TruffleHog
Hacker ApprovedSecret scanner in Privacy & security
People recommend TruffleHog as a strong git history and commit secret scanner, with active API verification of found keys. Some critics note it can be heavy, slow, and resource-intensive.
People recommend TruffleHog as a strong git history and commit secret scanner, with active API verification of found keys. Some critics note it can be heavy, slow, and resource-intensive.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Scans git history and commits for secrets
“gitleaks and trufflehog are great for scanning git history for leaked secrets”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: enveil – hide your .env secrets from prAIng eyes” “Existing tools like TruffleHog are great for scanning commits”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Quell, a local security layer to stop AI IDEs leaking your secrets” Identifies and verifies keys without triggering them
“TruffleHog identifies their AWS keys without triggering them by pattern-matching the key format.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Snare – catch hijacked AI agents before they make their first AWS call” “TruffleHog is vastly superior in this regard right now because they do active API verification.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Keychase – A zero-config, offline Python secret scanner” Good starting point that works well
“their product is really impressive and works great”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “trufflehog is a good starting point”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy and resource intensive to run
“industry standards for CI/CD and git history, but I found them a bit heavy and complex”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: KyubiSweep – Fast, local secret scanner written in Go (visual reports)” “Trufflehog requires the docker daemon and is generally pretty resource intensive while scanning.”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Layerleak – Like Trufflehog, but for Docker Hub” Scans take longer than alternatives
“I just tested against trufflehog myself. It did take about 10-15%longer for a scan to complete but this is expected.”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Layerleak – Like Trufflehog, but for Docker Hub”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TruffleHogThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Gitleaks | 8 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“TruffleHog is vastly superior in this regard right now because they do active API verification.”
“I just tested against trufflehog myself. It did take about 10-15%longer for a scan to complete but this is expected.”
“Trufflehog requires the docker daemon and is generally pretty resource intensive while scanning.”
“TruffleHog identifies their AWS keys without triggering them by pattern-matching the key format.”
“Existing tools like TruffleHog are great for scanning commits”
“gitleaks and trufflehog are great for scanning git history for leaked secrets”
“Just use gitleaks or trufflehog?”
“industry standards for CI/CD and git history, but I found them a bit heavy and complex”
“CLI tools such as TruffleHog you can put in pre-commit hooks to run before commits automatically”
“trufflehog is a good starting point”
“their product is really impressive and works great”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.