Google API keys exposed after Gemini privilege expansion
Researchers found 2,800 exposed Google API keys that could access Gemini AI services, prompting new security measures and developer warnings.
Security researchers warn that exposed Google API keys in public client-side code could be used to authenticate with the Gemini AI assistant and access private data. The issue arose after developers enabled the Generative Language API in existing projects without updating key permissions.
Truffle Security scanned the November 2025 Common Crawl dataset and identified more than 2,800 live Google API keys publicly exposed in website source code. Some belonged to financial institutions, security firms, recruitment companies, and Google infrastructure.
Before Gemini’s launch, Google Cloud API keys were widely treated as non-sensitive identifiers for services such as Maps, YouTube embeds, analytics, and Firebase. After Gemini was introduced, those duplicate Google API keys also acted as authentication credentials for the AI assistant, expanding their privileges.
Researchers demonstrated the risk by using one exposed key to query the Gemini API models endpoint and list available models. They warned that attackers could exploit such access to extract private data or generate substantial API charges on victim accounts.
Google was notified in November 2025 and later classified the issue as a single-service privilege escalation. The company said it has introduced controls to block leaked keys, limit new AI Studio keys to Gemini-only scope, and notify developers of detected exposure.
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