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Azure OpenAI Key

The Azure OpenAI Key is a credential used to authenticate requests to the Azure OpenAI service, which provides access to powerful AI models for natural language processing, machine learning, and other AI-driven tasks. Exposure of this key can lead to unauthorized access to the service, allowing attackers to exploit AI capabilities, incur costs, and potentially access sensitive data processed by the AI models. Protecting this key is crucial to maintaining the security and integrity of AI applications and data.

How Does It Look​

Azure OpenAI Keys can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export AZURE_OPENAI_KEY="sk-12345abcde"

  • Configuration files (JSON):

    {
      "openai": {
        "apiKey": "sk-12345abcde"
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    openai.api_key = "sk-12345abcde"

  • Connection strings:

    Endpoint=https://api.openai.azure.com/;ApiKey=sk-12345abcde

Severity​

  • 🔴 Critical

The Azure OpenAI Key is classified as critical because it grants access to the Azure OpenAI service, which can be used to perform extensive AI operations. Unauthorized access can lead to significant financial costs due to resource consumption and potential exposure of sensitive data processed by AI models. The blast radius includes any application or service relying on the AI capabilities provided by Azure OpenAI.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to the Azure OpenAI Key, an attacker can exploit the AI capabilities of the service without authorization.

Key actions an attacker can perform:

  • Execute AI models: Run AI models to process data (if the key has access to specific models).
  • Incur financial costs: Generate significant usage charges (if billing is not restricted).
  • Access sensitive data: Retrieve data processed by AI models (if the models handle sensitive information).
  • Modify AI configurations: Change settings or configurations (if the key has administrative permissions).

An attacker could potentially escalate their access by leveraging the AI service to gain insights into other systems or data, leading to further lateral movement within the network.

Real-World Impact​

Exposure of the Azure OpenAI Key poses significant business risks, including financial, operational, and reputational impacts.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Sensitive data processed by AI models could be accessed (if the key allows data retrieval).
  • Financial Loss: High costs from unauthorized usage of AI resources (if billing is not monitored).
  • Operational Disruption: AI-driven applications may be compromised or disrupted (if the attacker modifies configurations).
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of trust from clients and stakeholders due to data breaches or service disruptions.

In a worst-case scenario, the exposure could lead to cascading effects, such as further data breaches or exploitation of other connected systems.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit the Azure OpenAI Key, an attacker needs:

  • Network access: Ability to send requests to the Azure OpenAI service endpoint.
  • Service endpoint information: Knowledge of the specific Azure OpenAI endpoint URL.
  • No rate limits: Absence of effective rate limiting or monitoring on the service usage.

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if the Azure OpenAI Key is active, use the following command:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer [API_KEY]" https://api.openai.azure.com/v1/models

Valid credential response: A list of available AI models is returned, indicating the key is active.

Invalid/expired credential response: An error message indicating unauthorized access or invalid credentials.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • AZURE_OPENAI_KEY
  • OPENAI_API_KEY
  • OPENAI_SECRET
  • AI_SERVICE_KEY
  • AZURE_AI_KEY
  • OPENAI_KEY

File Locations:

  • .env
  • config.json
  • settings.yaml
  • appsettings.json
  • credentials.txt

Regex Pattern:

sk-[a-zA-Z0-9]{32,}

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Azure Portal > OpenAI Service > Keys and delete the compromised key.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Azure Monitor logs for unauthorized requests or unusual activity during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed key.
  4. Rotate credential - Generate a new key in Azure Portal with least-privilege permissions.
  5. Update dependent systems - Deploy the new key to all applications and update CI/CD pipelines securely.
  6. Harden access controls - Enable IP restrictions and require authentication for all requests to the Azure OpenAI service.
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate keys to a secrets manager (Azure Key Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) to prevent hardcoding.
  8. Add detection controls - Set up pre-commit hooks and repository scanning to catch key 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​