# Leaked Alibaba Cloud Access Key? Disable It Now > Alibaba Cloud access key ID exposed on GitHub? Disable the AccessKey in RAM, rotate it, then check ActionTrail for misuse. Step-by-step guide. Source: https://leakwatch.net/secrets/alibaba-cloud-access-key --- [LeakWatch](/) [Product](/product)[Live feed](/leaks)[Guides](/secrets)[Blog](/blog)[Free scan](/) 1. [Home](/) 2. [Secrets](/secrets) 3. Alibaba Cloud Access Key Cloud · Secret guide # Leaked Alibaba Cloud Access Key: what to do in the first hour Critical severityDetected onlyLast verified October 23, 2026 · 5 min read An Alibaba Cloud AccessKey lets whoever holds it call the Alibaba Cloud APIs as the user it belongs to. That user might be a root account, a RAM user with broad rights or a service account with access to storage, compute and databases. Calls are billed to your account, and they can read or change resources in every region the user can reach. A leaked pair is not a hypothetical risk: crypto-mining instances and data theft are common results when it reaches a public repository. Disable it first, then work out what it did. [Check your GitHub account for leaked secrets — free](/) Provider Alibaba Cloud Severity Critical Impact Cloud infrastructure access Checked live by LeakWatch No ## What an Alibaba Cloud Access Key looks like An Alibaba Cloud AccessKey is two values. The AccessKey ID starts with a fixed prefix and is followed by a random body, and the AccessKey Secret is a longer random string that goes with it: ```text LTAI…XXXX AccessKey ID (masked) ``` The `LTAI` prefix is specific to Alibaba Cloud, so an ID with that prefix is rarely a false alarm. The ID on its own does not authenticate anything. The secret half is what signs requests, and a leak that contains both values is much worse than a leak of the ID alone. If you find only the ID, search the same file, commit and history for the secret before you decide how serious it is. ## How Alibaba Cloud Access Keys get leaked - **Configuration files committed by accident.** Environment files, Terraform variables and the credentials file of an SDK often hold the pair, and they are rarely added to `.gitignore` on the first commit. - **Hard-coded values in scripts.** A deployment script or a test that calls the API with the keys inline, then gets pushed to a public repository. - **Shared tool configuration.** Command-line tool profiles and IDE settings that store the pair in plain text, copied into dotfiles repositories. - **CI logs.** A debug step that prints environment variables, or a build that echoes its configuration. - **Screenshots and support requests.** A console or terminal capture posted in a ticket with the pair still visible. ## What to do in the first hour 1. **Find out whose key it is.** Match the ID against the users in the RAM console. A root account key is the most serious case, and one that belongs to a RAM user with narrow rights is much less so. 2. **Create a replacement first.** Create a new AccessKey for the same user, and deploy it to your secret store or environment. Check that production still works before you touch the old key. 3. **Disable the exposed key.** Disabling it stops every request at once and is easy to undo if you find a system that still needed it. Once you are sure nothing depends on it, delete it. See the RAM console page below. 4. **Audit the activity.** Open ActionTrail, Alibaba Cloud’s audit product, and search for API calls made with the exposed AccessKey ID since the exposure. Look for calls from unfamiliar IP addresses, new instances, new users or keys, changes to security groups and any read of storage buckets. 5. **Check for persistence.** An attacker with a key often creates a second key, a new RAM user or a login profile. Review the users and their keys, and delete anything you cannot explain. 6. **Review the secret half.** If the leaked file also held the AccessKey Secret, treat the secret as exposed too, which is why the steps above replace the whole pair. 7. **Clean the repository.** Remove the value and rewrite history if you want to. See [I accidentally pushed an API key to GitHub](/blog/i-accidentally-pushed-an-api-key-to-github) and [Deep scan your whole git history](/blog/deep-scan-your-whole-git-history). Not sure what else leaked? [Run a free scan](/). [Not sure what else leaked? Run a free scan.](/) ## Revoke it at Alibaba Cloud AccessKeys are managed in the RAM console. Open the RAM console, go to the user the key belongs to, and open its AccessKey section. Find the key by its ID and disable it first. Keys can be created and deleted from the same place. Make sure you are in the right account, because a key from one account will not show up in another. If the key belonged to the root account, you can manage it from the account security settings, and Alibaba Cloud recommends deleting root account keys altogether in favor of RAM users with only the permissions they need. Menu names change over time, so if the page differs from this description, look for the AccessKey section of the user, and follow Alibaba Cloud’s documentation. ## How LeakWatch detects it The rule is called Alibaba Cloud Access Key ID. It looks for the literal `LTAI` prefix, which is case sensitive, followed by exactly 20 letters and digits, with a word boundary on each side. The match is self-contained, so no nearby word is needed. A value that is one character longer or shorter is not reported. The severity is **critical**. This type is not checked live: LeakWatch does not send any request to Alibaba Cloud with the key it found. A separate rule looks for the secret half near the ID, which is why a file that contains both values is the most urgent case. LeakWatch detects this format but does **not** check it live: it can tell you the key is exposed, not whether it still works. Assume it does until you have revoked it. ## FAQ Is the AccessKey ID secret on its own? Not in the same way as the secret, because it does not sign requests. Still, treat it as exposed. Its presence almost always means the secret is nearby, and the ID helps an attacker match your account. I deleted the file. Do I still need to rotate? Yes. Repositories keep history, and automated scanners watch public commits continuously. Rotate first, then clean the history. Can I just rely on ActionTrail to show me what happened? It is the right place to start, but make sure logging covered the period and the regions you use. Combine it with a review of users, keys and recent resource changes, because a quiet account is not proof that nothing happened. ## Related - [AWS access key](/secrets/aws-access-key) - [GCP Service Account Key](/secrets/gcp-service-account-key) - [Azure Client Secret](/secrets/azure-client-secret) - [I accidentally pushed an API key to GitHub](/blog/i-accidentally-pushed-an-api-key-to-github) - [Which vendors leak most this week](/leaks/trends) - [All secret guides](/secrets) [Get alerted next time a secret leaks — create a free account](/) LeakWatch is not affiliated with Alibaba Cloud. ![Gabriel Diyan, founder of LeakWatch](/brand/Photo-Gabriel-Diyan.webp) Gabriel Diyan (0xCr0c0) Cybersecurity student, founder of LeakWatch. I built and run the scanner described here — the detection patterns, the false-positive classifier and the provider validators are mine. [More about who I am](/about). 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