Information Disclosure
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
How It Works
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security. This happens through multiple channels: verbose error messages that display stack traces revealing internal paths and frameworks, improperly secured debug endpoints left active in production, and misconfigured servers that expose directory listings or version control artifacts like .git folders. APIs often leak excessive data in responses—returning full user objects when only a name is needed, or revealing system internals through metadata fields.
Attackers exploit these exposures systematically. They probe for common sensitive files (.env, config.php, backup archives), trigger error conditions to extract framework details, and analyze response timing or content differences to enumerate valid usernames or resources. Even subtle variations—like "invalid password" versus "user not found"—enable account enumeration. Exposed configuration files frequently contain database credentials, API keys, or internal service URLs that unlock further attack vectors.
The attack flow typically starts with passive reconnaissance: examining HTTP headers, JavaScript bundles, and public endpoints for version information and architecture clues. Active probing follows—testing predictable paths, manipulating parameters to trigger exceptions, and comparing responses across similar requests to identify information leakage patterns.
Impact
- Credential compromise: Exposed configuration files, hardcoded secrets in source code, or API keys enable direct authentication bypass
- Attack surface mapping: Stack traces, framework versions, and internal paths help attackers craft targeted exploits for known vulnerabilities
- Data breach: Direct exposure of user data, payment information, or proprietary business logic through oversharing APIs or accessible backups
- Privilege escalation pathway: Internal URLs, service discovery information, and architecture details facilitate lateral movement and SSRF attacks
- Compliance violations: GDPR, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA penalties for exposing regulated data through preventable disclosures
Real-World Examples
A major Git repository exposure affected thousands of websites when .git folders remained accessible on production servers, allowing attackers to reconstruct entire source code histories including deleted commits containing credentials. Tools like GitDumper automated mass exploitation of this misconfiguration.
Cloud storage misconfigurations have repeatedly exposed sensitive data when companies left S3 buckets or Azure Blob containers publicly readable. One incident exposed 150 million voter records because verbose API error messages revealed the storage URL structure, and no authentication was required.
Framework debug modes left enabled in production have caused numerous breaches. Django's DEBUG=True setting exposed complete stack traces with database queries and environment variables, while Laravel's debug pages revealed encryption keys through the APP_KEY variable in environment dumps.
Mitigation
- Generic error pages: Return uniform error messages to users; log detailed exceptions server-side only
- Disable debug modes: Enforce production configurations that suppress stack traces, verbose logging, and debug endpoints through deployment automation
- Access control audits: Restrict or remove development artifacts (
.git, backup files,phpinfo()) and internal endpoints before deployment - Response minimization: API responses should return only necessary fields; implement allowlists rather than blocklists for data exposure
- Security headers: Deploy
X-Content-Type-Options, remove server version banners, and disable directory indexing - Timing consistency: Ensure authentication and validation responses take uniform time regardless of input validity
Recent CVEs (68895)
Secret token configuration is never applied when using ECK <2.8 with APM Server >=8.0. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Elasticsearch generally filters out sensitive information and credentials before logging to the audit log. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability was found in GeoServer GeoWebCache up to 1.15.1. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
browserify-sign is a package to duplicate the functionality of node's crypto public key functions, much of this is based on Fedor Indutny's work on indutny/tls.js. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Missing Encryption of Security Keys vulnerability in Silicon Labs Ember ZNet SDK on 32 bit, ARM (SecureVault High modules) allows potential modification or extraction of network credentials stored in. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.1), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Missing Encryption of Security Keys vulnerability in Silicon Labs OpenThread SDK on 32 bit, ARM (SecureVault High modules) allows potential modification or extraction of network credentials stored in. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
It was discovered that when acting as TLS clients, Beats, Elastic Agent, APM Server, and Fleet Server did not verify whether the server certificate is valid for the target IP address; however,. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered by Elastic whereby sensitive information is recorded in Kibana logs in the event of an error. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in Fleet Server >= v8.10.0 and < v8.10.3 where Agent enrolment tokens are being inserted into the Fleet Server’s log file in plain text. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
If Elastic Endpoint (v7.9.0 - v8.10.3) is configured to use a non-default option in which the logging level is explicitly set to debug, and when Elastic Agent is simultaneously configured to collect. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Incorrect access control in writercms v1.1.0 allows attackers to directly obtain backend account passwords via unspecified vectors. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
era-compiler-vyper is the EraVM Vyper compiler for zkSync Era, a layer 2 rollup that uses zero-knowledge proofs to scale Ethereum. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
An issue in tire-sales Line v.13.6.1 allows a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information via crafted GET request. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue in CHRISTINA JAPAN Line v.13.6.1 allows a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information via crafted GET request. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue in Marbre Lapin Line v.13.6.1 allows a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information via crafted GET request. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue in Anglaise Company Anglaise.Company v.13.6.1 allows a remote attacker to obtain sensitive information via crafted GET request. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
crypto-js is a JavaScript library of crypto standards. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Twisted is an event-based framework for internet applications. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
CryptoES is a cryptography algorithms library compatible with ES6 and TypeScript. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
A logic issue was addressed with improved state management. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by removing the vulnerable code. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The issue was addressed with improved permissions logic. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A logic issue was addressed with improved checks. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by removing the vulnerable code. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed with improved handling of symlinks. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The issue was addressed with improved checks. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An inconsistent user interface issue was addressed with improved state management. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by restricting options offered on a locked device. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by restricting options offered on a locked device. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by restricting options offered on a locked device. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed by removing the vulnerable code. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The issue was addressed with improved UI handling. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A privacy issue was addressed with improved private data redaction for log entries. