VNX-SEC-053: SonarQube / SonarCloud token

Reports a SonarQube or SonarCloud token (squ_, sqp_ or sqa_ + exactly 40 hex characters) in any file; identifiers that only share the prefix, placeholders and CI secret references are not reported.

Field	Value
Rule ID	`VNX-SEC-053`
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` `sonarqube` `credentials`
Source	`internal/sast/rules/vnx-sec-053.rego`

Overview

This rule reports a SonarQube or SonarCloud token as a whole token: a user token (squ_), a project analysis token (sqp_) or a global analysis token (sqa_), each followed by exactly 40 lower-case hex characters. Identifiers that only start with those prefixes, placeholder bodies, CI secret references and test paths are not reported. Snyk tokens are reported by VNX-SEC-1020 and VNX-SEC-1021.

What Gets Flagged

sonar.token=squ_<40 hex characters>

mvn sonar:sonar -Dsonar.login='sqa_<40 hex characters>'

Why This Matters

Hardcoded sonarqube api token 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 sonar-api-token
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-053
// nosec vnx-sec-053

Or record an ignore rule: vulnetix ignore add --rule vnx-sec-053 --reason "...". See Suppressing findings.