Table of Contents
Aembit Server Workload Cookbooks Series | GitLab
TL;DR: A practical GitLab CI/CD security guide showing how to replace static API keys and stored secrets with short-lived OAuth 2.0 tokens. It focuses on using workload identity, least-privilege policies, and dynamic authentication so each GitLab pipeline job gets only the access it needs, for only as long as it needs it. In one sentence: It’s a hands-on recipe for making GitLab pipelines safer by eliminating long-lived credentials and using temporary, policy-controlled access instead.
Aembit Team
Product & Research
Published Aug 2025
Updated Sep 2026
50:1
Non-human to human identities
18
Agent threat classes mapped
0
Long-lived secrets required
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- 10 pages
- 10 min read
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Table of Contents
CI/CD pipelines form the backbone of modern software delivery — but their security often hinges on how well you manage secrets.
In GitLab, one of the most widely adopted CI/CD platforms in the enterprise, credentials like API keys and tokens are often stored as static variables, environment secrets, or even hardcoded values. These practices scale poorly, widen your attack surface, and have played a role in high-profile breaches.
This free cookbook — the second in our series — serves up the technical recipe for securing your GitLab CI/CD pipeline’s access to the GitLab REST API with short-lived OAuth 2.0 tokens.
Inside, you’ll find the ingredients to:
- Authenticate GitLab jobs dynamically using workload identity and posture to reduce risk.
- Enforce least-privilege access scoped precisely to each pipeline job for tighter security.
- Replace static, long-lived credentials with short-lived, policy-backed tokens to minimize exposure and simplify auditing.
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