The AI key heist

Bots went hunting for AI keys 1,862 times.

Most wanted: MCP & agent configs keys. They checked 109 hiding spots, from /img/asset/YXNzZXRzL2dlbWluaV9nZW5lcmF0ZWRfaW1hZ2VfaDA2MWxnaDA2MWxnaDA2MS1jb3B5LndlYnA/gemini_generated_image_h061lgh061lgh061-copy.webp to /.cursor/mcp.json.

Edition of Sunday, Nov 1, 2026 (UTC) · see the latest · updated every 24 hours

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1,862

AI key hunts

▲ +21% vs the day before

213

hunters

▼ -36% vs the day before

109

hiding spots

▼ -44% vs the day before

0.5%

of all probes

Whose keys they want requests

MCP & agent configs 581

Anthropic 495

Google Gemini 369

OpenAI 239

xAI 155

↳ Keep your keys out of your web root.

Every edition: AI key hunts

Oct 13 Nov 11

How we measure

Requests for paths that point at an AI provider's keys or an AI agent's settings: /.env.openai, /anthropic.json, /.claude/settings.json, /mcp.json, /.cursor/mcp.json and the like. Each path is credited to the first provider whose name it contains. Counted across every site behind the NiceTryBot edge during the UTC day.

Where they looked

The paths scanners tried, most-requested first.

Path	Provider	Requests	Scanners
/img/asset/YXNzZXRzL2dlbWluaV9nZW5lcmF0ZWRfaW1hZ2VfaDA2MWxnaDA2MWxnaDA2MS1jb3B5LndlYnA/gemini_generated_image_h061lgh061lgh061-copy.webp	Google Gemini	167	133
/.cursor/mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	131	26
/.claude/settings.json	Anthropic	131	26
/.claude/settings.local.json	Anthropic	126	26
/sign/a20a2ddd-49fd-4df5-864c-a0c388e62db5/a31e8ce5-a4f6-4024-979c-be57d02a973a/waiting-room/q4iCERmVVZE1sXTXLQSBXaIO7kqfzG3rjd7wOntrBWTSn5AO/heartbeat	xAI	122	3
/.env.openai	OpenAI	100	11
/.env.anthropic	Anthropic	85	10
/.mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	41	17
/mcp	MCP & agent configs	39	16
/gemini.env	Google Gemini	38	12
/.vscode/mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	38	15
/.amazonq/mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	31	12
/claude_desktop_config.json	Anthropic	29	10
/.gemini/settings.json	Google Gemini	29	10
/mcp_config.json	MCP & agent configs	29	10
/.junie/mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	28	10
/cline_mcp_settings.json	MCP & agent configs	28	10
/.well-known/mcp	MCP & agent configs	27	9
/mcp.json	MCP & agent configs	27	13
/vertex-ai-credentials.json	Google Gemini	26	10
/mcp.yml	MCP & agent configs	24	10
/mcp.yaml	MCP & agent configs	24	10
/config/gemini.json	Google Gemini	23	11
/openai.json	OpenAI	23	11
/.claude.json	Anthropic	23	10

Past editions

Nov 11 Nov 10 Nov 9 Nov 8 Nov 7 Nov 6 Nov 5 Nov 4 Nov 3 Nov 2 Nov 1 Oct 31 Oct 30 Oct 29 Oct 28 Oct 27 Oct 26 Oct 25 Oct 24 Oct 23 Oct 22 Oct 21 Oct 20 Oct 19 Oct 18 Oct 17 Oct 16 Oct 15 Oct 14 Oct 13 Oct 12 Oct 11 Oct 10 Oct 9 Oct 8 Oct 7

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