Secure API Key Sharing: Best Practices for Development Teams

API keys are the connective tissue of modern software. They authenticate your application to payment processors, cloud providers, email services, analytics platforms, and dozens of other third-party APIs. A single leaked key can result in unauthorized charges, data breaches, or service disruption.

Despite this, many teams still share API keys through insecure channels. This article outlines practical best practices for sharing API keys securely across your development team.

The Real Cost of a Leaked API Key

When an API key leaks, the damage depends on the service it unlocks:

• Cloud provider keys (AWS, GCP, Azure): Attackers can spin up compute resources for cryptocurrency mining, resulting in bills that reach tens of thousands of dollars within hours.
• Payment gateway keys (Stripe, PayPal): Unauthorized transactions, refund fraud, and potential PCI compliance violations.
• Database credentials: Full read/write access to your application’s data, including user records and personally identifiable information.
• Email service keys (SendGrid, Mailgun): Attackers send spam or phishing emails from your domain, damaging deliverability and brand reputation.

GitHub’s secret scanning program detects millions of leaked credentials in public repositories every year. But private repositories, chat logs, and email archives are equally vulnerable — they are just harder to scan.

Where API Keys Get Exposed

Source code and Git history

Hardcoding API keys in source code is the most common leak vector. Even if you remove the key in a later commit, it remains in Git history forever. Automated scanners continuously crawl public repositories for credential patterns.

Chat messages

Developers routinely paste API keys into Slack, Discord, or Microsoft Teams for quick sharing. These messages are indexed, searchable, and stored on servers you do not control. A workspace breach or overly broad search permissions can expose every key ever shared.

Documentation and wikis

Internal wikis, Notion pages, and Confluence docs often contain API keys embedded in setup instructions. These documents tend to have broad access permissions and are rarely audited for stale credentials.

CI/CD configuration files

Build configuration files checked into repositories sometimes contain hardcoded secrets instead of environment variable references. This is especially common in projects that predate proper CI/CD secrets management.

Best Practices for Sharing API Keys

1. Never share keys through persistent channels

Avoid any channel that stores messages indefinitely: email, Slack, Teams, or document sharing. Instead, use an encrypted, time-limited sharing method like SecretDrop that automatically deletes the key after a set expiry window.

2. Use separate keys per environment

Maintain distinct API keys for development, staging, and production. This limits the blast radius of a leak — a compromised development key cannot access production data. Most API providers support multiple keys or projects at no additional cost.

3. Apply the principle of least privilege

When generating API keys, restrict permissions to only what is needed. If a key only needs read access, do not grant write permissions. If a key only needs access to a specific resource, scope it accordingly. Many providers (Stripe, AWS IAM, Firebase) support fine-grained permission controls.

4. Rotate keys on a schedule

Establish a rotation cadence for all API keys — quarterly at minimum, monthly for high-risk services. Rotation ensures that even if a key was leaked without your knowledge, it has a limited useful lifetime. Automate rotation where possible using your provider’s API.

5. Set expiry and download limits when sharing

When sharing API keys through SecretDrop, set the shortest practical expiry window. If a developer needs the key for initial setup, 24 hours is sufficient. Enable download limits so the bundle cannot be accessed after the intended recipient has downloaded it.

6. Audit and revoke unused keys

Periodically audit all active API keys across your services. Revoke any key that is no longer in use or whose purpose is unknown. Most cloud providers offer dashboards showing key usage patterns — keys with zero recent activity are candidates for revocation.

7. Use environment variables, not config files

Store API keys in environment variables rather than configuration files. Environment variables are not checked into version control and are isolated per process. Use .env files locally (excluded from Git via .gitignore) and inject secrets through your CI/CD platform in deployment pipelines.

How to Share API Keys with SecretDrop

1. Create a new bundle and paste the API key into a text file, or upload your .env file containing the key.
2. Set a password and communicate it to your teammate through a separate channel.
3. Set an expiry of 24 hours or less for one-time sharing.
4. Enable a download limit of 1-2 downloads.
5. Share the link with your teammate. After they download the key, the bundle expires and is permanently deleted.

The entire process takes under a minute, and you avoid creating any permanent record of the key in chat logs or email archives.

API Key Sharing Checklist

Use this checklist when onboarding a new team member or sharing credentials with a contractor:

• Generate a new API key with minimum required permissions
• Share the key via an encrypted, expiring channel (not Slack or email)
• Confirm the recipient has received and stored the key securely
• Set a reminder to rotate the key within 90 days
• Document which keys the person has access to for future offboarding
• Revoke access immediately when the person leaves the project

Following these practices significantly reduces the risk of credential exposure and makes incident response faster when a leak does occur.