diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index 3a459ed3c4..a9c404880b 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -333,6 +333,7 @@ swagger_task:
         <<: *stdenvars
         TEST_FLAVOR: swagger
         CTR_FQIN: 'quay.io/libpod/gcsupld:${IMAGE_SUFFIX}'
+        # N/B: Do not modify below items w/o update to references in .gitleaks/config.toml
         GCPJSON: ENCRYPTED[927dc01e755eaddb4242b0845cf86c9098d1e3dffac38c70aefb1487fd8b4fe6dd6ae627b3bffafaba70e2c63172664e]
         GCPNAME: ENCRYPTED[c145e9c16b6fb88d476944a454bf4c1ccc84bb4ecaca73bdd28bdacef0dfa7959ebc8171a27b2e4064d66093b2cdba49]
         GCPPROJECT: 'libpod-218412'
@@ -968,6 +969,7 @@ meta_task:
           ${WINDOWS_AMI}
         BUILDID: "${CIRRUS_BUILD_ID}"
         REPOREF: "${CIRRUS_REPO_NAME}"
+        # N/B: Do not modify below items w/o update to references in .gitleaks/config.toml
         AWSINI: ENCRYPTED[21b2db557171b11eb5abdbccae593f48c9caeba86dfcc4d4ff109edee9b4656ab6720a110dadfcd51e88cc59a71cc7af]
         GCPJSON: ENCRYPTED[3a198350077849c8df14b723c0f4c9fece9ebe6408d35982e7adf2105a33f8e0e166ed3ed614875a0887e1af2b8775f4]
         GCPNAME: ENCRYPTED[2f9738ef295a706f66a13891b40e8eaa92a89e0e87faf8bed66c41eca72bf76cfd190a6f2d0e8444c631fdf15ed32ef6]
diff --git a/.github/workflows/scan-secrets.yml b/.github/workflows/scan-secrets.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5737838741
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/scan-secrets.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,196 @@
+---
+
+name: Scan for secret leaks and changes
+
+on:
+  # Block PR modification of workflow
+  pull_request_target:
+  push:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+# N/B: Default write-all permission for pull_request_target
+permissions: read-all
+
+env:
+  # How far back in history to go when scanning a branch/tag
+  # This is most significant when scanning vs new release-branches
+  # with commit IDs that may differ from those encoded in the
+  # .gitleaks/baseline.json data (which always comes from
+  # the default branch).
+  # TODO: Is there any way to not hard-code this?
+  # N/B: This value is reused by Cirrus-CI, see contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
+  brdepth: 50
+
+  # GitLeaks container image to use.
+  # N/B: Updating this is hard to test, esp. care must be exercised re: new leak-ignore behaviors
+  # (example ref: 'Check for inline scan overrides' step below).  Also b/c this workflow is not
+  # intended to be used with the 'pull_request' trigger - as doing so defeats gitleaks scan
+  # result trustworthiness.
+  # N/B: This value is reused by Cirrus-CI, see contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
+  glfqin: ghcr.io/gitleaks/gitleaks@sha256:e5f6d1a62786affd1abd882ecc73e9353ce78adea1650711f6e351767723712d  # v8.18.0
+
+  # General arguments to pass for all execution contexts
+  # Ref: https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks#usage
+  # N/B: This value is reused by Cirrus-CI, see contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
+  glargs: >-
+    --exit-code=1
+    --no-banner
+    --verbose
+    --log-level=debug
+    --source=/subject
+    --config=/default/.gitleaks.toml
+    --report-path=/report/gitleaks-report.json
+    --baseline-path=/default/.gitleaks/baseline.json
+
+  # Where to send notification e-mail
+  RCPTCSV: podman-monitor@lists.podman.io
+
+jobs:
+  scan-secrets:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    env:
+      # Reduce duplication & command-line length
+      gitlogcmd: "git -C ${{ github.workspace }}/_subject log -p -U0"
+    steps:
+      - name: Define git log command and options for re-use
+        id: gitlog
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -exuo pipefail
+          if [[ "${{ github.base_ref }}" == "" ]]; then  # It's a branch/tag
+            echo "range=-${{ env.brdepth }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          else  # It's a PR
+            echo "range=${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}~${{ github.event.pull_request.commits }}..HEAD" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          fi
+
+      # On a large repo, there's no need to check out the entire thing.  For PRs
+      # the depth can be limited to one-greater than the number of PR commits.
+      # Unfortunately, GHA is incapable of performing simple math in-line.
