GitGuardian alternatives: GitLab Secret Detection vs GitGuardian

Hey there! If you’re deep in the research process of choosing a new git secrets scanning solution then you’re probably looking to compare GitGuardian with other options to determine whether it might be right for you. To help make this as easy as possible, we’ve put together a detailed overview of how GitGuardian Internal Monitoring stacks up to GitLab’s secret scanning.

Before we dive into the comparison of the main features we first need to acknowledge the difference in business models between GitLab Secret Detection and GitGuardian Internal Monitoring.

The difference in business models

Most of GitLab's Application Security features, including secret scanning, are covered in the GitLab Ultimate license. The bundle includes:

Purchasing a GitLab Ultimate license for Application Security features might be a worthwhile decision if you are looking to deal with a single vendor for multiple security capabilities. There’s one caveat however, you are going without the in-depth coverage of best-of-breed solutions. For example, Snyk for open-source dependency scanning and GitGuardian for secret scanning will perform better in their respective areas. Ultimately, it comes down to choosing between the best possible coverage while dealing with multiple vendors or the convenience of dealing with a single vendor.
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As mentioned above, GitLab Ultimate covers different elements of application security. This page will evaluate one feature of the package, Secret Detection.

Now let’s dive into how GitLab’s Secret Detection, based on the open source tool GitLeaks (for which we have a dedicated comparison) compares with GitGuardian's Internal Monitoring solution.

Let's compare!

The space is evolving quickly, and we make our best efforts to keep information on our competitors up to date. If you see any information that you consider outdated or unfair with our competitors, please contact us and we will immediately set the record straight!

General capabilities

(for both public and internal monitoring products)

Enriched interface and centralization of incidents

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Rich UI with all data needed for investigation and remediation

Yes

++ Results can be displayed in your GitLab Security Dashboard (see here).

JSON reports for all vulnerabilities are also available.

‍Only available with GitLab Ultimate plan.

InfoSec team view (global view)

Yes

++ Results can be displayed in your GitLab Security Dashboard (see here).

‍Only available with GitLab Ultimate plan.

Developer view (local view)

Yes

++ Developers can view pipelines’ security tab and reports in the merge request widget.

‍Only available with GitLab Ultimate plan.

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Detection

Harvest candidates

Filter false positives

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Regular expressions to match known, distinct patterns

Yes - Over %ndet% secrets detectors (API keys, database connection strings, certificates, usernames and passwords, ...)

++ 20 types of secrets

Based on the rulesets and key types of open-source tool GitLeaks.

High entropy checks to match credentials without distinct patterns and enter “paranoid” mode

Yes, in combination with other techniques to get rid of false positives.

++ Supported. Very limited generic prefixes for API keys “api-”

No contextual analysis (= false-positive prone)

Contextual analysis

Yes. The context of a presumed credential can help a lot to filter bad candidates (e.g. the import of an API wrapper is a strong indicator of a true positive).

Credential validity checks

Yes, where feasible.

Dictionary of anti-patterns

Yes - Ability to exclude folders such as test folders and filter certain credentials like those containing "EXAMPLE" or "QWERTY" in them (placeholders).

Feedback loop to constantly improve the algorithms

Yes. Approx. %secrets-scanned-in-a-day% alerts sent per day!

Sensitive File names

Sensitive filetypes raise specific alerts: policy breaks.

-- Not supported

Ability to define custom detectors

Yes, but only through our support and if the detector can be deployed for all customers. Full ability to define custom detectors to be expected in H2 2021.

++ Yes, through GitLeaks customizable rulesets.

‍Only available with GitLab Ultimate plan.

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Implementation method

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Instance Level

Yes

++ Yes, with GitLab Runner with the docker or Kubernetes executor

Org Level

Yes, native GitHub app at organisation level (simple integration)

Individual repository level

Yes, upon integration of a GHE organization, users can choose to:
- give access to only one repository in particular
- give access to all repositories (and the ones that will be created).

