identify confidential data such as passwords, API keys, and other credentials that should not be exposed.
Originally developed with offensive security operations in mind, the tool assists red teams in navigating systems during penetration tests. It also serves a critical defensive role, enabling security teams to proactively audit their own environments for accidental data leaks. Praetorian, a well-known offensive cybersecurity firm, has successfully leveraged Nosey Parker across hundreds of security assessments to discover hidden secrets.
The tool’s capabilities are built around several core features. It offers flexible scanning options, allowing users to target individual files, entire directories, GitHub repositories, and even deep within Git commit histories. Custom input sources are also supported. For accurate detection, it employs a robust set of 188 proven regular expression rules. These rules have been refined through extensive use by security engineers, significantly reducing the number of false positives. To streamline the analysis process, the tool intelligently groups duplicate instances of the same secret, which can accelerate review times by a factor of 10 to 1,000. Performance is another major advantage; Nosey Parker is capable of scanning data at rates of gigabytes per second on multi-core systems and has been tested on massive datasets up to 20 terabytes in size.
A standard workflow for using the tool involves three straightforward steps. First, you initiate a scan on your chosen files or repositories. Next, you generate a summarized report of the findings. Finally, you manually review the results to verify which discoveries represent genuine security risks that require remediation.
Nosey Parker is freely available for download on its GitHub repository.
(Source: HelpNet Security)