+      - name: Do some simple math for PR clone depth
+        if: github.base_ref != ''
+        id: one_more_commit
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          echo "depth=$((${{ github.event.pull_request.commits }} + 1))" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+
+      - name: Show important context details
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          echo "The workspace path is '${{ github.workspace }}'"
+          echo "The github.base_ref value is '${{ github.base_ref }}'"
+          echo "The branch scan depth value is '${{ env.brdepth }}'"
+          echo "The PR clone depth value is '${{ steps.one_more_commit.outputs.depth }}'"
+          echo "The gitlogcmd value is '${{ env.gitlogcmd }}'"
+          echo "The gitlog range value is '${{ steps.gitlog.outputs.range }}'"
+          echo "The GitLeaks container FQIN is '${{ env.glfqin }}'"
+          echo "::group::The trigger event JSON"
+          jq --color-output --indent 2 --sort-keys . $GITHUB_EVENT_PATH
+          echo "::endgroup::"
+
+      # N/B: Use "_" prefixed paths to (somewhat) guard against clashes.  GHA has some
+      # non-POLA behaviors WRT `${{ github.workspace }}` + checkout action.
+      - name: Checkout PR
+        if: github.base_ref != ''
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          path: _subject
+          ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+          fetch-depth: ${{ steps.one_more_commit.outputs.depth }}
+
+      - name: Checkout Branch/Tag
+        if: github.base_ref == ''
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          path: _subject
+          fetch-depth: ${{ env.brdepth }}
+
+      # Trusted source of gitleaks config.
+      - name: Checkout default branch
+        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          persist-credentials: false
+          ref: ${{ github.event.repository.default_branch }}
+          path: _default
+          fetch-depth: 1
+
+      - name: Create report directory
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -exuo pipefail
+          mkdir ${{ github.workspace }}/_report
+          touch ${{ github.workspace }}/_report/gitleaks-report.json
+
+      # A force-push to a PR can obscure Cirrus-CI logs, but not GHA logs
+      - name: Show content being scanned
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -exuo pipefail
+          ${{ env.gitlogcmd }} ${{ steps.gitlog.outputs.range }}
+
+      # Unfortunately gitleaks provides several in-built ways to
+      # completely bypass an alert within PR-level commits.  Assume
+      # it's not possible to detect these with gitleaks-config rules.
+      - name: Check for inline scan overrides
+        if: github.base_ref != ''  # A PR
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          # Workaround erronously detecting the string in this file
+          _rx1: "gitleaks"
+          _rx2: ":"
+          _rx3: "allow"
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          verboten_rx="${_rx1}${_rx2}${_rx3}"
+          verboten=$(set -x ; ${{ env.gitlogcmd }} "-G$verboten_rx" ${{ steps.gitlog.outputs.range }})
+          if [[ -n "$verboten" ]]; then
+            printf '::error::%s' 'Found comment(s) utilizing detection override(s) (see job log for details)'
+            # Hack: Grep will never colorize an end of a line match
+            echo "$verboten" | grep --color=always -E "($verboten_rx)|$"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+          if [[ -r "${{ github.workspace }}/_subject/.gitleaksignore" ]]; then
+            printf '::error::%s' 'Detected a .gitleaksignore file from untrusted source.'
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Scan for secrets
+        shell: bash
+        # gitleaks entrypoint runs as gitleaks user (UID/GID 1000)
+        run: |
+          set -exuo pipefail
+          # Careful: Changes need coordination with contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
+          podman run --rm \
+            --security-opt=label=disable \
+            --userns=keep-id:uid=1000,gid=1000 \
+            -v ${{ github.workspace }}/_default:/default:ro \
+            -v ${{ github.workspace }}/_subject:/subject:ro \
+            -v ${{ github.workspace }}/_report:/report:rw \
+            $glfqin \
+            detect $glargs --log-opts=${{ steps.gitlog.outputs.range }}
+
+      - name: Collect scan report artifact
+        if: ${{ !cancelled() }}
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
+        with:
+          name: gitleaks-report
+          path: ${{ github.workspace }}/_report/gitleaks-report.json
+
+      # Nobody monitors the actions-tab for failures, and may not see this
+      # fail on push to a nefarious PR.  Send an e-mail alert to unmask
+      # this activity or some other general job failure.
