Does GitHub Actions store secrets, and how are they managed securely?

Yes. In GitHub Actions, secrets are stored in the repository or organization settings and are encrypted at rest using a public key that GitHub generates. When a workflow runs, GitHub injects the secrets into the job environment as environment variables, but the values are never exposed in logs. The encryption key is only available to the runner at runtime, so the secret never leaves GitHub in plaintext. You can rotate secrets by updating the value in the settings UI or via the REST API. Secrets are scoped to a repository or organization, and you can restrict which workflows can access them by using the secrets context. For higher security, you can use GitHub’s encrypted secrets feature, or integrate with external secret managers like AWS Secrets Manager or HashiCorp Vault, and fetch the secret at runtime. Always avoid printing secrets in logs and use the secrets context in your workflow files to reference them securely.