The newly launched AWS-Key-Hunter tool, created by security engineer Anmol Singh Yadav, allows users to scan public GitHub repositories for exposed AWS credentials. After finding over 100 vulnerable access keys, Yadav emphasizes the tool's role in raising awareness rather than weaponization. Exposed keys can enable malicious activities, including hijacking cloud accounts, cryptocurrency mining, and data exfiltration. While tools like GitHub Dorking and TruffleHog exist to identify such exposures, AWS-Key-Hunter aims to improve security practices by highlighting the frequency of these vulnerabilities in public repositories.
Security engineer Anmol Singh Yadav built AWS-Key-Hunter after he found more than 100 exposed AWS access keys, some with high privileges, in public repositories, "just waiting to be exploited."
Leaked security keys can be abused by criminals to hijack people's cloud accounts and access their AWS resources, leading to all manner of evil deeds: Stealing compute power, illegally mining for cryptocurrency, exfiltrating financial details and other sensitive data.
My goal was never to weaponize it but rather to raise awareness about how common these exposures are and encourage better security hygiene.
Github Dorking, for example, refers to the practice of using GitHub's advanced search operators to construct queries that can locate environment files, JSON configurations, and source code files potentially containing credentials.
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