++ Yes, runs in the GitLab Pipeline of a given project, and in the MR widget

Secrets Detection API

Core detection engine can be used to scan any type of text files (Slack messages, Gdivre, Jira tickets, etc.) More information: here

-- No secret detection API

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Alerting

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Real-time alerting

Yes

Email alerting

Yes

++ Yes, but only at the developer level for failed pipelines.

Splunk

Native integration

-- Not supported

Integration with most common SIEMs or ITSMs

Yes

Slack alerting

Yes

-- Not supported

JIRA

Native integration (Q4 2021)

++ Yes, if the JIRA integration is enabled on the specific project

Custom webhook to integrate anywhere

Available to push alerts (JSON output format)

++ Post processing hooks can be manually configured

GitLab Issues

Not supported

++ Native integration

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Incident Life Cycle Management

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Collect and structure weak signals to prioritize incidents

Yes - For example, credentials containing “admin” or “prod” in their context can be prioritized.

Ability to assign incidents / mark them as resolved / etc.

Yes

Whitelisting

Yes - Whitelist credentials or folders such as test folders.

++ Yes

Grouping / deduplication of alerts

Yes - Multiple alerts related to the same leaked credential are grouped and can be resolved in a unified manner. No need to triage/resolve every single occurrence.

-- Not supported

REST API

API to retrieve and update secrets incidents

-- Not supported

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Reporting

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

In app

Yes - Global Health Status, MTTD / MTTR, etc.

++ Limited, through the security dashboard.

‍Only available with GitLab Ultimate plan.

Data exporting

Yes - Enriched data can be exported in CSV format.

++ Yes, in JSON format.

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Security

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

SSO authentication

Yes

++ Yes

RBAC

Yes - Roles available: Owner / Manager (Admin) / Members.

-- No

Audit trail

Yes

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Get a demo

Public monitoring product

(On top of general capabilities)

Monitoring

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Monitor all GitHub public activity, at scale

Yes

Reliably filter public activity on GitHub that is linked with your company

Yes - We have the ability to match developers, source code and companies using a unique combination of heuristics. Contact us, we will show you our results for your company!

Identify and monitor developers’ personal repositories

Yes - This is where 80% of corporate leaks occur on GitHub.

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Deployment
of the solution

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Available in SaaS

Yes

Available On Prem

No - GitGuardian Public Monitoring scans only public data, thus on prem is often not a requirement for our customers.

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Get a demo

Internal monitoring product

(On top of general capabilities)

Integration with the Version Control System

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

GitHub native integration

Yes - Integration at the GitHub Org level with the ability to select monitored repositories

GitLab native integration

Yes - Integration at the instance level on full perimeter or at the group level

++ Yes, with GitLab Runner with the docker or Kubernetes executor, in the GitLab Pipeline of a given project, and in the MR widget.

Bitbucket native integration

Yes - Bitbucket Server/Data Center customer only

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SDLC stage scanning capabilities

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Pre-commit

Supported through GitGuardian Shield (view documentation here)

++ Supported via customization

Pre-push

Supported through GitGuardian Shield (view documentation here)

++ Supported via customization

Pre-receive

Supported but not recommended because "pre receive" can block developers and create friction

++ Supported via customization

Post-receive

Yes, supported natively. Real-time incremental scanning.

++ Yes, but checks can only be included in your GitLab pipelines.

CI pipeline

Natively integrates with GitLab pipelines, in addition to CircleCI, Travis CI, Drone CI...

-- Limited to GitLab pipelines

Full historical scan

Yes, can be launched on-demand through the interface

++ Yes, can be configured to run as a job within your GitLab pipelines.

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Secure the SDLC and more

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Detection API to integrate anywhere in the SLDC and the tools developers use

Yes - Integrate GitGuardian as a pre-commit or scan Slack messages for secrets using our API (that can be self-hosted)

-- No secret detection API

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“Shift left”

GitGuardian

GitLab Secret Detection

Put the developer in the loop

InfoSec can collect feedback from the developers directly in the dashboard and collaborate in order to remediate.

++ Limited collaboration possibilities.

“Auto-heal” incidents

Developers have the ability to resolve certain incidents by themselves without involving InfoSec if not needed.

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