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If an API key has leaked, revoke or deactivate it in the system that issued it immediately. Then preserve evidence, determine where the credential was used, create a least-privilege replacement, deploy it to every consumer, verify and monitor the cutover, and remove the old key when it is safe. Cleaning up a repository or changing application code does not stop someone from using a credential they already copied.
What should you do first when an API key is exposed?
Contain the exposure by revoking or deactivating the credential at its issuer before editing code, rewriting repository history, or sending a replacement around. AWS Prescriptive Guidance says to rotate or revoke an exposed secret immediately after detection; GitHub likewise identifies revocation as the immediate step to prevent further misuse.
- Identify the credential and its issuer. Record its key or credential identifier, provider, owner, known permissions, discovery time, and exposure location. Do not paste the secret into an incident ticket or chat while documenting it.
- Revoke or deactivate it in the issuing system. Choose the narrowest action that stops use. Where a provider offers reversible deactivation, that may allow recovery if a legitimate consumer was missed; deletion is permanent in the AWS access-key workflow described by AWS re:Post.
- Preserve evidence and begin scoping. Retain relevant audit and usage logs before they age out or are changed. Record actions taken and the times they occurred.
- Assess whether the exposed credential was used. Review provider activity, authentication events, CI/CD records, and billing or quota changes. Treat lack of an obvious anomaly as inconclusive unless the available logs cover the relevant period and services.
Do not delay containment while waiting for a complete impact assessment. The investigation can continue after the credential has been disabled.
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How do you find every place that uses the exposed key?
Build a consumer inventory before deploying the replacement. AWS recovery guidance calls out configuration, environment variables, CI/CD secret stores, container environments, CLI profiles, deployment manifests, third-party integrations, and repository history as places to check.
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- Applications and deployment configuration: Search application configuration, environment-variable definitions, container settings, deployment manifests, and infrastructure configuration for the key identifier or the name of its secret setting. Avoid printing secret values into logs or command output during the search.
- Build and release systems: Inspect CI/CD secret stores, pipeline configuration, deployment jobs, and any automation that publishes or updates the application.
- Operator and developer environments: Check CLI profiles and local configuration where the credential may have been copied for manual work.
- External consumers: Ask service owners and third-party integration owners whether they store or use the credential. A key can remain in use outside the codebase where it was first discovered.
- Exposure locations: Check repository history and other known locations where the credential appeared. Finding the original leak does not establish that it was the only copy.
Track each discovered consumer, its owner, deployment path, and verification result. This turns “update everywhere” into a checkable task and helps distinguish an obsolete copy from an active dependency.
How should you create a replacement credential?
Generate a new credential in the issuing provider and give it only the permissions and reach it needs. Google Cloud recommends restricting keys, isolating them by application or team, monitoring their use, and rotating them periodically.
- Limit permissions: Choose the narrowest practical scopes or roles rather than copying broad permissions from the exposed credential by default.
- Restrict where it can be used: Apply IP or referrer restrictions where appropriate, and limit the intended audience when the credential type supports it.
- Separate workloads: Prefer credentials isolated by application or team so an incident in one workload does not automatically expose unrelated services.
- Store it securely: Put runtime secrets in a managed secret store where practical, rather than embedding them in source code or routinely copying them into local files.
Do not assume that a replacement inherits safe settings just because it replaces the old key. Confirm its permissions and restrictions in the provider before distributing it.
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When the provider permits old and new credentials to coexist, use a controlled overlap: deploy the replacement to all consumers, verify that they authenticate successfully, monitor activity, and only then delete the old key. AWS re:Post describes creating a replacement, updating every application, monitoring for 24–48 hours, and deleting the old access key after confirming that applications use the new one.
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- Prepare the rollout. Assign owners to each consumer and define how each one will be changed and checked. Choose a rollout order that makes it possible to identify which consumer is still using the old credential.
- Update one consumer or a controlled group. Deliver the replacement through the existing secure configuration path. Avoid placing the raw value in a commit, ticket, or deployment log.
- Verify authentication and expected behavior. Check that the consumer can complete its required requests and that its logs do not show authentication failures. A successful deployment alone does not prove that the new key is being used.
- Continue until the inventory is complete. Include less frequent jobs and operational integrations, not just continuously running application instances.
- Monitor before final deletion when overlap is supported. AWS re:Post recommends 24–48 hours of monitoring in its access-key recovery guidance. Treat that as the guidance for that workflow, not a universal waiting period for every provider or workload.
- Disable or delete the old credential after verification. Confirm that no required consumer still depends on it, then perform the provider’s final invalidation step.
If old and new credentials cannot overlap, plan a coordinated cutover with the affected owners and an explicit recovery path. The available data does not establish a universal zero-downtime method for providers that prohibit overlap; the available options depend on the provider’s credential behavior and the application’s ability to switch configuration safely.
Should you revoke the key or rotate it first?
For a credential that is known or reasonably suspected to be exposed, stop its use first. “Rotate” can mean different sequences across providers, but it should not be interpreted as waiting to invalidate the exposed secret until after code changes or repository cleanup.
| Provider workflow in the cited guidance | Containment and replacement details |
|---|---|
| AWS access keys | AWS re:Post recommends deactivating the exposed key, checking CloudTrail, creating a replacement, updating consumers, monitoring for 24–48 hours, and deleting the old key after verification. Deactivation is reversible; deletion is permanent. |
| GitHub credentials | GitHub supports targeted revocation for classic and fine-grained personal access tokens, OAuth app tokens, and GitHub App tokens. Revoked credentials cannot be reactivated. |
| Google Cloud API keys | Google Cloud advises generating a replacement, deploying it to all consumers, disabling the old key to verify use of the new one, and then deleting the old key. |
The practical distinction is whether the issuer supports a safe overlap and what its disable, revoke, or delete actions do. Use the provider’s controls to contain the exposure promptly, then follow that provider’s supported migration path rather than assuming every kind of key behaves like an AWS access key.
How do you investigate whether the key was misused?
Use the issuer’s audit and usage records to establish what the credential did, when it was used, and what systems may have been affected. AWS re:Post specifically recommends checking CloudTrail for AssumeRole, GetSessionToken, and GetFederationToken in its access-key response guidance.
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- Review provider audit logs and usage logs around the known exposure and discovery times.
- Check GitHub audit logs when the exposed credential or affected activity involves GitHub.
- Correlate CI/CD logs and deployment activity with provider-side events to identify automated consumers.
- Look for unexpected billing, quota consumption, or usage anomalies that may indicate activity worth investigating.
- Record findings and preserve relevant events for the incident record; do not treat an absence of logged events as proof of safety if logging was incomplete.
Scope the investigation according to the permissions and reach of the exposed credential. If it could access multiple projects or services, assess each relevant area rather than limiting the review to the repository where it was found.
Will revoking an API key invalidate tokens already issued with it?
Not necessarily. Short-lived bearer tokens that have already been issued may remain valid until their expiry, so revoking or disabling the credential that created them may not be sufficient for immediate containment.
Google Cloud documents that service-account access tokens normally remain valid for up to 60 minutes, or up to 12 hours when an extended lifetime policy is configured. Its guidance for compromised service-account tokens says to disable the service account or apply an IAM deny policy and wait for token expiry before re-enabling it. AWS also describes changing effective permissions for temporary credentials that must be blocked before they expire.
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When investigating a leak, identify whether the exposure involved a long-lived key, a service-account token, or another temporary credential. Check the issuer’s guidance for that credential type and use its emergency invalidation or permission controls where needed; do not assume that invalidating a parent key instantly cancels every bearer token already issued.
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Should you remove the leaked key from Git history?
Yes, repository cleanup may reduce future accidental discovery, but do it only after the credential has been invalidated. OWASP’s guidance puts rotation first, followed by usage auditing and optional history cleanup with git filter-repo or BFG; rewriting history does not invalidate a copy already obtained by someone else.
- Revoke or deactivate the credential at its issuer.
- Audit use and preserve incident evidence before changing repository history.
- Remove the secret from history with an appropriate history-rewriting method if cleanup is warranted.
- If you force-push rewritten history, notify repository cloners. Existing clones may still contain the old content.
History rewriting affects collaborators and automation that depend on the repository’s prior commit history. Coordinate the change rather than treating it as a substitute for credential invalidation.
What should you do after the replacement is live?
Close the incident by confirming the old credential is unusable, documenting the timeline and actions, and addressing the conditions that allowed the exposure. AWS recommends secure secret storage, while Amazon’s SP-API guidance recommends annual rotation and rotation when compromise is suspected or confirmed.
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- Review whether the replacement has narrower permissions or stronger restrictions than the exposed credential.
- Move runtime secrets into a managed store where practical and limit who or what can retrieve them.
- Add secret scanning to repositories and relevant development workflows so future exposures can be detected earlier.
- Set a rotation schedule appropriate to the credential and service, and include suspected or confirmed compromise as an immediate rotation trigger.
- Document the exposure location, discovery time, affected consumers, investigation outcome, and recovery actions.
How do provider recovery workflows differ?
The same containment principle applies across providers, but the available controls and recovery consequences differ. Use this comparison to choose the relevant provider-specific runbook, not as a substitute for checking its current credential documentation.
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| Provider | Supported response detail | Important operational consideration |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | Deactivate the exposed access key, review CloudTrail, create and deploy a replacement, monitor, then delete the old key. | Deactivation is reversible; deletion is permanent. The cited AWS re:Post workflow recommends 24–48 hours of monitoring before deletion. |
| GitHub | Targeted REST API revocation is available for classic and fine-grained personal access tokens, OAuth app tokens, and GitHub App tokens. | Revocation cannot be undone by reactivating the credential. GitHub warns that bulk emergency actions can disrupt automations, so reserve them for major incidents. |
| Google Cloud | For API keys, create and deploy a replacement, disable the old key to verify the new one, then delete the old key. | Avoid API keys in URL query parameters; restrictions are part of Google’s recommended key protections. |
These examples do not establish identical revocation timing, token behavior, or overlap support across all credential types. Distinguish API keys from personal access tokens, OAuth credentials, service-account tokens, and temporary cloud credentials before selecting a control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I tell whether someone copied an API key from a public repository?
A repository’s visibility shows that the secret was exposed to that audience, but it does not identify everyone who may have copied it. Provider-side usage records can show activity associated with the credential; they do not necessarily reveal who obtained the secret.
Does rotating a key automatically make it least-privilege?
No. A replacement can carry the same excessive permissions if you reproduce the old configuration without reviewing it. Assess the replacement’s scope and restrictions when creating it.
Should I put an API key in a URL query string?
Google Cloud advises against placing API keys in URL query parameters. URLs can be retained in places such as logs or browser history, so use a safer supported mechanism and apply key restrictions.
What if a revoked GitHub token breaks a workflow?
Revoked GitHub credentials cannot be reactivated, so the workflow needs a newly issued credential and an update to its configured secret. Identify the affected automation owners during the consumer inventory so they can restore the integration with the replacement.
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