Executive brief
Open ISES Tickets, an open-source ticketing system, was found to contain a hardcoded Google Maps API key within its publicly available source code. This exposure allows anyone who views the code to use the key for their own purposes, potentially resulting in unauthorized financial charges to the original owner's Google Cloud account. Organizations using affected versions should upgrade immediately to prevent further unauthorized use of their mapping services.
Technical details
A hardcoded credential vulnerability (CWE-798) exists in Open ISES Tickets versions prior to 3.44.2. The Google Maps API key is embedded directly in the 'tables.php' file and was committed to the project's public GitHub repository. Because the repository is public, any unauthenticated user can extract the key from the source code. This key can then be used to make authenticated requests to the Google Maps Platform, with the resulting usage costs billed to the original owner's Google Cloud project. The issue was resolved in version 3.44.2 by removing the hardcoded secret.
Affected products
- Open ISES Tickets < 3.44.2
Timeline
- 2026-04-01: patched: Fix committed to repository
- 2026-04-02: advisory: Release v3.44.2 published
- 2026-05-21: disclosed: CVE-2026-48245 published