Guides

Ensure API Keys Are Rotated Every 90 Days

Security risks involved in using API-Keys are listed below: - API keys are simple encrypted strings - API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request - API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an API key Because of these potential risks, Google recommends using the standard authentication flow instead of API Keys. However, there are limited cases where API keys are more appropriate. For example, if there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google Cloud Translation API, but doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the simplest way to authenticate to that API. Once a key is stolen, it has no expiration, meaning it may be used indefinitely unless the project owner revokes or regenerates the key. Rotating API keys will reduce the window of opportunity for an access key that is associated with a compromised or terminated account to be used. API keys should be rotated to ensure that data cannot be accessed with an old key that might have been lost, cracked, or stolen

Suggest Edits

Risk Level: High
Cloud Entity: GCP API Key
CloudGuard Rule ID: D9.GCP.IAM.22
Covered by Spectral: No
Category: Security, Identity, & Compliance

GSL LOGIC

APIKey should not have createTime before('-90', 'days')

REMEDIATION

From Portal

  1. Go to APIs & Services - Credentials using https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
  2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a new page.
  3. Click REGENERATE KEY to rotate API key.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 for every API key that has not been rotated in the last 90 days.

Note : There is no option to automatically regenerate (rotate) API keys periodically.

References

  1. https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys

GCP API Key

An API key is a simple encrypted string that you can use when calling Google Cloud APIs. A typical use of an API key is to pass the key into a REST API call as a query parameter.
API keys are useful for accessing public data anonymously, and are used to associate API requests with the consumer Google Cloud project for quota and billing.
API Keys provides you a programmatic interface to create and manage API keys for your project. It provides you more control over API keys than the API key-related tasks that you can do in the Cloud Console.

Compliance Frameworks

  • CloudGuard GCP All Rules Ruleset
  • GCP CIS Controls V 8
  • GCP CIS Foundations v. 1.0.0
  • GCP CIS Foundations v. 1.1.0
  • GCP CIS Foundations v. 1.2.0
  • GCP CIS Foundations v. 1.3.0
  • GCP CIS Foundations v. 2.0
  • GCP CloudGuard Best Practices
  • GCP MITRE ATT&CK Framework v12.1
  • GCP NIST 800-53 Rev 5

Updated over 1 year ago