Free Security Scanner

Check If Your API Key Is Exposed

Scan your domain for leaked API keys, exposed credentials, and misconfigured secrets. 19 parallel checks run in under 30 seconds. No signup required.

19 parallel checks. Built by a CEH-certified security engineer with 10+ years experience.

What Gets Checked

Our scanner probes 80+ paths and runs 19 parallel security checks to find exposed credentials before attackers do.

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Exposed .env Files

Detects publicly accessible .env files containing database passwords, API keys, and application secrets.

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.git Directory Exposure

Checks if your Git repository is accessible, which can leak your entire source code and commit history with hardcoded keys.

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AWS Credentials

Scans for exposed AWS access keys, S3 bucket configs, and cloud credential files left in web roots.

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API Key Leaks

Finds API keys exposed in config files, JavaScript bundles, backup files, and debug endpoints.

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Config File Exposure

Detects exposed wp-config.php, config.yml, database.yml, settings.py, and other sensitive configuration files.

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SSL and Header Analysis

Validates your SSL certificate, checks security headers, and identifies misconfigurations that weaken your defenses.

Why Exposed API Keys Are a Critical Security Risk

API keys are the passwords of the modern web. They grant programmatic access to cloud services, payment processors, databases, and third-party platforms. When an API key is exposed, an attacker does not need to break through your firewall or exploit a software vulnerability. They simply use your own credentials to access your systems, steal data, or rack up charges on your cloud account.

The scale of the problem is staggering. GitGuardian's 2025 State of Secrets Sprawl report found over 12.8 million new secrets leaked in public GitHub repositories in a single year. That includes AWS access keys, Stripe API tokens, database connection strings, and OAuth client secrets. Each one of those leaks represents a potential breach waiting to happen.

What makes API key exposure especially dangerous is that it often goes undetected for weeks or months. Unlike a brute-force attack that triggers login alerts, a stolen API key looks like legitimate traffic. The attacker is authenticated, and your monitoring sees nothing unusual until the damage is done.

How API Keys Get Leaked

API key leaks happen through several common vectors, and most of them are preventable:

What Attackers Do with Exposed API Keys

The consequences of an exposed API key depend on the permissions that key carries, but the outcomes are consistently severe:

How the SecureBin API Key Exposure Check Works

The SecureBin Exposure Checker runs 19 parallel security checks against your domain to identify potential API key and credential exposure. Here is what happens when you enter your domain:

  1. Sensitive file detection. The scanner probes for commonly exposed files: .env, .git/config, wp-config.php, phpinfo.php, backup files, and database dumps that frequently contain API keys.
  2. Security header analysis. Missing headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options can make it easier for attackers to exfiltrate stolen credentials via XSS or MIME confusion attacks.
  3. SSL/TLS validation. Weak encryption or expired certificates mean that API keys transmitted over HTTPS could potentially be intercepted by man-in-the-middle attacks.
  4. DNS and email authentication. Missing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records mean your domain can be spoofed in phishing emails designed to trick employees into revealing API keys.
  5. Technology fingerprinting. Identifying outdated software versions helps flag known CVEs that could be exploited to access configuration files containing API keys.
  6. Domain reputation check. If your domain appears on blacklists, it may indicate a previous compromise where API keys or other credentials were already stolen.

Results are categorized by severity (critical, warning, informational) with specific remediation steps for each finding. The entire scan completes in under 30 seconds.

How to Prevent API Key Exposure

Preventing API key leaks requires a combination of technical controls and process discipline:

Use Environment Variables, Not Hardcoded Keys

Store API keys in environment variables or dedicated secrets management tools (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, Doppler). Never commit keys directly into source code, configuration files, or Docker images.

Block Sensitive Files on Your Web Server

Configure your web server to deny access to sensitive file patterns. In Nginx, add rules to block .env, .git, .htaccess, and backup files. In Apache, use <FilesMatch> directives to return 403 for these paths.

Use Pre-Commit Hooks for Secret Detection

Tools like git-secrets, detect-secrets, and gitleaks can be configured as pre-commit hooks to block commits that contain patterns matching API keys, tokens, or passwords. This catches leaks before they ever reach the repository.

Rotate Keys Regularly

Implement automated key rotation with short-lived credentials wherever possible. AWS IAM roles with temporary security tokens, OAuth2 tokens with short expiry, and database credentials rotated through secrets managers all reduce the window of exposure if a key does leak.

Use Least-Privilege Scoping

When creating API keys, grant only the minimum permissions needed for the specific use case. A key used for read-only analytics should not have write or admin access. If a scoped key leaks, the blast radius is contained.

API Key Exposure Checklist

Use this checklist to audit your own systems for API key exposure risks:

Trusted by Developers Worldwide

19 parallel security checks
Results in under 30 seconds
Built by a CEH-certified security engineer with 10+ years experience

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my API key has been exposed?

Enter your domain into the scanner above and it will check 80+ paths where API keys commonly get leaked, including .env files, Git directories, config files, backup files, and debug endpoints. If any sensitive files are publicly accessible, the scan will flag them with severity ratings and remediation steps.

Is this scan safe? Will it break my website?

Yes, the scan is completely safe. It only performs read-only HTTP requests to check if certain paths return sensitive content. It does not modify any files, inject payloads, or perform any destructive actions. It is equivalent to someone typing those URLs into a browser, which is exactly what an attacker would do.

What should I do if the scan finds exposed API keys?

Immediately rotate the exposed key by generating a new one from your provider's dashboard. Then block public access to the file by configuring your web server to deny requests to sensitive paths. Check your server access logs to see if the file was accessed by unknown IPs. Finally, move credentials to environment variables or a secrets manager and re-scan to confirm the fix.

How often should I scan for exposed credentials?

Scan after every deployment, after any infrastructure change, and at minimum once per week. Misconfigurations can be introduced at any time: a deployment script that copies the wrong file, a developer who commits a config, or a server migration that resets permissions. Regular scanning catches these issues before attackers do.

Do Not Wait for a Breach to Find Out

Exposed API keys are the number one cause of cloud account compromise. Scan your domain now and fix issues before attackers exploit them.