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Hackers target exposed Vite dev servers to steal AWS, Azure secrets

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Why This Matters

This story highlights a significant security vulnerability in Vite development servers that is being actively exploited to steal sensitive cloud credentials. It underscores the importance for developers and organizations to promptly patch vulnerable software and strengthen their security measures. The attack demonstrates how exposed development environments can become targets for cybercriminals seeking valuable cloud secrets.

Key Takeaways

A mass-scanning campaign targeting internet-exposed Vite development servers is attempting to steal cloud credentials and configurations from AWS and Azure deployments.

The operation leverages an exploit for CVE-2026-39364, a high-severity vulnerability that allows bypassing file read/access controls in Vite versions 7.1.0 through 7.3.2, as well as the 8.x branch before 8.0.5.

The flaw was disclosed on April 7 and allows an unauthenticated attacker to manipulate query parameters in an HTTP GET request to bypass security restrictions and retrieve files in plaintext from locations that should normally be out of their reach.

Technology company F5 detected the attacks through its honeypot sensors, observing more than 800 attacks and approximately 32,000 raw events over a month.

“When specific parameters such as ?raw, ?import&raw, or ?import&url&inline are appended to a request, the server fails to enforce deny-list filtering and serves the target file with an HTTP 200 response,” F5 explains.

After breaching a system, the scanning focused on valuable secrets by using extensive wordlists for the following types of data:

.env, .env.production, .env.local, and other environment files

AWS credential files from several possible home directories

AWS configuration files and credential backups

Azure credentials and access tokens

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