|
| 1 | +# Secret Detection Tools Comparison |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +**Target**: secret_detection_benchmark |
| 4 | +**Tools**: Gitleaks, TruffleHog, LLM (gpt-4o-mini), LLM (gpt-5-mini) |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +## Summary |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +| Tool | Secrets | Files | Avg/File | Time (s) | |
| 10 | +|------|---------|-------|----------|----------| |
| 11 | +| Gitleaks | 12 | 10 | 1.2 | 5.18 | |
| 12 | +| TruffleHog | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 5.06 | |
| 13 | +| LLM (gpt-4o-mini) | 30 | 15 | 2.0 | 296.85 | |
| 14 | +| LLM (gpt-5-mini) | 41 | 16 | 2.6 | 618.55 | |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +## Agreement Analysis |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +Secrets found by different numbers of tools: |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +- **3 tools agree**: 6 secrets |
| 21 | +- **2 tools agree**: 22 secrets |
| 22 | +- **Only 1 tool found**: 22 secrets |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +## Tool Agreement Matrix |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Number of common secrets found by tool pairs: |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +| Tool | Gitleaks | TruffleHog | gpt-4o-mini | gpt-5-mini | |
| 29 | +|------|------|------|------|------| |
| 30 | +| Gitleaks | 12 | 0 | 7 | 11 | |
| 31 | +| TruffleHog | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 32 | +| gpt-4o-mini | 7 | 0 | 30 | 22 | |
| 33 | +| gpt-5-mini | 11 | 0 | 22 | 41 | |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +## Per-File Detailed Comparison |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +Secrets found per file by each tool: |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +| File | Gitleaks | TruffleHog | gpt-4o-mini | gpt-5-mini | Total | |
| 40 | +|------|------|------|------|------|------| |
| 41 | +| `src/obfuscated.py` | 2 | 0 | 6 | 7 | **15** | |
| 42 | +| `src/advanced.js` | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | **12** | |
| 43 | +| `src/config.py` | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | **7** | |
| 44 | +| `.env` | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **5** | |
| 45 | +| `config/keys.yaml` | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **5** | |
| 46 | +| `config/oauth.json` | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **5** | |
| 47 | +| `config/settings.py` | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | **5** | |
| 48 | +| `scripts/deploy.sh` | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **5** | |
| 49 | +| `config/legacy.ini` | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **4** | |
| 50 | +| `src/Crypto.go` | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | **4** | |
| 51 | +| `config/app.properties` | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | **3** | |
| 52 | +| `config/database.yaml` | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | **3** | |
| 53 | +| `src/Main.java` | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | **3** | |
| 54 | +| `id_rsa` | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | **2** | |
| 55 | +| `scripts/webhook.js` | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | **2** | |
| 56 | +| ... and 2 more files | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +## File Type Breakdown |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +| Type | Gitleaks | TruffleHog | gpt-4o-mini | gpt-5-mini | |
| 61 | +|------|------|------|------|------| |
| 62 | +| `.env` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 63 | +| `.go` | 0 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 64 | +| `.ini` | 0 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 65 | +| `.java` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 66 | +| `.js` | 0 files | 0 files | 2 files | 2 files | |
| 67 | +| `.json` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 68 | +| `.properties` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 69 | +| `.py` | 3 files | 0 files | 2 files | 4 files | |
| 70 | +| `.sh` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 71 | +| `.sql` | 0 files | 0 files | 1 files | 1 files | |
| 72 | +| `.yaml` | 1 files | 1 files | 2 files | 2 files | |
