18.1 million exposed API keys recovered in 2026. 64% of leaked secrets from 2022 still valid today. Average time from leak to attacker reconnaissance: 17 minutes. GHOST finds them first.
TruffleHog-powered enumeration across GitHub orgs, GitLab, Bitbucket, CI/CD pipelines, .env files, Kubernetes secrets, cloud metadata (IMDS), and MCP server configs. Every credential confirmed live.
Liveness validation via provider APIs. IAM last-used timestamps. Privilege classification from read through root. FEDERATION handoff flags. Rotation status determination.
Credential-centric NHI trust graph. Directed edges from token to every service it directly reaches. Single points of failure. Over-permissioned scope detection. GraphViz DOT export.
Single-hop credential validation. AWS caller identity + S3 buckets. GitHub PAT scope + repo list. GCP projects. Azure subscriptions. OpenAI/Anthropic model access. FEDERATION handoff ready flags.
Full resource enumeration per credential. S3 bucket inventory, Secrets Manager listing, SharePoint files, GitHub repo fleet. LLMjacking burn rate calculation. MITRE ATLAS + ATT&CK mapping. CVSS per finding.
GHO-{hex12} Ed25519-signed reports. WARLORD-compatible JSON output. Trust graph SVG. Per-finding CVSS scores. FEDERATION handoff recommendations. Key age and last-used metadata.
DISCOVER finds AWS access key in public GitHub repo → HARVEST-NHI validates via TruffleHog liveness → PIVOT confirms IAM permissions via single-hop → BLAST-RADIUS enumerates accessible S3 buckets. Target: <42 minutes end-to-end.
DISCOVER detects GitHub Actions workflow with over-permissioned GITHUB_TOKEN → HARVEST-NHI extracts and verifies → CHAIN maps trust to downstream repositories → PIVOT confirms token scope. Validated against TeamPCP campaign vector.
DISCOVER scans public repos for OpenAI/Anthropic API keys → HARVEST-NHI validates against provider APIs → BLAST-RADIUS quantifies quota burn rate and data exposure. LLMjacking at UNLEASHED gate only.
specter-ghost gate init --target <org/repo> --gate INJECT --operator RED specter-ghost discover --target <github.com/org> --github-token <token> specter-ghost harvest --target <org> --github-token <token> --session-id <id> specter-ghost chain --session-id <id> specter-ghost pivot --session-id <id> specter-ghost blast-radius --session-id <id> --unleashed specter-ghost engage --target <org> --github-token <token> [--unleashed] specter-ghost report --session-id <id>
GHOST is the first stage of the NHI → cloud pivot pipeline. GHOST discovers and validates credentials (single-hop). FEDERATION executes full RFC 8693 multi-hop chain traversal. Clean separation — no duplication.
A GHOST-discovered GitHub PAT with repo scope feeds FEDERATION CHAIN-OAUTH to pivot into AWS via OIDC. GHOST flags federation_ready=True on every credential that qualifies for handoff.
specter-ghost engage --target github.com/myorg --github-token $GITHUB_TOKEN # → GHO-XXXXXXXX report with federation_handoff_candidates list specter-federation chain --source-cred <cred_id>