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Azure Credentials

Azure credentials are authentication tokens or keys used to access various Azure services, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts. These credentials can take the form of API keys, connection strings, or service principal secrets. Exposure of Azure credentials is a significant security concern because it can lead to unauthorized access to cloud resources, potentially resulting in data breaches, financial loss, and operational disruptions.

How Does It Look​

Azure credentials can appear in various formats depending on their use case:

  • Environment variables:

    export AZURE_CLIENT_ID="xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
    export AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

  • Configuration files (JSON):

    {
      "clientId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "clientSecret": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "tenantId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
    }

  • Code snippets:

    credentials = {
        "client_id": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "client_secret": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "tenant_id": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
    }

  • Connection strings:

    DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=myaccount;AccountKey=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net

Severity​

  • 🔴 Critical

Azure credentials are considered critical because they can provide full access to cloud resources, including the ability to modify or delete data, manage virtual machines, and access sensitive information. The blast radius of exposed Azure credentials can be extensive, affecting multiple services and potentially compromising the entire cloud environment.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to Azure credentials, an attacker can perform a wide range of malicious activities:

An attacker can immediately access and control Azure resources, leading to potential data breaches and service disruptions.

Key actions an attacker can perform:

  • Delete or modify data (if the credential has write permissions)
  • Access billing information (if the account has billing scope enabled)
  • Spin up resources for cryptomining (if compute permissions are granted)
  • Access sensitive configurations (if the credential has read access to configuration files)

Additionally, attackers can escalate their privileges or move laterally within the cloud environment, potentially gaining access to other connected systems and services.

Real-World Impact​

The exposure of Azure credentials poses significant business risks, including financial, operational, and reputational damage.

Primary impacts include unauthorized access to sensitive data and potential service disruptions.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Customer and business data (if the credential has read access to sensitive data)
  • Financial Loss: Increased cloud service costs due to unauthorized resource usage (if billing/resource creation is permitted)
  • Operational Disruption: Downtime or degraded performance of critical applications (if the attacker has delete/modify permissions)
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of customer trust and brand reputation

In worst-case scenarios, the exposure could lead to cascading effects, such as regulatory fines and long-term damage to the organization's market position.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit exposed Azure credentials, an attacker needs:

  • Network access: Ability to connect to Azure services
  • Additional context: Knowledge of account IDs, endpoints, or specific resource names
  • No rate limits or restrictions: Exploitation is easier if there are no IP allowlists or rate limits in place

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if an Azure credential is active, use the following command:

az login --service-principal -u [CLIENT_ID] -p [CLIENT_SECRET] --tenant [TENANT_ID]

Valid credential response: Successful login message with access to Azure resources.

Invalid/expired credential response: Error message indicating authentication failure or expired credentials.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • AZURE_CLIENT_ID
  • AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET
  • AZURE_TENANT_ID
  • AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
  • AZURE_STORAGE_KEY
  • AZURE_CONNECTION_STRING

File Locations:

  • config.json
  • .env
  • azure_credentials.json
  • settings.py

Regex Pattern:

(?i)(azure|client|tenant|subscription|storage)_?(id|key|secret|string)\s*[:=]\s*["']?[a-z0-9-]{20,}["']?

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > App registrations and delete the compromised application or service principal.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Azure Activity Logs and Sign-ins for unauthorized access attempts during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed credential.
  4. Rotate credential - Create a new service principal or regenerate keys in Azure Portal with least-privilege permissions.
  5. Update dependent systems - Deploy the new credential to all applications and update CI/CD pipelines securely.
  6. Harden access controls - Enable Conditional Access policies in Azure AD and require Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate credentials to Azure Key Vault to prevent hardcoding.
  8. Add detection controls - Set up pre-commit hooks and repository scanning to catch credential leaks before they reach production.

Credential exposures often go undetected for extended periods, increasing the window for exploitation. As a long-term strategy, plan to establish an internal process or engage an external vendor for continuous external exposure monitoring. This helps identify leaked secrets across public repositories, paste sites, dark web forums, and other external sources before attackers can leverage them. Proactive detection and rapid response are essential to minimizing the impact of credential leaks.

References​