+      - if: failure() && !contains(github.event.pull_request.labels.*.name,'BypassLeakNotification')
+        name: Send leak detection notification e-mail
+        uses: dawidd6/action-send-mail@v3.8.0
+        with:
+          server_address: ${{secrets.ACTION_MAIL_SERVER}}
+          server_port: 465
+          username: ${{secrets.ACTION_MAIL_USERNAME}}
+          password: ${{secrets.ACTION_MAIL_PASSWORD}}
+          subject: Addition|Change|Use of sensitive ${{github.repository}}-CI value
+          to: ${{env.RCPTCSV}}
+          from: ${{secrets.ACTION_MAIL_SENDER}}
+          body: "Please investigate: https://github.com/${{github.repository}}/actions/runs/${{github.run_id}}"
diff --git a/.gitleaks.toml b/.gitleaks.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a77c13a9b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitleaks.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+# Options Ref:
+# https://github.com/gitleaks/gitleaks#configuration
+
+[extend]
+# useDefault will extend the base configuration with the default gitleaks config:
+# https://github.com/zricethezav/gitleaks/blob/master/config/gitleaks.toml
+useDefault = true
+
+[allowlist]
+description = "Global allow list"
+paths = [
+  '''^\.gitleaks.toml''',
+  '''^\.gitleaks/baseline\.json''',
+  '''^\.github/workflows/scan-secrets\.yml'''
+]
+
+# Any ENCRYPTED[blahblahblah] entries are only valid from a Cirrus-CI
+# execution context, but may appear in any file loadable by a starlark
+# script.  Though the actual strings are repo-specific and useless elsewhere.
+# This check is here simply to raise red-flags on new definitions or movements
+# of existing values.  Operationally, the actual leak-risk is only present
+# after Cirrus-CI decodes the value.
+[[rules]]
+id = "cirrus-ci_config-secrets"
+description = "Cirrus-CI Configuration Secret ID"
+regex = '''ENCRYPTED[\[][a-fA-F0-9]+\]'''
+
+# Any *_credentials items in .cirrus.yml should not appear in any other context.
+# Though Cirrus-CI restricts decoding of these values, this check is here to
+# raise red-flags on any new definitions or movements.
+[[rules]]
+id = "cirrus-ci_cloud-credentials"
+description = "Cirrus-CI Cloud service-account credentials"
+regex = '''(gcp|aws)_credentials'''
+
+# Changes to the scanning workflow trigger could be used to superficialy mask a negative result.
+[[rules]]
+id = "scan-secrets_trigger"
+description = "PR trigger change to secret-scanning workflow"
+regex = '''pull_request:'''
+path = '''.github/workflows/scan-secrets.yml'''
+
+##### Podman Repo. specific items #####
+
+[[rules]]
+id = "podman_envar_credentials"
+# From .cirrus.yml
+description = "Service-account and other credentials with limited/specific and restricted access."
+regex = '''GCPJSON|GCPNAME|AWSINI|GCPPROJECT'''
+
+[[rules]]
+id = "podman_github-action_secrets"
+description = "Managed secrets for github-action workflows."
+# From https://github.com/containers/podman/settings/secrets/actions
+regex = '''SECRET_CIRRUS_API_KEY|ACTION_MAIL_.+|AZ_.+|MACOS_.+|QUAY_PODMAN_.+'''
diff --git a/.gitleaks/README.md b/.gitleaks/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b7c9ec5f6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitleaks/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+## Secret Scanning
+
+### Overview
+
+During the course of submitting a pull-request, it's possible that a
+malicious-actor may try to reference and exfiltrate sensitive CI
+values in their commits. This activity can be obscured relatively
+easily via multiple methods.
+
+Secret-scanning is an automated process for examining commits for
+any mention, addition, or changes to potentially sensitive values.
+It's **not** a perfect security solution, but can help thwart naive
+attempts and innocent accidents alike.
+
+### Mechanism
+
+Whenever a PR is pushed to, an automated process will scan all
+of it's commits.  This happens from an execution context outside
+of the influence from any changes in the PR.  When a detection is
+made, the automated job will fail, and an e-mail notification will
+be sent for review.  The email is necessary because these jobs
+aren't otherwise monitored, and a malicious-actor may attempt
+to cover their tracks.
+
+### Notifications
+
+Scan failure notification e-mails are necessary because the
+detection jobs may not be closely monitored.  This makes it
+more likely malicious-actions may go unnoticed.  However,
+project maintainers may bypass notification by adding a
+`BypassLeakNotification` label to a PR that would otherwise.
+
+### Configuration
+
+The meaning of a "sensitive value" is very repository specific.
+So addition of any new sensitive values to automation must be
+reflected in the GitLeaks configuration.  This change must
+land on the repository's main branch before detection will be
+active.
+
+Additionally, there are sets of known sensitive values (e.g.
+ssh keys) which could be added or referenced in the future.
+To help account for this, GitLeaks is configured to reads an
+upstream source of well-known, common patterns that are
+automatically included in all scans.  These can **NOT** be
+individually overridden by the repository configuration.
+
+### Baseline
+
+At times, there may be deliberate use/change of sensitive
+values.  This is accounted for by referencing a "baseline" of
+known detections.  For GitLeaks, new possible baseline items are
+present within the detection report JSON (artifact) produced
+with every automated execution.
