Securing non-human identities: automated revocation, OAuth, and scoped permissions
Cloudflare argues that securing modern infrastructure requires managing non-human identities—agents, scripts, and third-party applications—as carefully as human users. The core model combines principals, credentials, and policies, with protections covering token leakage, OAuth access visibility, and narrowly scoped permissions. The post focuses especially on automated token detection and revocation, designed to limit damage when credentials are exposed. ## Identity as Three Connected Components - **Principal:** The identity acting on a system’s behalf, such as a developer, AI agent, background service, or OAuth application. - **Credential:** The proof of identity, typically an API token. Anyone who obtains it may impersonate the principal. - **Policy:** The permissions assigned to the identity, determining which resources and actions it can access. - Security failures occur when these elements are managed separately—for example, when a valid identity uses a stolen token or has unnecessarily broad permissions. ## Automated Detection and Revocation of Leaked Tokens - API tokens are commonly exposed by accidentally committing them to public repositories. - Cloudflare cites GitGuardian’s estimate that more than 28 million secrets were published to public GitHub repositories in the previous year, with AI-driven development increasing leak rates. - Cloudflare is partnering with credential-scanning providers to detect leaked tokens and revoke them before attackers can exploit them. - New Cloudflare token formats use a recognizable `cf` prefix and a checksum, allowing scanners to identify tokens confidently and verify whether they are authentic. - Existing tokens remain valid, but newly generated tokens use the scannable format. ## GitHub Secret Scanning Integration - GitHub scans public and private repositories for the new Cloudflare token formats on every commit. - For public repository leaks: - GitHub validates the token using its checksum. - GitHub sends Cloudflare a webhook. - Cloudflare automatically revokes the token. - The user receives an email prompting them to create a replacement. - For private repositories, GitHub notifies the customer so the leaked credential can be removed and replaced. ## Protection Through Cloudflare One Cloudflare One customers can use the Credentials and Secrets DLP profile to detect and block Cloudflare tokens across multiple data paths: - **Network traffic:** Cloudflare Gateway can block tokens in uploads, downloads, and outbound requests. - **Email:** Cloudflare Email Security and the DLP Assist add-in can scan Microsoft 365 messages before external delivery. - **Stored data:** Cloudflare CASB scans connected services such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. - **AI traffic:** Cloudflare AI Gateway can inspect prompts and model responses in real time, addressing credential exposure through AI systems. ## Broader Scanner Ecosystem - Cloudflare is working with open-source and commercial credential-scanning tools. - The goal is to protect customers regardless of which repository or secret-scanning products they use. - Automatic revocation is presented as a critical safeguard because credential exposure is treated as inevitable rather than exceptional. Organizations should use recognizable, verifiable tokens, enable repository and DLP scanning, and ensure leaked credentials are revoked automatically. These controls reduce the window in which an exposed token can be used and should be combined with narrowly scoped permissions for agents and applications.
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