VNX-SEC-049: Anthropic admin API key

Reports a complete Anthropic Admin API key (sk-ant-admin01-, a 93-character body and the AA terminator) in any file; prefixes, truncated keys, placeholders and test paths are not reported.

Field	Value
Rule ID	`VNX-SEC-049`
Severity	Critical
SARIF level	`error`
Kind	`secrets`
Languages	Any file
CWE	CWE-798
CAPEC	CAPEC-191
ATT&CK	T1552.001
CWSS vector	`CWSS:1.0/TI:C/AP:A/AL:A/IC:N/FC:LT/RP:N/RL:A/AV:I/AS:N/IN:A/SC:A/BI:C/DI:H/EX:H/EC:N/P:W`
Tags	`secrets` `anthropic` `ai` `credentials`
Source	`internal/sast/rules/vnx-sec-049.rego`

Overview

This rule reports a complete Anthropic Admin API key in any file: source, .env, YAML or a shell script. The token must be whole: sk-ant-admin01-, a 93-character body, and the closing AA. A bare prefix, a truncated key, a placeholder body (xxxx…, your-admin-key-here), keys under test, fixture or vendored paths, and ordinary sk-ant-api03- workspace keys are not reported.

What Gets Flagged

ADMIN_KEY = "sk-ant-admin01-<93 characters>AA"

curl -H "x-api-key: sk-ant-admin01-<93 characters>AA" https://api.anthropic.com/v1/organizations/users

Why This Matters

Hardcoded anthropic admin api key values are routinely scraped by automated bots within minutes of a public push, and then used to access the account, exfiltrate data, or pivot into downstream services. Once the credential is in git history it is permanently in third-party hands.

Remediation

Revoke the leaked credential in the provider’s console immediately.
Replace with a short-lived alternative, OAuth 2.0 access tokens, IAM role assumption, OIDC federation, wherever the platform supports it.
Store the new credential in a secrets manager (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, GitHub Actions secrets, Doppler).
Audit the provider’s access logs for activity you did not initiate between the leak and the revocation.
Purge from git history with git filter-repo or BFG, then re-scan with gitleaks/truffleHog to confirm no other secrets remain.
Enable push protection so future commits are blocked at the developer machine.

References

CWE-798: Use of Hard-coded Credentials
gitleaks anthropic-admin-api-key
truffleHog
OWASP Credentials Management Cheat Sheet
MITRE ATT&CK T1552.001 – Credentials In Files
git-filter-repo

Suppressing this rule

Put a nosec comment on the line, or on line 1 to cover the whole file. Use the comment marker of the file’s language (#, //, -- or ;):

# nosec vnx-sec-049
// nosec vnx-sec-049

Or record an ignore rule: vulnetix ignore add --rule vnx-sec-049 --reason "...". See Suppressing findings.