High severityJavaHardcoded SecretsHIGH confidence
JWT Hardcoded Signing Key
A JWT signing/verification key is a hardcoded literal (CWE-321).
Standards mapping
- OWASP Top 10
- A02:2021 - Cryptographic Failures
- OWASP ASVS
- V6.4.1 (L2)
Vulnerable vs. safe
Flagged by this check
Algorithm alg = Algorithm.HMAC256("my-hardcoded-signing-secret");Passes - the safe pattern
Algorithm safe = Algorithm.HMAC256(System.getenv("JWT_SECRET"));Why it matters & how to fix it
A JWT signing/verification key is a hardcoded literal (CWE-321). Anyone who reads the artifact can forge or verify tokens, breaking authentication. Load the HMAC secret (or RSA/EC key) at runtime from an environment variable or secrets manager, keep it out of source control, and make it long and random.
References
Rule ID integsec-java-jwt-hardcoded-signing-key - engine: Opengrep - license: MIT - Copyright (c) IntegSec Inc.
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