Gitleaks vs TruffleHog

Gitleaks and TruffleHog are the two most popular open-source secret scanning tools, with a combined 49,000+ GitHub stars. Gitleaks is faster and simpler — it scans git repositories using regex patterns and works best as a pre-commit hook that blocks secrets in milliseconds. TruffleHog goes deeper by verifying whether detected credentials are still active and scanning beyond git into S3 buckets, Docker images, and Slack workspaces. Most security teams run both: Gitleaks pre-commit for speed, TruffleHog in CI/CD for depth.

Quick Verdict

Gitleaks is the fast, lightweight option. It scans git repositories for secrets using regex patterns, runs in milliseconds as a pre-commit hook, and produces output in SARIF format for GitHub Advanced Security integration. Install it, configure a .gitleaks.toml, and you have pre-commit blocking in five minutes.

TruffleHog goes deeper. It detects 800+ secret types across git repositories, S3 buckets, Docker images, Slack, Jenkins, and other sources. Its standout feature is credential verification: TruffleHog tests whether a detected secret is still active by attempting authentication against the service. This eliminates the class of false positives where a credential matches a pattern but has already been revoked.

The short answer: Use Gitleaks as your pre-commit hook for speed. Use TruffleHog in your CI/CD pipeline for depth and verification. Most security teams run both.

Feature Comparison

Gitleaks vs TruffleHog: Head-to-Head

Detection approach

Gitleaks uses regex patterns to match known secret formats. Each rule in the .gitleaks.toml configuration file defines a pattern (e.g., the format of an AWS access key) and optional keywords that must appear nearby. When a string matches, Gitleaks reports it. The default ruleset covers 150+ patterns including AWS keys, GitHub tokens, Slack webhooks, database connection strings, and private keys.

TruffleHog takes a detector-based approach. Each of its 800+ detectors is purpose-built for a specific credential type. A detector knows the pattern of an AWS key and also how to validate it against the AWS API. This means TruffleHog classifies each finding by type and can determine whether the credential is active, inactive, or indeterminate.

The practical difference is signal quality. Gitleaks tells you “this string matches the pattern of an AWS access key.” TruffleHog tells you “this is an active AWS access key with permissions to read S3 buckets in us-east-1.” The second is far more actionable.

Speed and performance

Gitleaks is faster. It compiles regex patterns and scans text against them. No network calls, no API verification, no multi-source enumeration. For pre-commit hooks, this speed is critical. A developer runs git commit and gets feedback in under a second. There is no perceptible delay in the workflow.

TruffleHog is slower because it does more. Credential verification requires network requests to external services. Scanning non-git sources (S3 buckets, Docker images, Slack) adds time. A full organization scan with TruffleHog can take minutes or hours depending on the number of repositories and sources.

For CI/CD pipelines, TruffleHog’s speed is acceptable. Pull request scans can be limited to the diff with --since-commit, and verification can be disabled with --no-verification when speed matters more than confirmation. But for pre-commit hooks where sub-second response is expected, Gitleaks is the better fit.

Credential verification

This is TruffleHog’s defining feature. When it finds what looks like an AWS access key, it makes an API call to AWS to check if the key is valid. For GitHub tokens, it hits the GitHub API. For Slack webhooks, it tests the webhook URL. This verification runs against 20+ common credential types with deep permission analysis.

The --results=verified flag filters output to only confirmed active credentials. This is powerful for triage. Instead of reviewing 200 findings to determine which ones matter, your security team sees only the 15 credentials that are actually working and need immediate rotation.

Gitleaks does not verify credentials. It reports pattern matches. Some matches are real secrets, some are test strings, some are already-revoked credentials. Teams manage this through allowlists in .gitleaks.toml and baseline reports that exclude known findings. It works, but it requires ongoing tuning.

Scan sources

Gitleaks scans three things: git repositories (including full history), directories, and files/stdin. It is focused entirely on code and configuration files. If a secret exists in a git commit, a config file, or a directory structure, Gitleaks finds it.

