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PlanetScale Username

PlanetScale is a serverless database platform built on Vitess, designed to provide scalable and performant database solutions. A PlanetScale username is a credential used to authenticate access to a PlanetScale database. Exposure of this credential can lead to unauthorized access to database resources, potentially compromising sensitive data and disrupting operations. Unauthorized access to a database can have severe security implications, including data breaches and financial loss.

How Does It Look​

PlanetScale usernames can appear in various contexts, such as:

  • Environment variables:

    export PLANETSCALE_USERNAME="pscale_user"

  • Configuration files (YAML):

    database:
      username: "pscale_user"

  • Code snippets:

    connection = connect(
        host="pscale-db-host",
        user="pscale_user",
        password="your_password"
    )

  • Connection strings:

    mysql://pscale_user:your_password@pscale-db-host:3306/dbname

Severity​

  • 🟠 High

The severity of exposing a PlanetScale username is high because it provides access to the database, which may contain sensitive information. If paired with a password, it can allow unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion, depending on the permissions associated with the username. The blast radius includes potential data breaches and operational disruptions.

What Can an Attacker Do?​

With immediate access to a PlanetScale database, an attacker can perform several malicious actions:

  • Read sensitive data (if the credential has read permissions), potentially leading to data breaches.
  • Delete or modify data (if the credential has write permissions), causing data loss or corruption.
  • Access billing information (if the account has billing scope enabled), leading to financial exposure.
  • Spin up resources for cryptomining (if compute permissions are granted), increasing operational costs.

An attacker could also escalate privileges or move laterally within the network, exploiting other vulnerabilities or misconfigurations to gain broader access to the organization's systems.

Real-World Impact​

The exposure of a PlanetScale username poses significant business risks, including:

  • Data Exposure: Sensitive customer or business data could be accessed (if the credential has read access to sensitive data).
  • Financial Loss: Unauthorized resource usage could lead to increased costs (if billing/resource creation is permitted).
  • Operational Disruption: Critical applications relying on the database could fail (if the attacker has delete/modify permissions).
  • Reputational Damage: Loss of customer trust and brand reputation could occur due to data breaches.

In the worst-case scenario, the exposure could lead to cascading effects, such as regulatory scrutiny and long-term financial and reputational damage.

Prerequisites for Exploitation​

To exploit an exposed PlanetScale username, an attacker needs:

  • Network access to the database endpoint.
  • Additional context such as the database host and password.
  • No IP restrictions or MFA (if not enforced).

How to Verify If It's Active​

To verify if a PlanetScale username is active, use the following command:

pscale connect [DATABASE_NAME] --username [USERNAME]

Valid credential response: Successful connection to the database, allowing query execution.

Invalid/expired credential response: Authentication failure message indicating invalid credentials.

Detection Patterns​

Common Variable Names:

  • PLANETSCALE_USERNAME
  • DB_USER
  • DATABASE_USERNAME
  • PSCALE_USER
  • MYSQL_USER
  • USERNAME

File Locations:

  • .env
  • config.yaml
  • database.json
  • settings.py
  • app.config

Regex Pattern:

(?i)(username|user|usr)[\s]*[:=][\s]*["']?[a-zA-Z0-9_]+["']?

Remediation Steps​

  1. Revoke immediately - Go to PlanetScale dashboard > Access Control and remove the compromised user.
  2. Audit access logs - Review PlanetScale audit logs for unauthorized queries or data exports 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 database user in PlanetScale 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 in PlanetScale and require TLS 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​