Directus's conceal fields are searchable if read permissions enabled

Description

Summary

A vulnerability allows authenticated users to search concealed/sensitive fields when they have read permissions. While actual values remain masked (****), successful matches can be detected through returned records, enabling enumeration attacks on sensitive data.

Details

The system permits search operations on concealed fields in the directus_users collection, including token, tfa_secret, password. Matching records are returned with masked values, but their presence confirms the searched value exists.

The "Recommended Defaults" for "App Access" grant users full read permissions to their role/user records, inadvertently enabling them to search for any user's tokens, TFA secrets, and password hashes. Attackers can leverage known password hashes from breach databases to identify accounts with compromised passwords.

Impact

This vulnerability enables:
- Token enumeration - Verification of valid authentication tokens
- Password hash matching - Identification of accounts using known compromised passwords
- Information disclosure - Confirmation of sensitive value existence without viewing actual data
- Increased attack surface - Default permissions automatically expose all deployments using recommended settings

The risk is particularly high for password fields, where attackers can cross-reference publicly available hash databases to identify vulnerable accounts.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2025-11-13 23:06:41 UTC
Updated
2025-11-15 03:15:27 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2025-11-13 23:06:41 UTC
NVD published
2025-11-13

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.04% 11.07%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
6.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-201 Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data

Credits

  • bryantgillespie (reporter)

Affected packages (2)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
npm directus < 11.13.0 11.13.0
npm @directus/api < 32.0.0 32.0.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence