Ensure API Keys Are Restricted To Necessary APIs
More Info:
Security risks involved in using API-Keys are 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 In light 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. In order to reduce attack surfaces by providing least privileges, API-Keys can be restricted to use (call) only APIs required by an application.
Risk Level
Medium
Address
Security, Reliability
Compliance Standards
CISGCP, CBP