Senior Xiao Ying

Apr 30, 2026 · Backend Development

Stop Hardcoding Secrets: Secure Spring Boot Configurations with @SecretValue

This article explains why storing passwords and API keys in plain‑text configuration files is risky, outlines the three core principles of configuration security, and provides a step‑by‑step guide to using the @SecretValue annotation from the spring‑secret‑starter library to inject secrets safely from services such as AWS Secrets Manager.