litellm - 💡(How to fix) Fix HIGH: No startup validation prevents running with default master key sk-1234 in production

CWE-521: No Startup Validation That Master Key Has Been Changed

Severity: HIGH (CVSS 7.5)

Location

+ '' + docker-compose.yml + '' + and + '' + .env.example + '' + :

The .env.example shows LITELLM_MASTER_KEY=sk-1234 and the docker-compose does not enforce any change.

Description

LiteLLM starts successfully with sk-1234 as the master key without any warning, validation, or forced rotation. There is no startup check that rejects known default keys. Users who deploy from docker-compose without reading documentation will run in production with the well-known default key.

Impact

Production deployments with sk-1234 are trivially exploitable. A Shodan/Censys scan for LiteLLM instances on port 4000 combined with the default key would immediately yield full access to dozens or hundreds of production AI gateways.

Remediation

1. On startup, check if LITELLM_MASTER_KEY matches any known default ("sk-1234", "os.environ/LLM_MASTER_KEY")
2. If default is detected, refuse to start and print a clear error
3. Log a prominent warning at minimum
4. Add startup check for POSTGRES_PASSWORD=dbpassword9090