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Clarifai API Key

A Clarifai API Key is a credential used to authenticate requests to the Clarifai platform, which provides AI-powered image and video recognition services. This key allows applications to interact with Clarifai's API to perform tasks such as image classification, object detection, and more. Exposure of this API key is a significant security concern because it can lead to unauthorized access to your Clarifai account, potentially resulting in misuse of your API quota, unauthorized data access, and unexpected charges.

How Does It Look​

Clarifai API Keys can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export CLARIFAI_API_KEY="abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456"

  • Configuration files (JSON, YAML, .env):

    {
      "clarifai": {
        "apiKey": "abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456"
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    clarifai_api_key = "abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456"

  • Connection strings (if applicable): Not typically used in connection strings.

Severity​

  • 🟠 High

This severity level is due to the potential for unauthorized access to the Clarifai API, which can lead to misuse of services and data exposure. The blast radius includes unauthorized consumption of API resources and potential access to sensitive data processed by the API.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to a Clarifai API Key, an attacker can interact with the Clarifai API as if they were the legitimate user.

Key actions an attacker can perform:

  • Consume API resources: Run image and video recognition tasks (if the key has access to these services).
  • Access sensitive data: Retrieve data processed by the API (if the key has read permissions).
  • Incur financial charges: Use the API extensively, leading to unexpected billing (if the account is not on a fixed plan).
  • Potentially modify data: Alter data or configurations (if the key has write permissions).

An attacker could potentially escalate their access by exploiting other vulnerabilities in the application or using the API key to gather more information about the environment.

Real-World Impact​

The exposure of a Clarifai API Key poses significant business risks, including:

Primary impact includes unauthorized access to Clarifai services.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Unauthorized access to processed images and videos (if the credential has read access to sensitive data).
  • Financial Loss: Unexpected charges due to excessive API usage (if billing/resource creation is permitted).
  • Operational Disruption: Service interruptions due to API quota exhaustion (if the attacker consumes all available resources).
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of trust if sensitive data is exposed or misused.

In a worst-case scenario, the exposure could lead to cascading effects, such as further breaches of related systems or services.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

  • Network access requirements: Internet access to reach the Clarifai API endpoints.
  • Additional context needed: Knowledge of the API endpoints and expected request formats.
  • Any rate limits or restrictions they'd face: API rate limits may slow down exploitation but won't prevent it.

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if a Clarifai API Key is active, you can perform a simple API request:

curl -X GET "https://api.clarifai.com/v2/models" -H "Authorization: Key [API_KEY]"

Valid credential response: A successful response will return a list of models available in your Clarifai account.

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

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • CLARIFAI_API_KEY
  • CLARIFAI_KEY
  • API_KEY
  • CLARIFAI_SECRET
  • CLARIFAI_TOKEN
  • CLARIFAI_ACCESS_KEY

File Locations:

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

Regex Pattern:

[A-Za-z0-9]{32}

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Clarifai's dashboard > API Keys and delete the compromised key.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Clarifai API logs for unauthorized requests during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed credential.
  4. Rotate credential - Generate a new API key in Clarifai and ensure it has 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 IP allowlisting in Clarifai and require secure connections.
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate credentials to a secrets manager (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager) 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​