What is credential harvesting? Why your dev laptop is the target
What is credential harvesting, and why are developer laptops the best place to look for secrets? Attackers collect passwords, API keys, tokens and session cookies at scale, then use them or sell them. And with infostealer malware, they don't need to phish you at all.
Developers pile up credentials through everyday work: cloud keys in ~/.aws, tokens in.npmrc and shell history, SSH keys, and secrets that AI coding tools leave in logs. GitGuardian research found that 40% of high and critical secrets on developer laptops sit in AI tool folders and log files. Worm campaigns like Shai-Hulud steal GitHub tokens and cloud keys from developer machines and use them to compromise more packages, over 500 npm packages so far.
How to leave less to collect:
- Replace static keys with short-lived, scoped credentials
- Scan the places on your laptop where secrets pile up, so you find them before someone else does
Read the full guide: Credential Harvesting Explained: How Attackers Collect Secrets From Developer Machines
https://blog.gitguardian.com/credential-harvesting
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