Case truffle-aws-keys-hugging-faceModel & data leakWorldwide
Truffle Security: 9,300 live AWS keys exposed, with Hugging Face the largest single source
A four-year Truffle Security study found 64,024 unique AWS keys in public sources, 9,300 of them still valid; Hugging Face repositories accounted for 8,482 exposures and 17.9 percent of those were root keys.
HighAttack on AIStatus: OngoingVerified case file
Open in the interactive mapCite this case
- Reported
- Aug 21, 2026
- Location
- Worldwide
- Target
- AWS accounts of organizations publishing to Hugging Face and code hosts
- Severity
- High
- Triggered by
- Truffle Security researchers (discovery)
- Actor type
- Security researchers
- Reported loss
- None reported
- CVE
- None
What happened
A four-year Truffle Security study found 64,024 unique AWS keys in public sources, 9,300 of them still valid; Hugging Face repositories accounted for 8,482 exposures and 17.9 percent of those were root keys.
Impact: More than 9,300 valid AWS keys including 526 root keys and 242 AdministratorAccess users across 817 companies; full account takeover, data theft or cryptomining charges possible
Who triggered it
Actor: Truffle Security researchers (discovery)
Attribution: Research scan limited to read-only metadata; exposures stem from developers committing secrets to models, datasets, Spaces and code
Motive: Security research and owner notification
How it happened
Attack vector: Secrets embedded in Hugging Face repositories, Git history, datasets, Docker images, registries and CI logs
Root cause: Credentials committed alongside ML artefacts with no scanning, rotation or budget alerts; median key age about five years
Timeline
- Start of the exposure window tracked by Truffle Security
- Re-verification finds 88 percent of 10,616 complete keys still authenticate
- Findings published; Amazon says it notifies customers and quarantines exposed keys
Response
Truffle notified identifiable owners; Amazon applies quarantine policies; advice to delete root keys and rotate old IAM credentials
Current status: Ongoing
Sources (open in a new tab)
- BleepingComputer bleepingcomputer.com
- BleepingComputer Hugging Face tag bleepingcomputer.com
Cite this case
Truffle Security: 9,300 live AWS keys exposed, with Hugging Face the largest single source. AI Threat Watch, case truffle-aws-keys-hugging-face, Aug 21, 2026. https://aithreat.io/cases/truffle-aws-keys-hugging-face/
Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/truffle-aws-keys-hugging-face/