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 (69724)
The easy-wp-smtp plugin before 1.4.4 for WordPress allows Administrator account takeover, as exploited in the wild in December 2020. 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.
Western Digital Dashboard before 3.2.2.9 allows DLL Hijacking that leads to compromise of the SYSTEM account. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Frappe Framework 12 and 13 does not properly validate the HTTP method for the frappe.client API. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
An issue was discovered in the DNS implementation in Ethernut in Nut/OS 5.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the DNS implementation in Ethernut in Nut/OS 5.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in the DNS implementation in Ethernut in Nut/OS 5.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in FNET through 4.6.4. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in picoTCP and picoTCP-NG through 1.7.0. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in picoTCP and picoTCP-NG through 1.7.0. 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 picoTCP and picoTCP-NG through 1.7.0. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
The code that processes DNS responses in uIP through 1.0, as used in Contiki and Contiki-NG, does not check whether the number of responses specified in the DNS packet header corresponds to the. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in FNET through 4.6.4. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in FNET through 4.6.4. 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 FNET through 4.6.4. 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 FNET through 4.6.4. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in picoTCP 1.7.0. 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 picoTCP 1.7.0. 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 picoTCP 1.7.0. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An issue was discovered in Contiki through 3.0. 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.
Brocade Fabric OS versions before v9.0.0 and after version v8.1.0, configured in Virtual Fabric mode contain a weakness in the ldap implementation that could allow a remote ldap user to login in the. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
On BIG-IP versions 14.0.0-14.0.1 and 13.1.0-13.1.3.4, certain traffic pattern sent to a virtual server configured with an FTP profile can cause the FTP channel to break. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
lib/utils.js in mquery before 3.2.3 allows a pollution attack because a special property (e.g., __proto__) can be copied during a merge or clone operation. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
In certain configurations on version 13.1.3.4, when a BIG-IP AFM HTTP security profile is applied to a virtual server and the BIG-IP system receives a request with specific characteristics, the. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Crash in USB HID protocol dissector and possibly other dissectors in Wireshark 3.4.0 and 3.2.0 to 3.2.8 allows denial of service via packet injection or crafted capture file. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
This affects the package i18n before 2.1.15. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber for Windows, Jabber for MacOS, and Jabber for mobile platforms could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary programs on the underlying operating system (OS). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber for Windows, Jabber for MacOS, and Jabber for mobile platforms could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary programs on the underlying operating system (OS). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber for Windows, Jabber for MacOS, and Jabber for mobile platforms could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary programs on the underlying operating system (OS). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber for Windows, Jabber for MacOS, and Jabber for mobile platforms could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary programs on the underlying operating system (OS). Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Go Ethereum, or "Geth", is the official Golang implementation of the Ethereum protocol. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable. No vendor patch available.
In two-factor authentication, the system also sending 2fa secret key in response, which enables an intruder to breach the 2fa security. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Askey AP5100W devices through AP5100W_Dual_SIG_1.01.097 are affected by WPS PIN offline brute-force cracking. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
Versions of the Official registry Docker images through 2.7.0 contain a blank password for the root user. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
This affects all versions of package mout. 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.
This affects the package ini before 1.3.6. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
Information disclosure via GraphQL in GitLab CE/EE 13.1 and later exposes private group and project membership. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Information disclosure in Advanced Search component of GitLab EE starting from 8.4 results in exposure of search terms via Rails logs. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Information about the starred projects for private user profiles was exposed via the GraphQL API starting from 12.2 via the REST API. 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 13.4 before 13.6.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Removed group members were able to use the To-Do functionality to retrieve updated information on confidential epics starting in GitLab EE 13.2 before 13.6.2. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A limited information disclosure vulnerability exists in Gitlab CE/EE from >= 12.2 to <13.4.7, >=13.5 to <13.5.5, and >=13.6 to <13.6.2 that allows an attacker to view limited information in user's. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the Ethernet/IP server functionality of the EIP Stack Group OpENer 2.3 and development commit 8c73bf3. 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.
Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information vulnerability in Micro Focus Filr product. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Incorrect permissions are set by default for an API entry-point of a specific service, allowing a non-authenticated user to trigger a function that could reboot the CompactRIO (Driver versions prior. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions vulnerability exists in the Web Server on Modicon M340, Legacy Offers Modicon Quantum and Modicon Premium and associated Communication. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-425: Direct Request ('Forced Browsing') vulnerability exists in the Web Server on Modicon M340, Legacy Offers Modicon Quantum and Modicon Premium and associated Communication Modules (see. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-754:Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions vulnerability exists in Modicon M340 CPUs (BMXP34* versions prior to V3.30) Modicon M340 Communication Ethernet modules (BMXNOE0100 (H). Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-522: Insufficiently Protected Credentials vulnerability exists in EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert 2019 (Original release and Monthly Updates to September 2020, from 81.7268.1 to 81.7578.1) and. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-311: Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data vulnerability exists in Easergy T300 (firmware 2.7 and older), that would allow an attacker to read network traffic over HTTP protocol. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-311: Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data vulnerability exists in Easergy T300 (firmware 2.7 and older), that would allow an attacker to read network traffic over HTTP protocol. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A CWE-760: Use of a One-Way Hash with a Predictable Salt vulnerability exists in Modicon M221 (all references, all versions), that could allow an attacker to pre-compute the hash value using. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A temp directory creation vulnerability exists in all versions of Guava, allowing an attacker with access to the machine to potentially access data in a temporary directory created by the Guava API. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2, and VIOS 3.1 could allow a local user to exploit a vulnerability in the ksu user command to gain root privileges. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
In TensorFlow release candidate versions 2.4.0rc*, the general implementation for matching filesystem paths to globbing pattern is vulnerable to an access out of bounds of the array holding the. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
In affected versions of TensorFlow the tf.raw_ops.DataFormatVecPermute API does not validate the src_format and dst_format attributes. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
In affected versions of TensorFlow under certain cases, loading a saved model can result in accessing uninitialized memory while building the computation graph. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. Public exploit code available.
In Lan ATMService M3 ATM Monitoring System 6.1.0, a remote attacker able to use a default cookie value, such as PHPSESSID=LANIT-IMANAGER, can achieve control over the system because of Insufficient. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In Lan ATMService M3 ATM Monitoring System 6.1.0, due to a directory-listing vulnerability, a remote attacker can view log files, located in /websocket/logs/, that contain a user's cookie values and. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
An information disclosure flaw allows a malicious, authenticated, privileged web UI user to obtain a password for a remote SCP backup server that they might not otherwise be authorized to access. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Various memory and file descriptor leaks were found in apt-python files python/arfile.cc, python/tag.cc, python/tarfile.cc, aka GHSL-2020-170. Rated low severity (CVSS 2.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm vulnerability in McAfee Database Security Server and Sensor prior to 4.8.0 in the form of a SHA1 signed certificate that would allow an attacker on. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft Edge for Android Spoofing Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Azure DevOps Server and Team Foundation Services Spoofing Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.4), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Microsoft Exchange Server Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Windows SMB Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Windows Error Reporting Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
DirectX Graphics Kernel Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Azure DevOps Server Spoofing Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.4), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Microsoft Dynamics Business Central/NAV Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Microsoft Excel Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Microsoft SharePoint Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable.
Microsoft Outlook Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity.
Microsoft SharePoint Server Spoofing Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.0), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity.
Windows GDI+ Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Digital Media Receiver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Error Reporting Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Network Connections Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Microsoft SharePoint Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
Windows Backup Engine Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.
A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) in GNU Binutils 2.35 due to an invalid read in process_symbol_table, as demonstrated in readeif. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
A double free vulnerability exists in the Binary File Descriptor (BFD) (aka libbrd) in GNU Binutils 2.35 in the process_symbol_table, as demonstrated in readelf, via a crafted file. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
pass through 1.7.3 has a possibility of using a password for an unintended resource. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.