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 (68905)
Parsing invalid messages can panic. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability could allow attackers to read data from memory outside the intended buffer boundaries.
A debug feature in Sensormatic Electronics Illustra Pro Gen 4 Dome and PTZ cameras allows a user to compromise credentials after a long period of sustained attack. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Incorrect access control in Chamilo v1.11.x up to v1.11.18 allows a student to arbitrarily access and modify another student's personal notes. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Incorrect access control in the administrative functionalities of BES--6024PB-I50H1 VideoPlayTool v2.0.1.0 allow attackers to execute arbitrary administrative commands via a crafted payload sent to. 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.
IBM Sterling Partner Engagement Manager 6.1, 6.2, and 6.2.1 could allow a remote attacker to hijack the clicking action of the victim. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.6), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
IBM TXSeries for Multiplatforms 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, CICS TX Standard, 11.1, CICS TX Advanced 10.1, and 11.1 does not set the secure attribute on authorization tokens or session cookies. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required.
Gradio is an open-source Python library that is used to build machine learning and data science. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
IBM TXSeries for Multiplatforms 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, CICS TX Standard, 11.1, CICS TX Advanced 10.1, and 11.1 could transmit sensitive information in query parameters that could be intercepted using man in. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.7), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
The External Visitor Manager portal of HID’s SAFE versions 5.8.0 through 5.11.3 are vulnerable to manipulation within web fields in the application programmable interface (API). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The local Vuforia web application does not support HTTPS, and federated credentials are passed via basic authentication. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
IBM TXSeries for Multiplatforms 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, CICS TX Standard, 11.1, CICS TX Advanced 10.1, and 11.1 could allow a privileged user to obtain highly sensitive information by enabling debug mode. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the Shannon RCS component in Samsung Exynos Modem 5123 and 5300. 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 the Shannon RCS component in Samsung Exynos Modem 5123 and 5300. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
If an attacker can trick an authenticated user into loading a maliciously crafted .zip file onto Advantech WebAccess version 8.4.5, a web shell could be used to give the attacker full control of the. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
CPython v3.12.0 alpha 7 was discovered to contain a heap use-after-free via the function ascii_decode at /Objects/unicodeobject.c. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Use After Free vulnerability could allow attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application.
Jeecg P3 Biz Chat 1.0.5 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files through specific parameters. 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.
Marval MSM through 14.19.0.12476 uses a static encryption key for secrets. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 12.0 before 15.10.8, all versions starting from 15.11 before 15.11.7, all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.0.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 15.7 before 15.10.8, all versions starting from 15.11 before 15.11.7, all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.0.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 15.4 before 15.10.8, all versions starting from 15.11 before 15.11.7, all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.0.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Kubernetes secrets-store-csi-driver in versions before 1.3.3 discloses service account tokens in logs. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Aria Operations for Networks contains an information disclosure vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Command Injection vulnerability could allow attackers to inject arbitrary commands into system command execution.
The Web Frontend of KNIME Business Hub before 1.4.0 allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to access internals about the application such as versions, host names, or IP addresses. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
TP-Link TL-WR940N V2/V4, TL-WR841N V8/V10, and TL-WR740N V1/V2 was discovered to contain a buffer overflow via the component /userRpm/FixMapCfgRpm. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
TP-Link TL-WR940N V2/V4, TL-WR841N V8/V10, and TL-WR740N V1/V2 was discovered to contain a buffer overflow via the component /userRpm/WlanMacFilterRpm. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Due to failure in validating the length provided by an attacker-crafted IEEE-C37.118 packet, Wireshark version 4.0.5 and prior, by default, is susceptible to a heap-based buffer overflow, and. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Imperial CMS v7.5 was discovered to contain an arbitrary file deletion vulnerability via the DelspReFile function in /sp/ListSp.php. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The Doneren met Mollie plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Data Exposure in versions up to, and including, 2.8.5 via the dmm_export_donations() function which is called via the. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
The ListingPro - WordPress Directory & Listing Theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Data Exposure in versions before 2.6.1 via the ~/listingpro-plugin/functions.php file. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and EPSS exploitation probability 20.7%.
An issue in D-Link DIR-842V2 v1.0.3 allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands via importing a crafted file. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and EPSS exploitation probability 36.0%.
In Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) server 2.x before 2.37.1, the authenticate function in auth_server.go does not properly formalize and sanitize URL paths to reject path traversal attempts. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A segmentation fault flaw was found in the Advancecomp package. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability was found in the pthread_create() function in libcap. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 12.0 before 15.10.5, all versions starting from 15.11 before 15.11.1. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
notation is a CLI tool to sign and verify OCI artifacts and container images. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The AES Key-IV pair used by the TP-Link TAPO C200 camera V3 (EU) on firmware version 1.1.22 Build 220725 is reused across all cameras. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Horner Automation Cscape lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing project files (e.g., HMI). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The affected application lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing font files (e.g., FNT). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Landscape's server-status page exposed sensitive system information. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Landscape cryptographic keys were insecurely generated with a weak pseudo-random generator. 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.
The affected application lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing project files (e.g.., CSP). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The affected application lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing project files (e.g., CSP). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The affected application lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing project files (e.g., CSP). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In swpm, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a race condition. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.1). No vendor patch available.
In ril, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In ril, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Bluetooth, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Bluetooth, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In wlan, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Information Disclosure in WLAN HOST while sending DPP action frame to peer with an invalid source address. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Memoru corruption in Audio when ADSP sends input during record use case. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
In email service, there is a missing permission check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In email service, there is a missing permission check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In telephony service, there is a missing permission check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In dialer service, there is a missing permission check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 114.0.5735.110 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page. 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.
On the affected platforms running EOS, a malformed DHCP packet might cause the DHCP relay agent to restart. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
hoppscotch is an open source API development ecosystem. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Kanboard is open source project management software that focuses on the Kanban methodology. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
emoncms v11 and later was discovered to contain an information disclosure vulnerability which allows attackers to obtain the web directory path and other information leaked by the server via a. 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.
Anonymous user may get the list of existing users managed by the application, that could ease further attacks (see CVE-2023-3065 and 3066)3.20. 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.
IdentityIQ 8.3 and all 8.3 patch levels prior to 8.3p3, IdentityIQ 8.2 and all 8.2 patch levels prior to 8.2p6, IdentityIQ 8.1 and all 8.1 patch levels prior to 8.1p7, IdentityIQ 8.0 and all 8.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in Qt before 5.15.15, 6.x before 6.2.9, and 6.3.x through 6.5.x before 6.5.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
IBM Maximo Asset Management 7.6.1.2, 7.6.1.3 and IBM Maximo Application Suite 8.8.0 stores sensitive information in URL parameters. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
IBM Maximo Application Suite - Manage Component 8.8.0 and 8.9.0 transmits sensitive information in cleartext that could be intercepted by an attacker using man in the middle techniques. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
IBM Security Guardium 11.5 could allow a user to take over another user's session due to insufficient session expiration. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED ** A vulnerability was found in Captura up to 8.0.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required.
An excessively large PDF page size (found in fuzz testing, unlikely in normal PDF files) can result in a divide-by-zero in Xpdf's text extraction code. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Consul and Consul Enterprise allowed any user with service:write permissions to use Envoy extensions configured via service-defaults to patch remote proxy instances that target the configured. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Unverified Password Change in GitHub repository tsolucio/corebos prior to 8. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
When reading a file, an uninitialized value could have been used as read limit. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An attacker could have positioned a `datalist` element to obscure the address bar. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A type checking bug would have led to invalid code being compiled. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An out-of-bound read could have led to a crash in the RLBox Expat driver. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In multiple cases browser prompts could have been obscured by popups controlled by content. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Under certain circumstances, a call to the <code>bind</code> function may have resulted in the incorrect realm. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A wrong lowering instruction in the ARM64 Ion compiler resulted in a wrong optimization result. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
When a secure cookie existed in the Firefox cookie jar an insecure cookie for the same domain could have been created, when it should have silently failed. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Firefox did not properly handle downloads of files ending in <code>.desktop</code>, which can be interpreted to run attacker-controlled commands. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Under specific circumstances a WebExtension may have received a <code>jar:file:///</code> URI instead of a <code>moz-extension:///</code> URI during a load request. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A website could have obscured the fullscreen notification by using a combination of <code>window.open</code>, fullscreen requests, <code>window.name</code> assignments, and <code>setInterval</code>. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Dragging a URL from a cross-origin iframe that was removed during the drag could have led to user confusion and website spoofing attacks. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
If temporary "one-time" permissions, such as the ability to use the Camera, were granted to a document loaded using a file: URL, that permission persisted in that tab for all other documents loaded. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
When following a redirect to a publicly accessible web extension file, the URL may have been translated to the actual local path, leaking potentially sensitive information. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.