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This issue was addressed with improved redaction of sensitive information. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An attacker could have created a malicious link using bidirectional characters to spoof the location in the address bar when visited. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A malicious web site can enter fullscreen mode while simultaneously triggering a WebAuthn prompt. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The executable file warning was not presented when downloading .msix, .msixbundle, .appx, and .appxbundle files, which can run commands on a user's computer. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A website could have obscured the full screen notification by using the file open dialog. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A malicious installed WebExtension could open arbitrary URLs, which under the right circumstance could be leveraged to collect sensitive user data. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An attacker with temporary script access to a site could have set a cookie containing invalid characters using `document.cookie` that could have led to unknown errors. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Using iterative requests an attacker was able to learn the size of an opaque response, as well as the contents of a server-supplied Vary header. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Issue summary: A bug has been identified in the processing of key and initialisation vector (IV) lengths. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
An out-of-bounds read flaw was found on grub2's NTFS filesystem driver. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Jenkins Zanata Plugin 0.6 and earlier uses a non-constant time comparison function when checking whether the provided and expected webhook token hashes are equal, potentially allowing attackers to. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins MSTeams Webhook Trigger Plugin 0.1.1 and earlier uses a non-constant time comparison function when checking whether the provided and expected webhook token are equal, potentially allowing. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins Gogs Plugin 1.0.15 and earlier uses a non-constant time comparison function when checking whether the provided and expected webhook token are equal, potentially allowing attackers to use. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins Multibranch Scan Webhook Trigger Plugin 1.0.9 and earlier uses a non-constant time comparison function when checking whether the provided and expected webhook token are equal, potentially. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins CloudBees CD Plugin 1.1.32 and earlier follows symbolic links to locations outside of the directory from which artifacts are published during the 'CloudBees CD - Publish Artifact' post-build. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins CloudBees CD Plugin 1.1.32 and earlier follows symbolic links to locations outside of the expected directory during the cleanup process of the 'CloudBees CD - Publish Artifact' post-build. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins lambdatest-automation Plugin 1.20.10 and earlier logs LAMBDATEST Credentials access token at the INFO level, potentially resulting in its exposure. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Jenkins Warnings Plugin 10.5.0 and earlier does not set the appropriate context for credentials lookup, allowing attackers with Item/Configure permission to access and capture credentials they are. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In buc Traceroute 2.0.12 through 2.1.2 before 2.1.3, the wrapper scripts do not properly parse command lines. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 23.0.0.9 through 23.0.0.10 could provide weaker than expected security due to improper resource expiration handling. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
rs-stellar-strkey is a Rust lib for encode/decode of Stellar Strkeys. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Nautobot is a Network Automation Platform built as a web application atop the Django Python framework with a PostgreSQL or MySQL database. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Fides is an open-source privacy engineering platform for managing the fulfillment of data privacy requests in a runtime environment, and the enforcement of privacy regulations in code. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. This Exposure of Sensitive Information vulnerability could allow attackers to access sensitive data that should not be disclosed.
The Android Client application, when enrolled with the define method 1 (the user manually inserts the server ip address), use HTTP protocol to retrieve sensitive information (ip address and. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
EisBaer Scada - CWE-749: Exposed Dangerous Method or Function. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
EisBaer Scada - CWE-256: Plaintext Storage of a Password. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
EisBaer Scada - CWE-321: Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
EisBaer Scada - CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
EisBaer Scada - CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The vulnerability allows an unprivileged(untrusted) third-party application to interact with a content-provider unsafely exposed by the Android Agent application, potentially modifying sensitive. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The leakage of the client secret in REGINA SWEETS&BAKERY Line 13.6.1 allows attackers to obtain the channel access token and send crafted broadcast messages. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
The leakage of the client secret in Matsuya Line 13.6.1 allows attackers to obtain the channel access token and send crafted broadcast messages. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
The leakage of the client secret in Fukunaga_memberscard Line 13.6.1 allows attackers to obtain the channel access token and send crafted broadcast messages. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
The leakage of the client secret in Uomasa_Saiji_news Line 13.6.1 allows attackers to obtain the channel access token and send crafted broadcast messages. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
PingFederate using the PingOne MFA adapter allows a new MFA device to be paired without requiring second factor authentication from an existing registered device. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform offering runtime services for applications built on top of it. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
When an AWS DynamoDB table is used for user attribute storage, it is possible to retrieve the attributes of another user using a maliciously crafted request. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
vCenter Server contains a partial information disclosure vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
jose4j before v0.9.3 allows attackers to set a low iteration count of 1000 or less. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
light-oauth2 before version 2.1.27 obtains the public key without any verification. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
carRental 1.0 is vulnerable to Incorrect Access Control (Arbitrary File Read on the Back-end System). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
UVDesk Community Skeleton v1.1.1 allows unauthenticated attackers to perform brute force attacks on the login page to gain access to the application. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
In International Color Consortium DemoIccMAX 79ecb74, there is an out-of-bounds read in the CIccPRMG::GetChroma function in IccProfLib/IccPrmg.cpp in libSampleICC.a. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
IBM Security Verify Governance 10.0 does not encrypt sensitive or critical information before storage or transmission. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in Apache Airflow.4.0 to 2.7.0. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
WebAssembly wabt 1.0.33 has an Out-of-Bound Memory Read in in DataSegment::IsValidRange(), which lead to segmentation fault. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The Vue.js Devtools extension was found to leak screenshot data back to a malicious web page via the standard `postMessage()` API. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Dell Unity 5.3 contain(s) an Arbitrary File Creation vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature vulnerability in Zscaler Client Connector on Linux allows replacing binaries.4.0.105. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.