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IBM Cloud User API Key

An IBM Cloud User API Key is a credential used to authenticate and authorize access to various IBM Cloud services and resources. This key allows users to interact with IBM Cloud's APIs, enabling automation and integration with other systems. Exposure of this key is a significant security concern as it can grant unauthorized access to sensitive data and resources within the IBM Cloud environment, potentially leading to data breaches and service disruptions.

How Does It Look​

IBM Cloud User API Keys can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export IBM_CLOUD_API_KEY="abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456qrst7890"

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

    {
      "ibmCloudApiKey": "abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456qrst7890"
    }
    ibm_cloud_api_key: abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456qrst7890

  • Code snippets:

    ibm_cloud_api_key = "abcd1234efgh5678ijkl9012mnop3456qrst7890"

Severity​

  • 🔴 Critical

The severity is marked as critical because the IBM Cloud User API Key provides access to a wide range of cloud services and resources. Unauthorized access can lead to data theft, service manipulation, and financial loss. The blast radius is extensive, potentially affecting all services and data associated with the IBM Cloud account.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to the IBM Cloud environment, an attacker can perform several malicious actions:

  • Access sensitive data (if the credential has read permissions)
  • Modify or delete resources (if the credential has write permissions)
  • Create new resources (if the credential allows resource creation), potentially for cryptomining
  • Access billing information (if the account has billing scope enabled)

An attacker can also escalate their privileges or move laterally within the cloud environment, exploiting other vulnerabilities or misconfigurations to gain further access.

Real-World Impact​

Exposure of an IBM Cloud User API Key poses significant business risks:

The primary impact includes unauthorized access to sensitive data and resources.

Potential consequences include:

  • Data Exposure: Customer data, intellectual property, and other sensitive information (if the credential has read access to sensitive data)
  • Financial Loss: Increased cloud service charges due to unauthorized resource creation (if billing/resource creation is permitted)
  • Operational Disruption: Service outages or degraded performance (if the attacker has delete/modify permissions)
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of customer trust and brand reputation

In the worst-case scenario, the exposure could lead to a full compromise of the IBM Cloud environment, affecting all associated services and data.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit an exposed IBM Cloud User API Key, an attacker needs:

  • Network access to IBM Cloud endpoints
  • Knowledge of the specific IBM Cloud services in use
  • Potentially, additional context such as account IDs or specific service endpoints

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if an IBM Cloud User API Key is active, use the following command:

curl -X GET "https://cloud.ibm.com/v1/resource_instances" -H "Authorization: Bearer [API_KEY]"

Valid credential response: A successful response will return a list of resource instances associated with the account.

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

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • IBM_CLOUD_API_KEY
  • ibmCloudApiKey
  • ibm_cloud_api_key
  • IBM_API_KEY
  • ibmApiKey
  • cloudApiKey

File Locations:

  • .env
  • config.json
  • settings.yaml
  • credentials.py
  • application.properties

Regex Pattern:

(?i)ibm[_-]?cloud[_-]?api[_-]?key['"]?\s*[:=]\s*['"]?[a-z0-9]{40}['"]?

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to IBM Cloud > Manage > Access (IAM) > API keys and delete the compromised key.
  2. Audit access logs - Review IBM Cloud activity logs for unauthorized access or actions 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 API key in IBM Cloud 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 IP allowlisting and require MFA for accessing IBM Cloud services.
  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​