Evidence hygiene

Use this before report-writing, writeup-template, external submission, or sharing PoC artifacts. Keep evidence useful enough for reproduction while removing secrets, PII, and unrelated data.

Workflow

1. Inventory artifacts: screenshots, HAR, curl commands, HTTP requests/responses, terminal output, logs, payloads, files, cloud/API responses, and writeup snippets.
2. Identify sensitive values:
   • Cookies: Cookie, Set-Cookie, session IDs, CSRF tokens.
   • Auth: Authorization, bearer tokens, JWTs, API keys, OAuth codes, refresh tokens.
   • PII/customer data: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, IDs, invoices.
   • Secrets: passwords, private keys, seed phrases, database URLs, webhooks.
   • Internal data: private hostnames, non-public IPs, employee names, tenant IDs.
3. Replace values with stable placeholders that preserve meaning:
   • [REDACTED_COOKIE], [REDACTED_TOKEN], [REDACTED_EMAIL], [REDACTED_CUSTOMER_ID], [REDACTED_INTERNAL_HOST].
   • Keep the first and last 2-4 characters only when comparison matters: tok_abcd...[REDACTED]...7890.
4. Minimize proof:
   • Show the smallest request/response pair that proves impact.
   • Trim long output; include only relevant lines.
   • Do not paste credentials or full data dumps. Prove existence and access path.
5. Preserve reproducibility:
   • Keep HTTP method, endpoint, relevant parameters, status code, role/account type, timestamps, and exact command flags.
   • Mark every redaction clearly; do not silently alter semantics.
6. Separate raw from shareable:
   • Do not commit raw evidence with secrets.
   • Keep raw evidence local/private only when needed for responsible disclosure.
   • Use sanitized evidence in writeups/ and external reports.

Artifact-specific checks

• Screenshots: crop unrelated tabs, bookmarks, email, user avatars, tenant names, notification popups, and account identifiers. Blur or redact before sharing.
• HAR/curl: remove Cookie, Authorization, X-API-Key, CSRF, JWT, and tracking headers unless a redacted placeholder is needed to explain auth context.
• Logs/terminal: remove shell history noise, tokens in environment variables, usernames/hostnames that are not necessary, and unrelated command output.
• API/cloud output: reduce arrays to one or two representative records and redact account IDs, tenant IDs, ARNs/project IDs, object keys, and customer fields.
• Exploit output: include enough to prove control or access; avoid destructive output, mass enumeration, or copied secrets.

Report-ready checklist

• Authorization and exact scope are stated.
• Evidence shows affected asset, actor/role, request, response, and impact.
• All secrets/PII are redacted with explicit placeholders.
• Redactions do not hide the root cause or make reproduction impossible.
• The report says what was accessed, not the sensitive value itself.
• Cleanup and data-handling notes are included when relevant.