Hard-coded CredentialsWeakness · CWE-798

CVE-2024-36248

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-26
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
API keys for some cloud services are hardcoded in the "main" binary. As for the details of affected product names, model numbers, and versions, refer to the information provided by the respective vendors listed under [References].

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

API keys for cloud services are hardcoded directly in the main binary executable, exposing sensitive authentication credentials within the compiled application. This allows anyone with access to the binary to extract these credentials and gain unauthorized access to the affected cloud services.

MitigationRemove all hardcoded API keys from the binary and implement secure credential management such as environment variables, a secrets manager, or a configuration file outside the codebase. Rotate any exposed credentials immediately.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the main binary executable
    Locate the primary executable file for the application in question. This is typically the main entry point binary, often found in the application's installation directory or bin folder.
    Affected if The binary exists and is the compiled application in question.
  2. Extract readable strings from the binary
    Run a command such as 'strings <binary_path>' or use a hex editor to extract printable ASCII and Unicode strings from the compiled executable.
    Affected if Readable strings are found in the binary that may contain credentials.
  3. Search for common API key patterns
    Pipe the extracted strings through grep or similar search tools looking for patterns such as 'AKIA' (AWS), 'ghp_' (GitHub), 'sk-' (OpenAI), or 'Bearer' tokens, and look for strings matching cloud service credential formats.
    Affected if Strings matching known API key patterns or formats are found in the binary.
  4. Check for cloud service endpoint references
    Search the binary strings for known cloud provider URLs such as those for AWS, Azure, GCP, or other cloud services to identify if the application connects to cloud resources.
    Affected if Hardcoded references to cloud service endpoints are present in the binary.
  5. Verify credential presence in plaintext or encoded form
    Examine any found credential-like strings to determine if they appear in plaintext, base64-encoded, or obfuscated within the binary file.
    Affected if Any form of API key, token, or credential is found embedded in the binary code.

A user is affected if their application binary contains any hardcoded API keys, cloud service credentials, or authentication tokens embedded directly in the compiled executable.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Remove all hardcoded API keys from the binary and implement secure credential management such as environment variables, a secrets manager, or a configuration file outside the codebase. Rotate any exposed credentials immediately.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-36248 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data