xAI API Key Exposed
An xAI (Grok) API key is public. Anyone who reads your JavaScript can send inference requests billed to your account, exhaust the rate limits your own application depends on, and run up a bill against your xAI credit — model inference is metered, so an unattended key turns directly into cost.
Why it matters
An xAI (Grok) API key is public. Anyone who reads your JavaScript can send inference requests billed to your account, exhaust the rate limits your own application depends on, and run up a bill against your xAI credit — model inference is metered, so an unattended key turns directly into cost.
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 1.7.0.
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.
An xAI (Grok) API key (xai-) is exposed in your client-side code. Revoke it in the xAI console (console.x.ai) and issue a new one. Move all Grok API calls to a server route that reads the key from a server-only environment variable — never one with a NEXT_PUBLIC_ or VITE_ prefix — and add rate limiting on that route so a leaked frontend cannot be used to exhaust your quota. Check your xAI usage for requests you did not make.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "xAI API Key Exposed" mean?
- An xAI (Grok) API key is public. Anyone who reads your JavaScript can send inference requests billed to your account, exhaust the rate limits your own application depends on, and run up a bill against your xAI credit — model inference is metered, so an unattended key turns directly into cost.
- 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. The free report lists every issue it finds and shows full evidence and a fix prompt for the critical and high-severity ones; medium and low findings are counted and unlock on Pro.
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