Stripe Restricted Key Exposed
A Stripe restricted key (rk_live_) is public.
Why it matters
A Stripe restricted key (rk_live_) is public. Restricted keys are scoped, so the blast radius depends on the permissions granted to this one — but it is still live access to your real Stripe account, commonly including reading customer and payment records. Treat the scopes it was created with as the list of what an attacker can now do.
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.
Roll this restricted key in the Stripe Dashboard -> Developers -> API keys. Then check the permissions it was created with — those define exactly what an attacker could do with it, so review the corresponding data (customers, charges) for unauthorized access. Frontend code should only ever hold the publishable key (pk_live_); call Stripe from your server for anything else.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "Stripe Restricted Key Exposed" mean?
- A Stripe restricted key (rk_live_) is public.
- How serious is it?
- ShipReady rates this high. Fix before launch. A real weakness that an attacker can act on.
- 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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