Over 12 million auth secrets and keys leaked on GitHub in 2023

GitGuardian's 2023 analysis found that 12.8 million authentication secrets were exposed across more than 3 million public GitHub repositories, with 91.6% of detected secrets still valid five days after discovery; exposed items include passwords, API keys (notably a 1,212x rise in OpenAI keys), cloud credentials, TLS/SSL and encryption keys, and OAuth tokens, creating widespread risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.