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Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

trufflesecurity.com

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Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#171

Post by Matl »

gib444 wrote: post #138
qudent wrote: post #83

In Google AI Studio, Google documentation encourages to deploy vibecoded apps with an open proxy that allow equivalent AI billing abuse - giving the impression that the API key were secure because it is behind a proxy. Even an app with 0 AI features exposes dollars-per-query video models unless the key is manually scoped. Vulnerable apps (all apps deployed from AI Studio) are easily found by searching Google, Twitter…

[flagged]

How dare you question a corporation's ability to make unlimited money?

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#172

Post by KomoD »

grey-area wrote: post #82
charcircuit wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not actually locked to a site is just based off the host header. Which is public information an attacker can use to make the requests.

Is there a way to use Google maps apis on the web without exposing the key? Re host header seems an odd way for Google to do it, surely they would have fixed that by now? I guess not a huge problem as attackers would have to proxy traffic or something to obscure the host headers sent by real clients? Any links on how people exploit this?

What is there to fix? It was designed this way.

Something that can be abused is if the key also has other Maps APIs enabled, like Places API, Routes API or Static APIs especially for scraping because those produce valuable info beyond just embedding a map.

The only suggestions I have are:

- If you want to totally hide the key, proxy all the requests through some server.

- Restrict the key to your website.

- Don't enable any API that you don't use, if you only use the Maps Javascript API to embed a map then don't enable any other Maps API for that key.

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#173

Post by twism »

Havoc wrote: post #114

Someone on the Google subreddit did report getting a 80k bill yesterday from a Gemini key. I’m very careful with Google and co since they’re so intent on infinite scaling access to your wallet

I think GCP has a setting for max monthly spend and is enabled by default

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#174

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

Nathanba wrote: post #156
qudent wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the fact that it is not possible to put hard spending caps on API keys might be ruled illegal by some EU court soon enough, at least when they sell to consumers (given the explosion of vibecoding end-users making some apps). When I use OpenAI, Openrouter etc., I can put 10 $ on my API key, and when the key leaks, someone can use these 10 $ and that's it. With Google, there is no way to do that - there are ext…

let's hope it happens soon, I'm pretty sick of this reality where companies get to charge you whatever they want and it's designed to always be your fault

> I'm pretty sick of this reality where companies get to charge you whatever they want and it's designed to always be your fault

But have you considered it from the companies POV? Charging whatever you like and its always the customers fault is a pretty sweet deal. Up next in the innovation pipeline is charging customers extra fees for something or other. It'll be great!

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#175

Post by kristianp »

hparadiz wrote: post #165
le-mark wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This and problematic Gemini pro availability are why I pay for two other ai services and won’t pay google.

About 10 years ago I got $100 for free to use on AdSense. I used it for fun not realizing it keeps going and then billed me. Since then I basically don't use any Google paid products. Hope that $250 was worth it.

Wait till you try aws!

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#176

Post by mafuy »

otikik wrote: post #107
ryanjshaw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like they ought to be dedicated security teams monitoring for exactly this: does a key to X give users access to not-X. Even more bizarre is their VDP team not immediately understanding the severity of the issue.

"Don't worry, we have Gemini looking at this very issue right now for all teams"

"I know, I'm reading along!"

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#177

Post by data-ottawa »

nl wrote: post #155
bob1029 wrote: post #154

What are the chances this isn't intentional to some extent? This wouldn't be the first time we've traded downstream legal trouble for short term gains. Making AI utilization appear to go up is the only thing that matters right now if you're in the boardroom at one of these companies. Whether or not that utilization was actually intended by the customer is entirely irrelevant. From here, the only remaining concern is…

Does anyone really believe something like this? There's a long stretch from over optimizing a UI to something that is very clearly an error like what has happened here.

I save $20/mo on my internet by having cable that I don’t watch. Why? So my telecom company can boast higher tv subscriber counts to shareholders and ad-networks.

It is entirely believable to me that a company like Google would do the same with AI use numbers. I suspect that all these AI use factors in corporate performance reviews are about the same thing.

This could be a standard oversight too, I find Google’s documentation on this stuff to be Byzantine.

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#178

Post by addandsubtract »

oompty wrote: post #32

Ohh so that's how that happened. I had noticed (purely for research purposes of course) that some of Google's own keys hardcoded into older Android images were useable for Gemini (some instantly ratelimited so presumably used by many other people already but some still usable) until they all got disabled as leaked like two months ago. They also had over time disabled Gemini API access on some of them over them before…

I also noticed lots of Github projects expose their gemini key and was confused. This explains a lot.

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#179

Post by StilesCrisis »

refulgentis wrote: post #57
decimalenough wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gemini API is not enabled by default, it has to be explicitly enabled for each project. The problem here is that people create an API key for use X, then enable Gemini on the same project to do something else, not realizing that the old key now allows access to Gemini as well. Takeaway: GCP projects are free and provide strong security boundaries, so use them liberally and never reuse them for anything public-fac…

I’m usually client side dev, and am an ex googler and very curious how this happened. I can somewhat follow this line of thinking, it’s pretty intentional and clear what you’re doing when you flip on APIs in the Google cloud site. But I can’t wrap my mind around what is an API key . All the Google cloud stuff I’ve done the last couple years involves a lot of security stuff and permissions (namely, using Gemini, of al…

They started off behind, and have been scrambling to catch up. This means they didn't get the extra year of design-doc hell before shipping, so mistakes were made.

Re: Google API keys weren't secrets, but then Gemini changed the rules

#180

Post by StilesCrisis »

crest wrote: post #63
827a wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah its tremendously unclear how they can even recover from this. I think the most selective would be: they have to at minimum remove the Generative Language API grant from every API key that was created before it was released. But even that isn't a full fix, because there's definitely keys that were created after that API was released which accidentally got it. They might have to just blanket remove the Generative…

I hope Google has a database with the creation timestamp for every API key they issued.

If there's one thing Google is good at, it's logging.
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