SQ34101
Detected presence of commonly distributed sensitive data.
| priority | CI/CD status | severity | effort | RL level | RL assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | pass | low | low | None | None |
About the issue
Private keys and certificates are considered sensitive information that should not be included in released software packages. However, developers frequently release sensitive information alongside their applications to facilitate automated software testing. Testing keys and certificates often proliferate through the software supply chain. When such information gets shared publicly, it is catalogued by file reputation databases. Any private key and certificate files seen by a file reputation database prior to configured time threshold can be automatically suppressed. Commonly shared sensitive information is not considered to be secret.
How to resolve the issue
- Review the commonly shared sensitive information for evidence of inadvertently exposed secrets.
- If the keys were published unintentionally and the software has been made public, you should revoke the keys and file a security incident.
Incidence statistics
ReversingLabs periodically collects and analyzes the contents of popular software package repositories for threat research purposes.
For every repository, the chart shows the percentage of projects that triggered the software assurance policy. In other words, it shows how many projects were found to have the specific issue described on this page.
The percentages are calculated from the total amount of packages analyzed:
- RubyGems: 174K
- Nuget: 189K
- PyPi: 403K
- NPM: 2.1M
Recommended reading
- Secrets Management Cheat Sheet (External resource - OWASP)