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Cohere API Key

Cohere API Keys are used to authenticate requests to Cohere's natural language processing services. These keys allow applications to access various language models and perform tasks such as text generation, classification, and semantic search. Exposure of a Cohere API Key can lead to unauthorized use of the service, potentially incurring unexpected costs and misuse of the API's capabilities.

How Does It Look​

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

  • Environment variables:

    export COHERE_API_KEY="cohere-1234567890abcdef"

  • Configuration files (JSON):

    {
      "cohere": {
        "apiKey": "cohere-1234567890abcdef"
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    import cohere

    co = cohere.Client('cohere-1234567890abcdef')

  • Connection strings:

    cohere://api.cohere.ai?apiKey=cohere-1234567890abcdef

Severity​

  • 🟠 High

The exposure of a Cohere API Key is considered high severity because it grants access to the full range of Cohere's language processing services. Unauthorized users can exploit these services, leading to increased costs and potential misuse of the API. The blast radius includes any application or service relying on the exposed key for language processing tasks.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to a Cohere API Key, an attacker can perform various actions:

  • Consume API resources: Generate excessive text or perform numerous queries (if rate limits are not enforced).
  • Access sensitive data: Retrieve processed data or results from language models (if the API is used for sensitive data processing).
  • Incur financial costs: Increase billing by consuming API resources beyond expected usage (if billing is not capped).
  • Disrupt service: Cause service interruptions by exhausting API limits (if the application relies heavily on Cohere services).

An attacker could potentially escalate their access by using the API to gather insights or data that could be leveraged for further attacks on related systems.

Real-World Impact​

The exposure of a Cohere API Key poses significant business risks:

Primary impacts include unauthorized access to language processing services and potential financial implications.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Processed text and results (if the API is used for sensitive data).
  • Financial Loss: Increased costs due to unauthorized API usage (if billing is not monitored).
  • Operational Disruption: Service interruptions if API limits are exceeded (if the application is dependent on Cohere services).
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of trust if sensitive data is mishandled or exposed.

In worst-case scenarios, the exposure could lead to cascading effects, such as compromised data integrity and further exploitation of related systems.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit an exposed Cohere API Key, an attacker needs:

  • Network access: Ability to send requests to Cohere's API endpoints.
  • API endpoint knowledge: Understanding of the specific API endpoints and their usage.
  • No rate limits: Exploitation is easier if rate limits are not enforced or are set too high.

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if a Cohere API Key is active, use the following command:

curl -X POST https://api.cohere.ai/v1/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer [API_KEY]" \
  -d '{"prompt": "Hello, world!", "max_tokens": 5}'

Valid credential response: A successful response will return generated text based on the prompt provided.

Invalid/expired credential response: An error message indicating authentication failure or invalid API key.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • COHERE_API_KEY
  • COHERE_KEY
  • API_KEY
  • COHERE_SECRET
  • COHERE_TOKEN
  • COHERE_ACCESS_KEY

File Locations:

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

Regex Pattern:

cohere-[a-zA-Z0-9]{16,32}

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to Cohere's dashboard and delete the compromised API key.
  2. Audit access logs - Review Cohere API usage logs for unauthorized requests during the exposure window.
  3. Assess blast radius - Identify all systems, applications, and environments that used the exposed API key.
  4. Rotate credential - Generate a new API key in Cohere and ensure it has the least-privilege permissions.
  5. Update dependent systems - Deploy the new API key to all applications and update CI/CD pipelines securely.
  6. Harden access controls - Enable rate limiting and IP allowlisting in Cohere to restrict unauthorized access.
  7. Implement secrets management - Migrate API keys 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​