Skip to content
Nuclei Templates

Django Secret Key Exposure

ID: django-secret-key

Severity: high

Author: geeknik,DhiyaneshDk

Tags: django,exposure,files

Description

Section titled “Description”

The Django settings.py file containing a secret key was discovered. An attacker may use the secret key to bypass many security mechanisms and potentially obtain other sensitive configuration information (such as database password) from the settings file.

YAML Source

Section titled “YAML Source”
id: django-secret-key


info:
  name: Django Secret Key Exposure
  author: geeknik,DhiyaneshDk
  severity: high
  description: |
    The Django settings.py file containing a secret key was discovered. An attacker may use the secret key to bypass many security mechanisms and potentially obtain other sensitive configuration information (such as database password) from the settings file.
  reference: https://docs.gitguardian.com/secrets-detection/detectors/specifics/django_secret_key
  classification:
    cpe: cpe:2.3:a:djangoproject:django:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 7
    vendor: djangoproject
    product: django
    shodan-query: html:settings.py
    comments: 'This template downloads the manage.py file to check whether it contains line such as: `os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "APP_NAME.settings")` if it does, we extract the APP_NAME to know in what folder to look for the settings.py file.'
  tags: django,exposure,files


http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/manage.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/settings.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/app/settings.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/django/settings.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/settings/settings.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/web/settings/settings.py"
      - "{{BaseURL}}/{{app_name}}/settings.py"


    stop-at-first-match: true


    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: word
        part: body
        words:
          - "SECRET_KEY ="


      - type: word
        part: header
        words:
          - "text/html"
        negative: true


      - type: status
        status:
          - 200


    extractors:
      - type: regex
        part: body
        group: 1
        regex:
          - '"DJANGO_SECRET_KEY", "(.*)"'


      - type: regex
        part: body
        internal: true
        name: app_name
        group: 1
        regex:
          - "os.environ.setdefault\\([\"']DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE[\"'],\\s[\"']([a-zA-Z-_0-9]*).settings[\"']\\)"
# digest: 4a0a0047304502206a2773bc55d7570d7a16e541d5e67d97da8c45f10e05168c59d90a1e3714369b022100c333c073e7ffa35e8dadb7308a63377062887d11cb1122d7ec984455963d9832:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950

Guide to check the vulnerabilities

Section titled “Guide to check the vulnerabilities”

This template is used to detect vulnerabilities in web applications. It can be used with the Nuclei tool to scan for specific patterns or behaviors.

Terminal window
$ nuclei -u "URL" -t "http/exposures/files/django-secret-key.yaml"

View on Github