AWS Access Key Exposed
An AWS access key is exposed. What an attacker can do depends entirely on the attached IAM policy, and in practice these keys are frequently over-permissioned — reading S3 buckets, querying databases, or launching compute billed to you. AWS key exposure is one of the most aggressively scanned-for leaks on the internet;
Why it matters
An AWS access key is exposed. What an attacker can do depends entirely on the attached IAM policy, and in practice these keys are frequently over-permissioned — reading S3 buckets, querying databases, or launching compute billed to you. AWS key exposure is one of the most aggressively scanned-for leaks on the internet; assume it is already found.
How ShipReady detects it
Detects credentials that reached the browser. Scans the page HTML and every linked JavaScript bundle for the literal shapes real provider keys take — `sk_live_`, `AKIA`, `ghp_`, a JWT with a service_role claim — rather than guessing from entropy. High-entropy string detection finds build hashes, CSS class names and base64 images on almost every site; provider prefixes are unambiguous, which is why this check reports only what it can name. A match is evidence, not inference: the value was served to anyone who loaded the page. Evidence records the variable NAME and a ten-character prefix, never the key, because a report that quoted the secret would republish it. Bundles are fetched once per scan and shared across pages, so a key present in a chunk loaded on ten routes is reported once.
Detection is deterministic. ShipReady reports this only when it observes the condition directly, and prefers to miss a real problem over inventing one. Rule version 1.4.0.
How to fix it
This is the prompt ShipReady puts in your report — written to be pasted straight into Cursor, Claude Code, or whichever assistant built the app.
Remove the AWS Access Key from the frontend. Use IAM roles, presigned URLs, or Cognito for client-side AWS access.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "AWS Access Key Exposed" mean?
- An AWS access key is exposed. What an attacker can do depends entirely on the attached IAM policy, and in practice these keys are frequently over-permissioned — reading S3 buckets, querying databases, or launching compute billed to you. AWS key exposure is one of the most aggressively scanned-for leaks on the internet;
- How serious is it?
- ShipReady rates this critical. Fix before launch. On its own, this is enough to compromise the application.
- How do I fix it?
- Paste the fix prompt on this page into Cursor, Claude Code or your AI editor. It is the same prompt ShipReady puts in your report.
- Can I check my own site?
- Yes — ShipReady scans up to ten pages of any public site for free and reports this alongside every other check.
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