Fix hard-coded secrets in Python and Flask
==========================================

Read the key from os.environ when the app is created, where the deployment
puts it from your secret store, and raise if it is missing or blank so the app
never starts without it. Send it in the Authorization header, not the query
string, return a generic 502 on partner errors, and keep .env files out of
git.

Page: https://softwaresecurity.com/fix/hardcoded-secrets/python-flask/

What is in this archive
-----------------------
hardcoded-secrets/python-flask/   the project: three implementations of the same code and one test suite
  impl/vulnerable.py   (vulnerable)
  impl/fixed.py   (fixed)
  impl/wrong.py   (a plausible fix that still fails)
run-all.mjs   runs the tests in all three modes and checks the results (Node.js only)
LICENSE-CODE.txt

Run it
------
  Tested with CPython 3.14.8. run-all.mjs needs Node.js 22 or later. Supported
  versions: https://softwaresecurity.com/fix/versions/

  From the hardcoded-secrets/python-flask folder, install the dependencies once
  (this needs network access):

    python3.14 -m venv .venv
    .venv/bin/python -m pip install --require-hashes -r requirements.txt

  Then run the tests. IMPL chooses the implementation the tests load:

    # every test passes
    IMPL=fixed .venv/bin/python -m pytest
    # an exploit test fails
    IMPL=vulnerable .venv/bin/python -m pytest
    # a test fails
    IMPL=wrong .venv/bin/python -m pytest

  The JUnit report is written to reports/junit.xml. To run all three modes and
  check the results in one step, run the harness from this top folder (it needs
  only Node.js; --install runs the install step first):

    node run-all.mjs --install hardcoded-secrets/python-flask
    node run-all.mjs hardcoded-secrets/python-flask

Verified
--------
  11 October 2026 on macOS 27.0 (Darwin 27.0.0, arm64), with python 3.14.8, pip
  26.2.1, flask 3.1.3, requests 2.34.2, urllib3 2.8.0, werkzeug 3.1.9, pytest
  9.1.1. Versions and results hold for that date: run the tests with your own
  versions before relying on the fix.

Licence
-------
  The code is MIT licensed (LICENSE-CODE.txt). The page text is CC BY 4.0.
