Because it is easy to extract strings from an application source code or binary, credentials should not be hard-coded. This is particularly true for applications that are distributed or that are open-source.
In the past, it has led to the following vulnerabilities:
Credentials should be stored outside of the code in a configuration file, a database, or a management service for secrets.
This rule flags instances of hard-coded credentials used in database and LDAP connections. It looks for hard-coded credentials in connection strings, and for variable names that match any of the patterns from the provided list.
There is a risk if you answered yes to any of those questions.
username = 'admin' password = 'admin' # Sensitive usernamePassword = 'user=admin&password=admin' # Sensitive
import os
username = os.getenv("username") # Compliant
password = os.getenv("password") # Compliant
usernamePassword = 'user=%s&password=%s' % (username, password) # Compliant{code}