TruffleHog scans a much broader surface. Beyond git repositories, it covers:

• GitHub organizations including wikis, issue comments, gist comments, and PR comments
• S3 buckets and Google Cloud Storage
• Docker images (extracts layers and scans filesystem contents)
• Slack workspaces
• Jenkins servers
• Elasticsearch clusters
• Postman workspaces
• CircleCI and Travis CI build logs

For teams where secrets might leak through Slack messages, Docker images, or CI/CD logs, TruffleHog is the only open-source option that covers those surfaces. Gitleaks cannot scan any of these sources.

Configuration and custom rules

Gitleaks uses a TOML configuration file (.gitleaks.toml). Each rule has a regex pattern, optional keywords, and allowlist entries. Since v8.28.0, composite rules combine a primary rule with auxiliary rules that must match within a specified proximity (by line or column count). Allowlists work at both rule-specific and global levels. The configuration is straightforward and well-documented.

TruffleHog supports custom regex detectors with keyword anchoring. You define a detector with a name, keywords that must appear near the match, and one or more regex patterns. The custom detector system is functional but less mature than Gitleaks’ TOML-based configuration. Most teams rely on TruffleHog’s 800+ built-in detectors rather than writing custom ones.

Output and integration

Gitleaks outputs in JSON, CSV, JUnit, SARIF, and custom Go templates. SARIF is the standout format here. Upload SARIF output to GitHub Advanced Security and findings appear in the Security tab alongside CodeQL and Dependabot results. This gives security teams a unified view without switching tools.

TruffleHog outputs in JSON and human-readable text. There is no SARIF support. For GitHub integration, you parse the JSON output and create annotations or comments through separate tooling. The --fail flag exits with code 183 on findings, which is enough for CI/CD gating but less integrated than Gitleaks’ SARIF workflow.

Community and maintenance

Both tools have strong community adoption and active maintenance. Gitleaks has 24,400+ GitHub stars and is maintained by Zach Rice and the open-source community. It ships under the MIT license with no commercial tier for the CLI tool.

TruffleHog has 24,500+ GitHub stars and is maintained by Truffle Security, a venture-backed company. The open-source version is AGPL-3.0. Truffle Security offers TruffleHog Enterprise with centralized dashboards, team management, and priority support. The commercial backing means TruffleHog’s detector library grows faster, with new credential types added regularly.

When to Choose Gitleaks

Choose Gitleaks if:

• You need a fast pre-commit hook that blocks secrets in under a second
• Your scanning scope is git repositories and directories only
• SARIF output for GitHub Advanced Security integration is important
• You want a simple, single-binary tool with minimal configuration
• MIT licensing matters (AGPL-3.0 may be a concern in some environments)
• You prefer managing false positives through allowlists and baseline reports

When to Choose TruffleHog

Choose TruffleHog if:

• Credential verification is a priority — you want to know which secrets are still active
• You need to scan beyond git: S3 buckets, Docker images, Slack, Jenkins, or CI/CD logs
• Identity mapping (knowing which account owns a credential and what permissions it has) helps your triage process
• Scanning entire GitHub organizations (including wikis, issues, and gists) is a use case
• Fewer false positives through verification is worth the slower scan time

When to Use Both

The most common production pattern is running both tools:

1. Gitleaks pre-commit catches secrets before they reach the repository. Fast, local, zero network calls.
2. TruffleHog in CI/CD scans with verification on every pull request. Confirms which findings are active threats.

This layered approach gives you speed at commit time and depth in the pipeline. Developers get instant feedback from Gitleaks. The security team gets verified, triaged findings from TruffleHog.

For teams that want a managed platform instead of CLI tools, GitGuardian offers dashboards, incident workflows, and collaboration tool scanning. See GitGuardian Alternatives for the full list. For a broader overview of all secret scanning options, read Secret Scanning Tools.

Browse more comparisons in the SAST tools category.

Frequently Asked Questions

Suphi Cankurt

Application Security @ Invicti

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10+ years in application security. Reviews and compares 170 AppSec tools across 11 categories to help teams pick the right solution. More about me →