Docs

CRED-002: Hardcoded Api Key

API key or token stored as plaintext workflow variable

criticalcredentialsuipath • power_automate • aa • blue_prism

What it detects

API key or token stored as plaintext workflow variable Flowcerta currently surfaces this finding from the active validation pipeline for supported patterns.

Why it matters

Credentials and secret-handling findings matter because workflow files often travel through source control, export bundles, backups, and admin access paths. A secret in source quickly becomes a secret with a large blast radius.

Example violation

An API key or bearer token is assigned as a plaintext literal in workflow logic.

Fix guidance

UiPath

  • Load secrets at runtime from an orchestrator asset, secret manager, or environment credential store.
  • Use platform-native assets, credentials, bounded retries, and Log Message checkpoints instead of hardcoded literals or silent failure paths.
  • Revalidate the workflow after the change and confirm the finding no longer appears.

Power Automate

  • Load secrets at runtime from an orchestrator asset, secret manager, or environment credential store.
  • Prefer environment-aware connectors, connection references, structured scopes, and explicit run-history logging.
  • Revalidate the workflow after the change and confirm the finding no longer appears.

Automation Anywhere

  • Load secrets at runtime from an orchestrator asset, secret manager, or environment credential store.
  • Move sensitive values into credential vaults or externalized configuration and keep task-bot calls explicit and reviewable.
  • Revalidate the workflow after the change and confirm the finding no longer appears.

Blue Prism

  • Load secrets at runtime from an orchestrator asset, secret manager, or environment credential store.
  • Use release metadata, data items, and process/page references intentionally so reviewers can trace ownership and fix paths quickly.
  • Revalidate the workflow after the change and confirm the finding no longer appears.

Verification steps

  1. Run validation again and confirm the rule no longer appears in the finding list.
  2. Review the changed workflow artifact directly to verify the risky pattern is gone.
  3. Capture the new validation result as evidence for the relevant owner or compliance review.

Compliance references

  • SOC2 CC6.1 — Logical and Physical Access Controls

Related rules

CRED-001CRED-001

This page is generated from canonical rule seed data plus the current runtime validation mapping.

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