| 73 | +| `[no extension]` | 1 files | 0 files | 1 files | 0 files | |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +## Files Analyzed |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | +**Total unique files with secrets**: 17 |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +### Gitleaks |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +Found secrets in **10 files**: |
| 83 | + |
| 84 | +- `config/settings.py`: 2 secrets (lines: 6, 9) |
| 85 | +- `src/obfuscated.py`: 2 secrets (lines: 7, 17) |
| 86 | +- `.env`: 1 secrets (lines: 3) |
| 87 | +- `config/app.properties`: 1 secrets (lines: 6) |
| 88 | +- `config/keys.yaml`: 1 secrets (lines: 6) |
| 89 | +- `id_rsa`: 1 secrets (lines: 1) |
| 90 | +- `config/oauth.json`: 1 secrets (lines: 4) |
| 91 | +- `scripts/deploy.sh`: 1 secrets (lines: 5) |
| 92 | +- `src/Main.java`: 1 secrets (lines: 5) |
| 93 | +- `src/config.py`: 1 secrets (lines: 7) |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +### TruffleHog |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +Found secrets in **1 files**: |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +- `config/database.yaml`: 1 secrets (lines: 6) |
| 100 | + |
| 101 | +### LLM (gpt-4o-mini) |
| 102 | + |
| 103 | +Found secrets in **15 files**: |
| 104 | + |
| 105 | +- `src/obfuscated.py`: 6 secrets (lines: 7, 10, 13, 18, 20...) |
| 106 | +- `src/advanced.js`: 5 secrets (lines: 4, 7, 10, 12, 17) |
| 107 | +- `src/Crypto.go`: 2 secrets (lines: 6, 10) |
| 108 | +- `.env`: 2 secrets (lines: 3, 4) |
| 109 | +- `config/keys.yaml`: 2 secrets (lines: 6, 12) |
| 110 | +- `config/oauth.json`: 2 secrets (lines: 3, 4) |
| 111 | +- `config/legacy.ini`: 2 secrets (lines: 4, 7) |
| 112 | +- `scripts/deploy.sh`: 2 secrets (lines: 6, 9) |
| 113 | +- `src/app.py`: 1 secrets (lines: 7) |
| 114 | +- `scripts/webhook.js`: 1 secrets (lines: 4) |
| 115 | +- ... and 5 more files |
| 116 | + |
| 117 | +### LLM (gpt-5-mini) |
| 118 | + |
| 119 | +Found secrets in **16 files**: |
| 120 | + |
| 121 | +- `src/obfuscated.py`: 7 secrets (lines: 7, 10, 13, 14, 17...) |
| 122 | +- `src/advanced.js`: 7 secrets (lines: 4, 7, 9, 10, 13...) |
| 123 | +- `src/config.py`: 6 secrets (lines: 7, 10, 13, 14, 15...) |
| 124 | +- `config/settings.py`: 3 secrets (lines: 6, 9, 20) |
| 125 | +- `src/Crypto.go`: 2 secrets (lines: 10, 15) |
| 126 | +- `.env`: 2 secrets (lines: 3, 4) |
| 127 | +- `config/keys.yaml`: 2 secrets (lines: 6, 12) |
| 128 | +- `config/oauth.json`: 2 secrets (lines: 3, 4) |
| 129 | +- `config/legacy.ini`: 2 secrets (lines: 3, 7) |
| 130 | +- `scripts/deploy.sh`: 2 secrets (lines: 5, 10) |
| 131 | +- ... and 6 more files |
| 132 | + |
| 133 | +## Overlap Analysis |
| 134 | + |
| 135 | + |
| 136 | +**No files were found by all tools** |
| 137 | + |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | +## Ground Truth Analysis |
| 140 | + |
| 141 | +**Expected secrets**: 32 (documented in ground truth) |
| 142 | + |
| 143 | +### Tool Performance vs Ground Truth |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +| Tool | Found | Expected | Recall | Extra Findings | |
| 146 | +|------|-------|----------|--------|----------------| |
| 147 | +| Gitleaks | 12 | 32 | 37.5% | 0 | |
| 148 | +| TruffleHog | 1 | 32 | 0.0% | 1 | |
| 149 | +| LLM (gpt-4o-mini) | 30 | 32 | 56.2% | 12 | |
| 150 | +| LLM (gpt-5-mini) | 41 | 32 | 84.4% | 14 | |
| 151 | + |
| 152 | +### LLM Extra Findings Explanation |
| 153 | + |
| 154 | +LLMs may find more than 30 secrets because they detect: |
| 155 | + |
| 156 | +- **Split secret components**: Each part of `DB_PASS_PART1 + PART2 + PART3` counted separately |
| 157 | +- **Join operations**: Lines like `''.join(AWS_SECRET_CHARS)` flagged as additional exposure |
| 158 | +- **Decoding functions**: Code that reveals secrets (e.g., `base64.b64decode()`, `codecs.decode()`) |
| 159 | +- **Comment identifiers**: Lines marking secret locations without plaintext values |
| 160 | + |
| 161 | +These are *technically correct* detections of secret exposure points, not false positives. |
| 162 | +The ground truth documents 30 'primary' secrets, but the codebase has additional derivative exposures. |
| 163 | + |
| 164 | + |
| 165 | +## Performance Summary |
| 166 | + |
| 167 | +- **Most secrets found**: LLM (gpt-5-mini) (41 secrets) |
| 168 | +- **Most files covered**: LLM (gpt-5-mini) (16 files) |
| 169 | +- **Fastest**: TruffleHog (5.06s) |
0 commit comments