200-901 Application Deployment and Security Practice Question
A team uses GitHub Actions for CI/CD. Their workflow includes a job that builds a Docker image and pushes it to a private registry. The job needs to authenticate to the registry using secrets stored in GitHub. Which approach is most secure for passing credentials?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use GitHub Secrets and reference them with ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PASSWORD }}.
GitHub Secrets allow storing sensitive data encrypted. In the workflow, secrets are accessed via ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PASSWORD }}. This avoids hardcoding credentials.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use GitHub Secrets and reference them with ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PASSWORD }}.
Why this is correct
Secrets are encrypted and not exposed in logs.
- ✗
Embed the password directly in the workflow YAML file.
Why it's wrong here
Embedding in YAML exposes credentials.
- ✗
Store the password in a plain text file in the repository and read it during the build.
Why it's wrong here
Plain text in repo is insecure.
- ✗
Use environment variables set in the runner's local .env file.
Why it's wrong here
.env file on runner is not managed securely across runners.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-901 exam.