Oh boy. Stanford researchers scanned 10 million web pages and found API keys just sitting in the public-facing code. That's 1,748 active credentials from major providers exposed in live website code, mostly inside JavaScript files. Not in old test environments. Not in a forgotten repo. In the live, running site. Banks. Healthcare providers. "Not just small companies, but some very large companies," according to the lead researcher. And some of those credentials had been sitting there for years. Not the first time I've seen something like this. 🤦🏻♂️
The thing is that most orgs are scanning their source code but not their deployed sites. 😳 Those are two different things, and most leaks originate during the build process. A key gets baked in somewhere between development and production, and nobody catches it because the scan already ran upstream. Meanwhile, GitGuardian counted over 28 million new hardcoded secrets exposed in public GitHub commits in 2025 alone. This isn't a one-time research finding it's a systemic habit that needs to c
... show moreOh boy. Stanford researchers scanned 10 million web pages and found API keys just sitting in the public-facing code. That's 1,748 active credentials from major providers exposed in live website code, mostly inside JavaScript files. Not in old test environments. Not in a forgotten repo. In the live, running site. Banks. Healthcare providers. "Not just small companies, but some very large companies," according to the lead researcher. And some of those credentials had been sitting there for years. Not the first time I've seen something like this. 🤦🏻♂️
The thing is that most orgs are scanning their source code but not their deployed sites. 😳 Those are two different things, and most leaks originate during the build process. A key gets baked in somewhere between development and production, and nobody catches it because the scan already ran upstream. Meanwhile, GitGuardian counted over 28 million new hardcoded secrets exposed in public GitHub commits in 2025 alone. This isn't a one-time research finding it's a systemic habit that needs to change.
🔍 When did your team last scan the live site, not just the codebase?
🏦 If you're in a regulated industry, that question just became a compliance question too
newscientist.com/article/25201…
#Cybersecurity #AppSec #Leadership #security #privacy #cloud #infosec
Researchers identified nearly 10,000 websites where API keys could be found, exposing details that could let attackers access sensitive information
Chris Stokel-Walker (New Scientist)