SendGrid API Key Exposed
A SendGrid API key is public, letting anyone send email AS your verified domain — passing your SPF and DKIM checks, so the messages look genuine to recipients and to spam filters.
Why it matters
A SendGrid API key is public, letting anyone send email AS your verified domain — passing your SPF and DKIM checks, so the messages look genuine to recipients and to spam filters. That enables convincing phishing of your own customers and can get your sending domain blacklisted, breaking password resets and receipts for everyone.
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.
Delete this key now at SendGrid -> Settings -> API Keys, then create a replacement with restricted 'Mail Send' permission only (never a Full Access key). Move all sending to a server route so the key never enters the browser. Afterwards, check Settings -> Activity for messages you did not send, and review your domain's sending reputation in case it was abused.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "SendGrid API Key Exposed" mean?
- A SendGrid API key is public, letting anyone send email AS your verified domain — passing your SPF and DKIM checks, so the messages look genuine to recipients and to spam filters.
- 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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