Postman is an API development and testing platform that allows developers to design, build, and test APIs. Postman tokens are used for authentication and authorization purposes when making API requests.

Secret leaks often occur when a sensitive piece of authentication data is stored with the source code of an application. Considering the source code is intended to be deployed across multiple assets, including source code repositories or application hosting servers, the secrets might get exposed to an unintended audience.

Why is this an issue?

In most cases, trust boundaries are violated when a secret is exposed in a source code repository or an uncontrolled deployment environment. Unintended people who don’t need to know the secret might get access to it. They might then be able to use it to gain unwanted access to associated services or resources.

The trust issue can be more or less severe depending on the people’s role and entitlement.

What is the potential impact?

If a Postman token is leaked or compromised, it can lead to several security issues and risks. Here are some potential consequences:

Unauthorized access

An attacker who gains access to a leaked token can use it to impersonate the legitimate user or application associated with the token. This can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data or functionality within the API.

Data breaches

If the leaked token provides access to sensitive data, an attacker can use it to retrieve or manipulate that data. This can lead to data breaches that compromise the confidentiality and integrity of the information. Depending on the type of data that is compromised, it could lead to privacy violations, identity theft, financial loss, or other negative outcomes.

In most cases, a company suffering a sensitive data compromise will face a reputational loss when the security issue is publicly disclosed.

API abuse

With a leaked token, an attacker can abuse the API by making unauthorized requests, consuming excessive resources, or performing malicious actions. This can disrupt the API’s regular operation, impact performance, or even cause denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

Privilege escalation

Depending on the permissions and scope associated with the token, an attacker may be able to escalate their privileges within the API. They can gain access to additional resources or perform actions that they are not authorized to do.

Breach of trust in non-repudiation and disruption of the audit trail

When such a secret is compromised, malicious actors might have the possibility to send malicious event objects, causing discrepancies in the audit trail. This can make it difficult to trace and verify the sequence of events, impacting the ability to investigate and identify unauthorized or fraudulent activity.

All in all, this can lead to problems in proving the validity of transactions or actions performed, potentially leading to disputes and legal complications.

Reputation damage

If a token is leaked and used for malicious purposes, it can damage the reputation of the API provider. Users may lose trust in the security of the API, leading to a loss of business and credibility.

How to fix it

Revoke the secret

Revoke any leaked secrets and remove them from the application source code.

Before revoking the secret, ensure that no other applications or processes are using it. Other usages of the secret will also be impacted when the secret is revoked.

Analyze recent secret use

When available, analyze authentication logs to identify any unintended or malicious use of the secret since its disclosure date. Doing this will allow determining if an attacker took advantage of the leaked secret and to what extent.

This operation should be part of a global incident response process.

Use a secret vault

A secret vault should be used to generate and store the new secret. This will ensure the secret’s security and prevent any further unexpected disclosure.

Depending on the development platform and the leaked secret type, multiple solutions are currently available.

Code examples

Noncompliant code example

const axios = require('axios');

const apiKey = 'PMAK-6502e63761882f002a69f0cb-6d9bc58cd0cc60ff5547f81cf2ca141bb9'; // Noncompliant
const options = {
    method: 'get',
    url: 'https://api.getpostman.com/me',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-Key': apiKey
    }
};

(async() => { await axios(options); })();

Compliant solution

const axios = require('axios');

const apiKey = process.env.POSTMAN_API_KEY;
const options = {
    method: 'get',
    url: 'https://api.getpostman.com/me',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-Key': apiKey
    }
};

(async() => { await axios(options); })();

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