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1.13 Restrict API Keys To Use by Only Specified Hosts and Apps (Automated)​

note

This rule has been changed to automated, see Automated Policies for CIS GCP 1.3.0 for details.

Profile Applicability​

• Level 1

Description​

Unrestricted keys are insecure because they can be publicly viewable, such as from within a browser, or accessible on a device where the key resides. Best practices recommend restricting API key usage to trusted hosts, HTTP referrers and apps.

Rationale​

Security risks involved in using API-Keys appear below:

  • API keys are simple encrypted strings

  • API keys do not identify the user or the application making the API request

  • API keys are typically accessible to clients, making it easy to discover and steal an API key

In light of these potential risks, Google recommends using the standard authentication flow instead of API keys. However, there are limited cases where API keys are more appropriate. For example, if there is a mobile application that needs to use the Google Cloud Translation API, but doesn't otherwise need a backend server, API keys are the simplest way to authenticate to that API.

In order to reduce attack vectors, API-Keys can be restricted only to trusted hosts, HTTP referrers and applications.

Impact​

Setting Application Restrictions may break existing application functioning, if not done carefully.

Audit​

From Console:

  1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials

  2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a new page.

  3. For every API Key, ensure the section Key restrictions parameter Application restrictions is not set to None.

Or,

Ensure Application restrictions is set to HTTP referrers and the referrer is not set to wild-cards (* or *.[TLD] or *.[TLD]/*) allowing access to any/wide HTTP referrer(s)

Or,

Ensure Application restrictions is set to IP addresses and referrer is not set to any host (0.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0/0 or ::0)

Remediation​

From Console:

  1. Go to APIs & Services\Credentials using https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials/.

  2. In the section API Keys, Click the API Key Name. The API Key properties display on a new page.

  3. In the Key restrictions section, set the application restrictions to any of HTTP referrers, IP addresses, Android apps, iOS apps.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 for every unrestricted API key.

note

Do not set HTTP referrers to wild-cards ( or .[TLD] or .[TLD]/) allowing access to any/wide HTTP referrers. Do not set IP addresses and referrer to any host (0.0.0.0 or 0.0.0.0/0 or ::0).

References​

https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/api-keys

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