diff --git a/UPDATING.md b/UPDATING.md
index add667bf43af9..dd95795550e0e 100644
--- a/UPDATING.md
+++ b/UPDATING.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ assists people when migrating to a new version.
 
 ## 2.1.0
 
+- [23186](https://github.com/apache/superset/pull/23186): Superset will refuse to start if a default `SECRET_KEY` is detected on a non Flask debug setting.
 - [22022](https://github.com/apache/superset/pull/22022): HTTP API endpoints `/superset/approve` and `/superset/request_access` have been deprecated and their HTTP methods were changed from GET to POST
 - [20606](https://github.com/apache/superset/pull/20606): When user clicks on chart title or "Edit chart" button in Dashboard page, Explore opens in the same tab. Clicking while holding cmd/ctrl opens Explore in a new tab. To bring back the old behaviour (always opening Explore in a new tab), flip feature flag `DASHBOARD_EDIT_CHART_IN_NEW_TAB` to `True`.
 - [20799](https://github.com/apache/superset/pull/20799): Presto and Trino engine will now display tracking URL for running queries in SQL Lab. If for some reason you don't want to show the tracking URL (for example, when your data warehouse hasn't enabled access for to Presto or Trino UI), update `TRACKING_URL_TRANSFORMER` in `config.py` to return `None`.
diff --git a/docker/.env-non-dev b/docker/.env-non-dev
index 0ae4c1c7932bb..726b0bb167bf7 100644
--- a/docker/.env-non-dev
+++ b/docker/.env-non-dev
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ REDIS_PORT=6379
 FLASK_ENV=production
 SUPERSET_ENV=production
 SUPERSET_LOAD_EXAMPLES=yes
+SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY=TEST_NON_DEV_SECRET
 CYPRESS_CONFIG=false
 SUPERSET_PORT=8088
 MAPBOX_API_KEY=''
diff --git a/docs/docs/installation/configuring-superset.mdx b/docs/docs/installation/configuring-superset.mdx
index aefc12d603061..916c28b49522d 100644
--- a/docs/docs/installation/configuring-superset.mdx
+++ b/docs/docs/installation/configuring-superset.mdx
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ SUPERSET_WEBSERVER_PORT = 8088
 # Your App secret key will be used for securely signing the session cookie
 # and encrypting sensitive information on the database
 # Make sure you are changing this key for your deployment with a strong key.
-# You can generate a strong key using `openssl rand -base64 42`
-
+# You can generate a strong key using `openssl rand -base64 42`.
+# Alternatively you can set it with `SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY` environment variable.
 SECRET_KEY = 'YOUR_OWN_RANDOM_GENERATED_SECRET_KEY'
 
 # The SQLAlchemy connection string to your database backend
diff --git a/superset/config.py b/superset/config.py
index ab23da0c29f95..f57a770df15a6 100644
--- a/superset/config.py
+++ b/superset/config.py
@@ -188,10 +188,11 @@ def _try_json_readsha(filepath: str, length: int) -> Optional[str]:
 SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS = False
 # ---------------------------------------------------------
 
-# Your App secret key. Make sure you override it on superset_config.py.
+# Your App secret key. Make sure you override it on superset_config.py
+# or use `SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY` environment variable.
 # Use a strong complex alphanumeric string and use a tool to help you generate
 # a sufficiently random sequence, ex: openssl rand -base64 42"
-SECRET_KEY = CHANGE_ME_SECRET_KEY
+SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("SUPERSET_SECRET_KEY") or CHANGE_ME_SECRET_KEY
 
 # The SQLAlchemy connection string.
 SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = "sqlite:///" + os.path.join(DATA_DIR, "superset.db")
diff --git a/superset/initialization/__init__.py b/superset/initialization/__init__.py
index 90a888c8749f5..c01ee7ba09b7d 100644
--- a/superset/initialization/__init__.py
+++ b/superset/initialization/__init__.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 import logging
 import os
+import sys
 from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, TYPE_CHECKING
 
 import wtforms_json
@@ -439,7 +440,7 @@ def init_app_in_ctx(self) -> None:
         self.init_views()
 
     def check_secret_key(self) -> None:
-        if self.config["SECRET_KEY"] == CHANGE_ME_SECRET_KEY:
+        def log_default_secret_key_warning() -> None:
             top_banner = 80 * "-" + "\n" + 36 * " " + "WARNING\n" + 80 * "-"
             bottom_banner = 80 * "-" + "\n" + 80 * "-"
             logger.warning(top_banner)
@@ -452,6 +453,20 @@ def check_secret_key(self) -> None:
             )
             logger.warning(bottom_banner)
 
+        if self.config["SECRET_KEY"] == CHANGE_ME_SECRET_KEY:
+            if (
+                self.superset_app.debug
+                or self.superset_app.config["TESTING"]
+                # There must be a better way
+                or "pytest" in sys.modules
+            ):
+                logger.warning("Debug mode identified with default secret key")
+                log_default_secret_key_warning()
+                return
+            log_default_secret_key_warning()
+            logger.error("Refusing to start due to insecure SECRET_KEY")
+            sys.exit(1)
+
     def init_app(self) -> None:
         """
         Main entry point which will delegate to other methods in