Observed incident

Zeabur links an exploited NextChat service to theft of stored API keys

Reported

Published here

What happened

An intruder broke into a customer’s NextChat 2.16.1 deployment, escalated through the shared cluster using cached credentials, and reached Zeabur’s production database. Exposed environment variables included third-party AI-service keys.

Parties and reporting

AI tools and systems: NextChat 2.16.1 MCP, Zeabur AI Hub, Third-party AI API keys, Zeabur Legacy API Keys

Outcome

Zeabur disabled legacy keys and permanently closed AI Hub in September. It found that the intruder created AI Hub keys without producing usage or charges on those keys. Users separately reported external AI-key abuse.

Operating lesson

Keep tenant workloads away from routing caches and management credentials. Revoke affected keys at each issuer, audit model usage and avoid storing privileged cloud keys in shared environments.

Evidence and limits

August 27 was the intrusion and August 28 the public notice. Zeabur says service logs point to CVE-2026-7644 in NextChat. It distinguishes unauthorized use of external provider keys from the absence of use of the newly created AI Hub keys. The October breach has a separate timeline.

Sources