Leaked AI API Keys
Leaked AI API keys, in the context of cybersecurity, refer to secret alphanumeric strings or tokens intended to authenticate and authorize access to proprietary or third-party Artificial Intelligence (AI) services that have been inadvertently exposed to the public internet.
These keys function as digital passwords for non-human identities, granting programmatic access to powerful AI assets such as Large Language Models (LLMs), vision processing services, or specialized machine learning platforms.
The compromise typically occurs when the key is mistakenly included in:
Public Code Repositories: Developers often commit code that provides for API keys directly in configuration files, scripts, or environment variables, which are then pushed to public platforms like GitHub.
Configuration Files and Logs: Keys may be exposed in publicly accessible log files, backup files, or misconfigured cloud storage buckets.
Chat or Documentation: Keys might be shared insecurely in public forums, internal chat logs that are later leaked, or in publicly accessible documentation.
The cybersecurity risk associated with leaked AI API keys is severe because they are a form of Non-Human Identity (NHI) exposure. An attacker who obtains a valid key can bypass traditional login mechanisms and immediately gain the ability to:
Financial Abuse: Rack up massive, fraudulent bills by using the organization’s subscription to generate content or perform costly model inference at scale.
Model Theft/IP Exposure: Use the key to query the model extensively, potentially extracting proprietary information about the model's training data or logic.
System Compromise: If the key is a high-privilege service account key, the attacker can use it to access and manipulate the AI's underlying infrastructure, storage, or cloud environment.
Effectively, a leaked AI API key is a catastrophic credential leak that grants unauthenticated external access to the organization's core AI intellectual property and resources.
ThreatNG, which is an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, provides essential external vigilance against the risk of Leaked AI API Keys by continuously searching the public-facing internet for these catastrophic secrets. ThreatNG operates from the perspective of an unauthenticated attacker to identify exposure before it can be used to compromise the AI infrastructure.
External Discovery and Inventory
ThreatNG’s foundational capability is its purely external, unauthenticated discovery, which uses no connectors,critical for finding the platforms and channels where API keys are typically leaked.
Technology Stack Identification: ThreatNG provides exhaustive, unauthenticated discovery of nearly 4,000 technologies, including hundreds of technologies categorized as Artificial Intelligence, as well as vendors in AI Model & Platform Providers and AI Development & MLOps. Discovering these technologies on an exposed subdomain provides context for any leaked key.
Subdomain Intelligence: ThreatNG uncovers subdomains and identifies the cloud and web platforms hosting them. This can locate exposed environments where keys might be stored in unsecure configuration files.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: ThreatNG discovers an unmanaged subdomain running a technology identified as an AI Development & MLOps vendor. This initial discovery provides the security team with a targeted scope for searching for related credential leaks.
External Assessment for Credential Risk
ThreatNG's security ratings and assessment modules are explicitly designed to identify and prioritize external exposure of secrets, including AI API keys.
Non-Human Identity (NHI) Exposure: This is a critical governance metric that quantifies an organization's vulnerability to threats from high-privilege machine identities, such as leaked API keys and service accounts. The discovery of a leaked AI API key directly contributes to a high NHI Exposure rating.
Cyber Risk Exposure (Sensitive Code): This rating is based on findings that include Sensitive Code Discovery and Exposure (code secret exposure). Finding a publicly exposed configuration file with an AI API key via this assessment confirms a critical external vulnerability.
Data Leak Susceptibility: This rating is derived from uncovering external digital risks across Cloud Exposure and Compromised Credentials. A leaked API key often provides an attacker with a path to exfiltrate data, thereby increasing the data leak risk.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: ThreatNG flags a high Cyber Risk Exposure rating because its Sensitive Code Exposure investigation module uncovered an AWS Access Key ID in a public code repository, which an attacker could use to access the AI's cloud infrastructure.
Reporting and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG provides Continuous Monitoring of the external attack surface and digital risk, ensuring that the leak of an AI API key is flagged immediately.
Reporting (Security Ratings): The Non-Human Identity (NHI) Exposure rating (A-F scale) provides an easy-to-understand metric for executives to grasp the severity of leaked AI credentials.
External Adversary View and MITRE ATT&CK Mapping: ThreatNG automatically translates raw findings—like leaked credentials—to specific MITRE ATT&CK techniques (e.g., initial access), showing exactly how the leaked key could be exploited by an adversary.
Investigation Modules
ThreatNG's Investigation Modules are specifically designed for digital risk protection, targeting the key leakage channels.
Sensitive Code Exposure (Code Repository Exposure): This module discovers public code repositories and specifically looks for Access Credentials, including various API Keys (e.g., Google OAuth Key, Stripe API Key), Access Tokens, and Configuration Files. This is the most direct way to find leaked AI API keys.
Online Sharing Exposure: This module identifies organizational entity presence within code-sharing platforms like Pastebin and GitHub Gist. Developers often paste configuration snippets containing keys here, making this a critical area for discovery.
Mobile App Exposure: This module evaluates the exposure of an organization’s mobile apps and the presence of Access Credentials (including APIs, Amazon AWS Access Key ID, and various OAuth credentials) and Security Credentials within them.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: An analyst uses the Sensitive Code Exposure module and finds a Gist containing an exposed Stripe API Key and a configuration file with an endpoint that is confirmed to be an AI payment service. This immediate, external discovery allows the security team to revoke the key and prevent fraudulent use of the AI service.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's external discovery of leaked AI API keys provides the definitive, external evidence that can initiate automated internal security responses.
Complementary Solutions (Secrets Management Platforms): ThreatNG's discovery of a leaked service account credential via NHI Exposure provides external, irrefutable proof of compromise. This finding is routed to the Secrets Management platform, triggering an automated workflow to revoke the exposed key and tighten the access permissions for all remaining keys accessing AI infrastructure.
Complementary Solutions (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Systems): When ThreatNG identifies a leaked AI API key in a public code repository, the finding can be used to trigger a SOAR playbook. The SOAR system automatically generates a ticket for the DevOps team, emails the developer responsible (if traceable), and initiates a high-priority, authenticated internal scan for other keys in the same repository.
Complementary Solutions (Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Platforms): ThreatNG’s discovery of a leaked cloud access key via Cyber Risk Exposure can be used by the CSPM platform to prioritize internal policy enforcement. The CSPM can use the external finding to immediately audit all IAM policies associated with that key's account, ensuring that the principle of least privilege is strictly enforced before the key is used to compromise the AI environment.
