Security-related question about a possible exposed credential

[Emma-NYL]

Hello,

My name is Emma, I am conducting an academic study on possible credential exposure in public GitHub repositories.

While analyzing this repository, I found a string that may represent a credential. I'm including the code snippet below containing possible leakage. To avoid exposing sensitive information publicly, I marked the sensitive information.

Could you please help clarify whether the detected string is:

1. a real credential, or
2. a placeholder / example value?

Thank you for your time.

---

Code snippet (sensitive values masked):

    //--------------------------------------------------------------
    void API::stop(){
        stopThread();
    }
    
    //--------------------------------------------------------------
    bool API::authenticate( string _api_key, string _api_secret, Permissions perms  ){
        api_key = _api_key;
        api_secret = _api_secret;

        // try to load from xml
        ofxXmlSettings xml;
        bool bLoaded = xml.loadFile("flickr.xml");

Thank you in advance for your time - I really appreciate it!

Sincerely,
Emma