We got admin access to Baseten's production GitHub

An old Docker image on a public registry can expose your company's GitHub admin credentials.

Researchers at Strix discovered a critical vulnerability in Baseten, an AI inference platform valued at $13 billion, granting them admin access to Baseten's production GitHub repositories. The vulnerability stemmed from a GitHub personal access token found embedded in the build history of a publicly accessible Docker image hosted on Baseten's Harbor registry. This token, created in March 2023, remained active and possessed admin and push privileges to core Baseten repositories, including product development and GitOps infrastructure. The Strix autonomous hacking agent identified the exposed token by first enumerating Baseten's subdomains and then pulling a container image from a public Harbor project. Upon analysis of the image's build history, the token was uncovered, allowing Strix to confirm its extensive administrative access. Baseten's security team responded swiftly upon notification, securing the registry and rotating the compromised token within a day, acknowledging the issue as critical. The company also provided the researchers with merchandise as a thank you.

This incident highlights a significant security blind spot: the potential for legacy container images to harbor outdated, yet still highly privileged, credentials. While companies often focus on securing active source code and running applications, the build artifacts themselves, especially those containing sensitive information like API keys or tokens in their history, represent a persistent attack vector. The discovery underscores the critical need for continuous auditing of container image repositories, not just for active code, but for historical build data that could be unintentionally exposed and exploited.

The ease with which Strix's autonomous agent identified and exploited this vulnerability points to an evolving threat landscape where AI-powered tools can rapidly uncover complex security flaws. For organizations relying on containerized deployments and cloud infrastructure, this event serves as a stark reminder to implement robust credential management policies, including regular token rotation and vigilant scanning of all build artifacts, not just active code repositories. Proactive security practices, like those demonstrated by Strix and acknowledged by Baseten's rapid response, are becoming paramount in mitigating such risks.