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Quick Start

Get up and running with SecScan in under 5 minutes!

Installation

The fastest way to install SecScan:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Zayan-Mohamed/secscan.git
cd secscan

# Build and install
make install

go install github.com/Zayan-Mohamed/secscan@latest

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/Zayan-Mohamed/secscan.git
cd secscan
make build

# Binary will be in build/secscan
./build/secscan -version

Verify Installation

secscan -version

Expected output:

SecScan v2.1.0

Your First Scan

Scan Current Directory

secscan

This will:

  • Scan all files in the current directory
  • Include git history if in a git repository
  • Respect .gitignore patterns
  • Display findings with color-coded severity

Scan a Specific Project

secscan -root /path/to/your/project

Quick Scan (Skip Git History)

For faster scans:

secscan -history=false

Understanding Results

SecScan categorizes findings by confidence level:

  • 🔴 HIGH (90-100%) - Very likely a real secret
  • 🟡 MEDIUM (70-89%) - Potentially sensitive
  • 🟢 LOW (<70%) - May be a false positive

Example output:

[HIGH] File: config/database.go:42 (Pattern: PostgreSQL Connection String)
  db_url = "postgresql://admin:p4ssw0rd@localhost/prod"

[MEDIUM] File: utils/crypto.go:15 (Pattern: High Entropy String)
  secret_key = "a8f5f167f44f4964e6c998dee827110c"

Next Steps

Common Issues

Permission Denied

If you get "permission denied" when running make install: bash # Use local installation instead make install-local

Command Not Found

If secscan is not found after installation: bash # Add to PATH (add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" source ~/.bashrc