Lambda Sensitive Environment Variables

What this rule checks

Detects Lambda functions with sensitive data in environment variables.

How to fix it

1. 1Move sensitive data to AWS Secrets Manager
2. 2Use SSM Parameter Store with SecureString
3. 3Enable Lambda environment variable encryption

import { aws_lambda as lambda } from 'aws-cdk-lib';

new lambda.Function(this, 'Fn', {
  runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_22_X,
  handler: 'index.handler',
  code: lambda.Code.fromInline('exports.handler = async () => {};'),
  environment: { API_KEY: 'AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE' },
});

import { aws_lambda as lambda, aws_secretsmanager as secretsmanager } from 'aws-cdk-lib';

const secret = new secretsmanager.Secret(this, 'DbSecret');
const fn = new lambda.Function(this, 'Fn', {
  runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_22_X,
  handler: 'index.handler',
  code: lambda.Code.fromInline('exports.handler = async () => {};'),
  environment: { DB_SECRET_ARN: secret.secretArn },
});
secret.grantRead(fn);

CDK Insights pinpoints the exact file and line in your CDK source for every finding, so you can jump straight to the fix.

Affected resource types

Intentional? Suppress this finding

Sometimes a flag is deliberate — a genuinely public endpoint, say. You can dismiss lambda-env-sensitive-data and the reason is kept in the report, not silently hidden.

In .cdk-insights.json:

{
  "ignoreRules": [
    { "id": "lambda-env-sensitive-data", "reason": "Why this is intentional" }
  ]
}

Or inline in your CDK code:

Validations.of(scope).acknowledge({
  id: 'cdk-insights::lambda-env-sensitive-data',
  reason: 'Why this is intentional',
});

Use the rule ID lambda-env-sensitive-data shown above — not the CDK-* ID from SARIF / GitHub code scanning. To dismiss every finding on one construct instead, use ignorePaths. Suppression docs →

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