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OpsGenie API Key

OpsGenie is a popular incident management and alerting service that helps organizations respond to critical issues quickly. An OpsGenie API Key is used to authenticate requests to the OpsGenie API, allowing applications to interact with OpsGenie services programmatically. Exposure of this credential can lead to unauthorized access to alerting configurations, incident data, and potentially sensitive operational information, posing a significant security risk.

How Does It Look​

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

  • Environment variables:

    export OPSGENIE_API_KEY="OG1234567890abcdef"

  • Configuration files (JSON):

    {
      "opsgenie": {
        "apiKey": "OG1234567890abcdef"
      }
    }

  • Code snippets:

    opsgenie_api_key = "OG1234567890abcdef"

  • Connection strings:

    opsgenie://OG1234567890abcdef@api.opsgenie.com

Severity​

  • 🟠 High

The severity of an OpsGenie API Key exposure is high because it grants access to critical incident management functions. An attacker with this key can manipulate alert settings, access sensitive incident data, and potentially disrupt operational workflows. The blast radius includes unauthorized access to alert configurations and incident data, which can lead to operational disruptions.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to an OpsGenie API Key, an attacker can perform several malicious actions:

  • Modify alert configurations (if the key has write permissions), potentially disabling critical alerts.
  • Access incident data (if the key has read permissions), exposing sensitive operational information.
  • Create or escalate incidents (if incident creation permissions are granted), causing unnecessary operational disruptions.
  • Delete alerts or incidents (if delete permissions are enabled), erasing important operational history.

Additionally, an attacker could use the API Key to escalate their access by manipulating alert settings to hide their activities or by creating incidents that divert attention from their actions.

Real-World Impact​

The exposure of an OpsGenie API Key poses significant business risks, including:

  • Data Exposure: Incident and alert data could be accessed (if the credential has read access to sensitive data).
  • Operational Disruption: Critical alerts could be disabled or incidents manipulated (if the attacker has modify permissions).
  • Reputational Damage: Trust in the organization's incident response capabilities could be undermined.

In a worst-case scenario, an attacker could cause widespread operational chaos by manipulating alerts and incidents, leading to prolonged downtime and significant reputational harm.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

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

  • Network access to the OpsGenie API endpoint.
  • Knowledge of the OpsGenie account structure, such as team names or alert configurations.
  • No IP restrictions on the API Key usage (if not restricted by IP allowlist).

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if an OpsGenie API Key is active, use the following command:

curl -X GET "https://api.opsgenie.com/v2/alerts" -H "Authorization: GenieKey [API_KEY]"

Valid credential response: A successful response will return a list of alerts in JSON format.

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

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • OPSGENIE_API_KEY
  • opsgenieApiKey
  • opsgenie_key
  • opsgenieToken
  • OG_API_KEY
  • opsgenieSecret

File Locations:

  • config.json
  • .env
  • settings.yaml
  • opsgenie_config.py

Regex Pattern:

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

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to OpsGenie > Integrations > API Keys and delete the compromised key.
  2. Audit access logs - Review OpsGenie audit logs for unauthorized access or changes 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 OpsGenie with 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 IP allowlisting in OpsGenie and enforce two-factor authentication for API 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​