The one that never expires
The admin key in the deployment pipeline that never expires.
(Illustrative scenario, not a real incident)
At this thirty-person software company,the moment code is pushed,it’s tested and deployed automatically.Very convenient.
To make that work,the deployment pipelineholds a cloud admin key.Its permissions are broad,and it never expires.
One day the news came:a deployment plugin everyone usedhad been injected with malicious codethat sent the variables in its runtime environment elsewhere.
Only then did the company get nervous:Who created that key?How much can it do?What other pipelines use it?If we rotate it, will every deployment break?
The person who set it upleft long ago.
What you see is smooth automation.What you don’t seeis the key that’s been left in the door all along.
Laozi said: “When the work is done, withdraw. This is the Way of Heaven.”When the job is finished, it’s time to step off the stage.
Keys are the same.Once used, they should expire,not stay there forever,waiting for someone else to pick them up.
Move deployments to short-lived credentials, or at least scope the key to a single environment and give it an expiry date; pin third-party plugins to a version, and don’t let them live alongside your biggest key.