+
+Baseline items may also be produced by locally, by running the
+GitLeaks container (from the repo. root) using a command similar
+to:
+
+```
+$ git_log_options="-50"
+$ podman run --rm \
+    --security-opt=label=disable \
+    --userns=keep-id:uid=1000,gid=1000 \
+    -v $PWD:/subject:ro \
+    -v $PWD:/default:ro \
+    ghcr.io/gitleaks/gitleaks:latest \
+    detect \
+    --log-opts="$git_log_options" \
+    --source=/subject \
+    --config=/default/.gitleaks/config.toml \
+    --report-path=/dev/stdout \
+    --baseline-path=/default/.gitleaks/baseline.json
+```
+
+You may then copy-paste the necessary JSON list items into
+the baseline file.  In order to be effective on current or
+future pull-requests, changes to the baseline or configuration
+**MUST** be merged onto the `main` branch.
+
+### Important notes
+
+* The `.gitleaks.toml` file **must** be in the root of the repo.
+  due to it being used by third-party tooling.
+
+* The scan will still run on PRs with a 'BypassLeakNotification' label.
+  This is intended to help in scanning test-cases and where updates
+  to the baseline are needed.
+
+* Detection rules can be fairly complex, but they don't need to be.
+  When adding new rules, please be mindful weather or not they **REALLY**
+  are only valid from specific files.  Also be mindful of potentially
+  generic names, for example 'debug' or 'base64' that may match
+  code comments.
+
+* Baseline items are commit-specific!  Meaning, if the commit which
+  caused the alert changes, the baseline-detection item will no-longer
+  match. Fixing this will likely generate additional e-mail notification
+  spam, so please be mindful of your merge and change sequence, as well
+  and content.
+
+* There is an additional execution of the GitLeaks scanner during the
+  "pre-build" phase of Cirrus-CI.  Results from this run are **NOT**
+  to be trusted in any way.  This check is only present to catch
+  potential configuration or base-line data breaking changes.
+
+* Scans **are** configured to execute against all branches and new
+  tags.  Because the configuration and baseline data is always sourced
+  from `main`, this check is necessary to alert on changed, non-conforming
+  commits.  Just remember to make any needed corrections on the `main`
+  branch configuration or baseline to mitigate.
diff --git a/.gitleaks/baseline.json b/.gitleaks/baseline.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fe51488c70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitleaks/baseline.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+[]
diff --git a/contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh b/contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
index af6d59324a..1b303a61e5 100755
--- a/contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
+++ b/contrib/cirrus/prebuild.sh
@@ -33,9 +33,21 @@ if grep -n ^$'\t' test/system/*; then
     die "Found leading tabs in system tests. Use spaces to indent, not tabs."
 fi
 
-# Defined by CI config.
+# Lookup 'env' dict. string value from key specified as argument from YAML file.
+get_env_key() {
+    local yaml
+    local script
+
+    yaml="$CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR/.github/workflows/scan-secrets.yml"
+    script="from yaml import safe_load; print(safe_load(open('$yaml'))['env']['$1'])"
+    python -c "$script"
+}
+
+# Only need to check CI-stuffs on a single build-task, there's only ever
+# one prior-fedora task so use that one.
+# Envars all defined by CI config.
 # shellcheck disable=SC2154
-if [[ "${DISTRO_NV}" =~ fedora ]]; then
+if [[ "${DISTRO_NV}" == "$PRIOR_FEDORA_NAME" ]]; then
     msg "Checking shell scripts"
     showrun ooe.sh dnf install -y ShellCheck  # small/quick addition
     showrun shellcheck --format=tty \
@@ -59,6 +71,25 @@ if [[ "${DISTRO_NV}" =~ fedora ]]; then
       export PREBUILD=1
       showrun bash ${CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR}/.github/actions/check_cirrus_cron/test.sh
     fi
+
+    # Note: This may detect leaks, but should not be considered authorative
+    # since any PR could modify the contents or arguments.  This check is
+    # simply here to...
+    msg "Checking GitLeaks functions with current CLI args, configuration, and baseline JSON"
+
+    brdepth=$(get_env_key 'brdepth')
+    glfqin=$(get_env_key 'glfqin')
+    glargs=$(get_env_key 'glargs')
+    showrun podman run --rm \
+        --security-opt=label=disable \
+        --userns=keep-id:uid=1000,gid=1000 \
+        -v $CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR:/subject:ro \
+        -v $CIRRUS_WORKING_DIR:/default:ro \
+        --tmpfs /report:rw,size=256k,mode=1777 \
+        $glfqin \
+        detect \
+        --log-opts=-$brdepth \
+        $glargs
 fi
 
 msg "Checking 3rd party network service connectivity"