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Exposed Secrets Crisis: Why It Takes 27 Days to Fix Leaked Credentials (And What’s Making It Worse)

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December 04, 2024

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Exposed Secrets Crisis: Why It Takes 27 Days to Fix Leaked Credentials (And What's Making It Worse)

The Growing Challenge of Secrets Management in IT

Key Findings:

– 79% of IT decision-makers reported secrets leaks, increasing from 75% last year

– Over 12.7 million hardcoded credentials found in public GitHub repositories

– 90% of discovered secrets remain valid for over 5 days

– Average remediation time: 27 days

– Non-human to human identity ratio is 45:1

Core Issues:

1. Delayed Credential Rotation

– Lack of clarity on permission structures

– Insufficient documentation

– Complex permission management systems (e.g., AWS IAM, GitHub)

2. Ownership Confusion

– 65% believe IT security teams are responsible

– 44% report developers not following best practices

– Gap between security teams and developers

3. Developer Challenges

– Pressure to deploy quickly

– Complex permission management systems

– Insufficient documentation practices

– Over-permissioning (98% of granted permissions unused)

4. Security Team Limitations

– Lack of project-specific knowledge

– Risk of breaking applications when making changes

– Difficulty maintaining consistent access controls

Proposed Solution: Shared Responsibility Model

Developers should:

– Manage permissions consistently using proper tools

– Document permission requirements

– Ensure clear communication with security teams

Security Teams should:

– Automate secrets rotation

– Implement observability tools

– Work to eliminate long-lived credentials

– Support developers with secure implementation paths

Essential Documentation Points:

1. Credential ownership

2. Resource access details

3. Permission specifications

4. Rotation/revocation procedures

5. Credential status

Keywords: secrets management, IT security, credential rotation, GitHub security, AWS IAM, security best practices, hardcoded credentials, secrets leaks, permission management, IT decision-makers, developer security, security teams, access controls, shared responsibility model, secrets automation, credential ownership, resource access, permission specifications, credential status, DevSecOps, application security, security documentation, credential management, identity management, security automation, secure implementation, security compliance, IT permissions, security tooling, credential security, security remediation, security collaboration, non-human identities, security governance, permission structure, security best practices, credential lifecycle management, security team communication, developer workflows, security implementation

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