An independent researcher discovered 26,400 valid cloud and AI service credentials that developers had left in public code repositories on Gitee, a Chinese code-hosting service.
These credentials remained functional when tested by the researcher. Anyone could have potentially used these credentials by copying them from the exposed code.
The researcher, Ben Zimmermann, found the credentials by scanning 7.25 million public Gitee repositories. The majority of the exposed credentials were for cloud and AI services.
By the numbers
- Exposed Credentials
- 26,400
- Scanned Repositories
- 7.25 million
Sources and references
Original report
26,400 Valid Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed in Public Gitee Repositories
The Hacker News
Read on The Hacker News (opens in a new tab)Ref 00JGN2D2
Cite this
APA
Interestana AI Editorial. (2026, October 29). 26,400 Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed on Gitee. Interestana. https://interestana.com/articles/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials-found-exposed-in-public-gitee-repositories-00jgn2d2
MLA
“26,400 Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed on Gitee.” Interestana, 29 Oct. 2026, interestana.com/articles/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials-found-exposed-in-public-gitee-repositories-00jgn2d2.
Chicago
Interestana AI Editorial. “26,400 Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed on Gitee.” Interestana, October 29, 2026. https://interestana.com/articles/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials-found-exposed-in-public-gitee-repositories-00jgn2d2.
BibTeX
@misc{interestana_00jgn2d2,
author = {{Interestana AI Editorial}},
title = {{26,400 Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed on Gitee}},
howpublished = {Interestana},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://interestana.com/articles/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials-found-exposed-in-public-gitee-repositories-00jgn2d2},
note = {Summary of reporting by The Hacker News, https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials.html}
}Credit the source
Original reporting: The Hacker News, “26,400 Valid Cloud and AI Credentials Found Exposed in Public Gitee Repositories”, https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/26400-valid-cloud-and-ai-credentials.html(opens in a new tab)
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