{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0285","record_version":2,"title":"26,400 live cloud and AI API keys found in Gitee public repository histories","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":48.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":5.12,"unhedged_language":4.83},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-31","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":true,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-10-31","history":[{"date":"2026-10-31","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"0864701316a857dfe88d8161dd6d47281c6de06974ff3994d55447f659e1a952"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"production","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":"public code repository (Gitee)","intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-30","incident_class":"security_compromise","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":false,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"public_researcher","summary":"A scan of 7.25 million public Gitee repositories found 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing.","tags":["credential-exposure","public-repository","secret-scanning"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":"deployer","adversarial_actor":"unknown","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":26400,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"major, because an unbounded scope stated: 26,400 verified keys across many providers and an unbounded set of owners were exposed, with revocation unconfirmed.","harm_class":["third_party_security","financial"],"affected_description":"26,400 cloud and AI keys in public Gitee repositories, including Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, Zhipu BigModel, OpenAI and YouTube API credentials","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":["credentials"],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-gitee-26400-cloud-ai-keys-exposed/","publisher":"eSecurity Planet","date":"2026-10-30","type":"press","title":"26,400 Valid Cloud and AI Keys Exposed on Gitee","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.integration_type":"D","system.developer":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","event.tags":"D","event.responsible_party":"D","event.adversarial_actor":"D","event.agent_involved":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.incident_class":"D","event.summary":"D","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","impact.records_exposed":"C","impact.harm_class":"D","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.data_categories_exposed":"C","impact.severity":"D","context.denominator":"D","context.systemic_exposure":"D","context.incident_evidence":"D","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"D","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Credentials included Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, and international services."}],"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"system.integration_type":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Independent researcher Ben Zimmermann published the findings Oct. 28 after examining 7.25 million public repositories."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The scan did not establish attacker use or continued validity today."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Deleting code cannot invalidate a copied credential, so teams need to address the underlying access at its provider."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In research with MongoDB's Kingfisher team, Zimmermann ran TruffleHog and Kingfisher against full repository histories."}],"impact.records_exposed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"impact.data_categories_exposed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Exposed Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, or Zhipu keys could enable unauthorized usage and charges, depending on permissions."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Zimmermann notified major affected vendors, but individual developers were not contacted, and revocation remained unconfirmed."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing."}],"context.systemic_exposure":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The scan did not establish attacker use or continued validity today."}],"context.incident_evidence":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In research with MongoDB's Kingfisher team, Zimmermann ran TruffleHog and Kingfisher against full repository histories."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Zimmermann notified major affected vendors, but individual developers were not contacted, and revocation remained unconfirmed."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-30"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Single press source; no primary disclosure, vendor statement or regulator filing. event.date_occurred is null: no source states when the keys were committed or when exposure began. event.trigger is unknown: the source states the scan did not establish attacker use, so no cause is named. event.failure_class is null: no autonomous agent was involved. event.root_cause is omitted: no source names what failed (the absence of secret scanning is a gap, not a failed control). system.model_name, model_version, harness, tools_granted, permissions_scope, autonomy_level, guardrails_present, safeguard_state and intended_use are not stated; the keys span many providers, so no single model is identified. impact.direct_loss_usd, loss_range_usd, third_parties_affected_count, reversibility and downstream_exposure_count are not stated; the source only says charges could occur. context.industry, org_size_band, denominator and regulatory are not stated. incident_class security_compromise is a grade-D classification: the source states credentials were exposed and could be misused but does not state an attacker used them. context.systemic_exposure false rests on the source stating attacker use was not established, not on a ruled-out shared component. event.trigger: unknown was classified, not stated; a trigger is never inferred, so it is unknown. system.tier: not set; no operator named and deployment_context is not a lab's. [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-31] system.integration_type: classified from described behaviour. system.developer: no source names the developer. system.deployment_context: classified from described behaviour. system.autonomy_level: no source states the arrangement. event.tags: classified from described behaviour. event.responsible_party: classified from described behaviour. event.adversarial_actor: classified from described behaviour. event.agent_involved: classified from described behaviour. event.detection_method: a source states an independent researcher or journalist found it. event.incident_class: a source states an attacker, an injected instruction or a misused credential caused the system to act, or that the system's own boundary (sandbox, permissions, weights, accounts) was breached. event.summary: classified from described behaviour. event.trigger: no source states a cause. impact.harm_class: classified from described behaviour. context.denominator: classified from described behaviour. context.systemic_exposure: classified from described behaviour. context.incident_evidence: classified from described behaviour. context.denominator_available: classified from described behaviour. context.country: classified from described behaviour."},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"CN","denominator_available":true,"denominator":{"value":7250000.0,"unit":"other","period":null},"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":false,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":{"log_completeness":null,"tamper_evidence":null,"timestamp_reliability":"unknown","investigation_independence":"unpaid_independent","redaction_summary":null,"analysis_method":"human_review","prompt_output_retention":null},"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"A researcher scanned 7.25 million public Gitee repositories with TruffleHog and Kingfisher, checking suspected credentials against issuing providers. The keys belonged to developers and organizations using Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, Zhipu, OpenAI and other services.","quote":"In research with MongoDB's Kingfisher team, Zimmermann ran TruffleHog and Kingfisher against full repository histories.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"26,400 cloud and AI keys were left in public repository histories, including an organization-admin credential for an unnamed enterprise AI platform. The exposure crossed the boundary that should have kept credentials private.","quote":"On China's Gitee platform, a scan uncovered 26,400 cloud and AI keys that authenticated during testing.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The keys could allow unauthorized use and charges on Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, Zhipu and other services, and could affect APAC businesses whose suppliers host code on Gitee. The scan did not establish attacker use.","quote":"Exposed Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, or Zhipu keys could enable unauthorized usage and charges, depending on permissions.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"Independent researcher Ben Zimmermann found the keys by scanning full repository histories with two credential scanners and verifying them with providers; he published the findings Oct. 28.","quote":"Independent researcher Ben Zimmermann published the findings Oct. 28 after examining 7.25 million public repositories.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Zimmermann notified major affected vendors, but individual developers were not contacted and revocation was unconfirmed. The article advises revoking keys, reviewing usage logs and replacing AccessKeys rather than only deleting code.","quote":"Zimmermann notified major affected vendors, but individual developers were not contacted, and revocation remained unconfirmed.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-31","source_urls":["https://www.esecurityplanet.com/threats/news-gitee-26400-cloud-ai-keys-exposed/"]}}