All news with #hardcoded secrets tag

🔒 Resecurity’s HUNTER Team discovered that ClientId and ClientSecret values were inadvertently left in a publicly accessible appsettings.json file, exposing Azure AD credentials. These secrets permit direct authentication against Microsoft’s OAuth 2.0 endpoints and could allow attackers to impersonate trusted applications and access Microsoft 365 data. The exposed credentials could be harvested by automated bots or targeted adversaries. Organizations are advised to remove hardcoded secrets, rotate compromised credentials immediately, restrict public access to configuration files and adopt centralized secrets management such as Azure Key Vault.

🔐 The UpGuard Cyber Risk Team discovered exposed repositories belonging to AggregateIQ that contained website code, backups, credentials and tokens associated with multiple Canadian political campaigns and parties. Exposed artifacts included Stripe secret keys, private SSL keys, NationBuilder/Helcim/SendGrid tokens, WordPress database credentials, and admin accounts tied to aggregateiq.com. The incident highlights third-party vendor risk and the need for tighter controls on credentials and repository configurations.

🛡️ UpGuard analyst Chris Vickery discovered a publicly exposed S3 file repository containing credentials and SSH keys tied to systems used by US geospatial intelligence contractors. The plaintext data included access tokens and administrative credentials that could enable entry to systems handling Top Secret-level data. NGA secured the bucket rapidly after notification; Booz Allen Hamilton responded later. UpGuard preserved the dataset at government request.

🔓On October 11, 2018 UpGuard discovered that an Amazon S3 bucket named "pinapp2" exposed 73 GB of data belonging to Pocket iNet. The downloadable "tech" folder contained plaintext administrative passwords, AWS secret keys, network configuration files, inventory lists, and photographs of hardware and towers. Pocket iNet was notified the same day and secured the exposure on October 19, 2018. The incident highlights how misconfigured S3 ACLs and poor credential hygiene can place critical infrastructure at risk.

🔒 UpGuard researchers discovered on August 30, 2017 a publicly accessible Amazon S3 bucket named “mcs-puppet” containing seventy-two .tgz backup archives that included Puppet manifests, configuration files, keys, and credentials tied to Viacom. The repository exposed AWS access and secret keys, GPG decryption keys, and scripts referencing services such as Docker, Jenkins, Splunk, and New Relic. UpGuard notified Viacom on August 31, and the exposure was secured within hours. The incident demonstrates how cloud misconfigurations can reveal master provisioning controls and enable widespread infrastructure compromise.

🔓 In May 2019 UpGuard researchers discovered publicly accessible HCL pages that exposed personal information, plaintext passwords for new hires, and detailed project reports. The data was dispersed across multiple subdomains and web UIs, including HR dashboards, recruiting approval panels, and a SmartManage reporting interface. After notifying HCL's Data Protection Officer, the researcher confirmed the anonymous-access pages were taken offline within days. The incident underscores the risk of misconfigured application pages and the importance of clear reporting channels and prompt incident response.

🔓 Medico Inc. left an Amazon S3 bucket publicly accessible, exposing nearly 14,000 documents (approximately 1.7GB) that included medical records, insurance claims, legal files, and internal business data. The UpGuard Data Breach Research Team discovered the bucket on June 20, 2019, and Medico closed it within hours after notification. The dataset contained unredacted PII such as SSNs, bank account numbers, and payment card data, and also included plaintext credentials that could enable further compromise.

🔒 UpGuard discovered four publicly accessible AWS S3 buckets belonging to Accenture, exposing API keys, certificates, decryption keys, plaintext passwords, and customer data associated with the Accenture Cloud Platform. The discovery was made in mid-September 2017 and reported to Accenture, which secured the buckets the following day. Exposed artifacts included master KMS keys, VPN credentials, logs, and private signing keys that could enable impersonation and secondary attacks against clients.