Secret leaks often occur when a sensitive piece of authentication data is stored with the source code of an application. Considering the source code is intended to be deployed across multiple assets, including source code repositories or application hosting servers, the secrets might get exposed to an unintended audience.
In most cases, trust boundaries are violated when a secret is exposed in a source code repository or an uncontrolled deployment environment. Unintended people who don’t need to know the secret might get access to it. They might then be able to use it to gain unwanted access to associated services or resources.
The trust issue can be more or less severe depending on the people’s role and entitlement.
Azure Storage Account Keys are used to authenticate and authorize access to Azure Storage resources, such as blobs, queues, tables, and files. These keys are used to authenticate requests made against the storage account.
If an Azure Storage Account Key is leaked to an unintended audience, it can pose a significant security risk to your Azure Storage account.
An attacker with access to your storage account key can potentially access and modify all the data stored in your storage account. They can also create new resources, delete existing ones, and perform other actions that can compromise the integrity and confidentiality of your data.
In addition, an attacker with access to your storage account key can also incur charges on your account by creating and using resources, which can result in unexpected billing charges.
Revoke the secret
Revoke any leaked secrets and remove them from the application source code.
Before revoking the secret, ensure that no other applications or processes is using it. Other usages of the secret will also be impacted when the secret is revoked.
Analyze recent secret use
When available, analyze authentication logs to identify any unintended or malicious use of the secret since its disclosure date. Doing this will allow determining if an attacker took advantage of the leaked secret and to what extent.
This operation should be part of a global incident response process.
Use a secret vault
A secret vault should be used to generate and store the new secret. This will ensure the secret’s security and prevent any further unexpected disclosure.
Depending on the development platform and the leaked secret type, multiple solutions are currently available.
props.set("storage_key", "4dVw+l0W8My+FwuZ08dWXn+gHxcmBtS7esLAQSrm6/Om3jeyUKKGMkfAh38kWZlItThQYsg31v23A0w/uVP4pg==")
props.set("storage_key", System.getenv("STORAGE_KEY"))