Your AWS keys are in git history — here's how to remove them

GitHub just sent you a secret scanning alert. Or maybe you noticed your AWS bill jumped overnight. Either way, you've got credentials in your git history and you need them gone. Here's the complete guide to removing secrets from git history — and how to make sure it never happens again. Why deleting the file isn't enough This is the most common mistake: git rm .env git commit -m "remove env file" git push That removes the file from the current state of the repo. But anyone who clones it can still run: git log -p | grep AWS_ACCESS_KEY And see your secret in full. Every commit that ever contained your .env file is permanently stored in git history — until you rewrite that history. Step 1: Rotate your credentials immediately Before doing anything else — rotate the exposed credentials . Assume they're already compromised. AWS keys, Stripe keys, GitHub tokens — rotate them all before proceeding. Git history rewrites take time. The keys might already have been scraped. Step 2: Check