CVE-2026-69225 in Portal for ArcGIS
Summary
by MITRE • 08/22/2026
There is an information disclosure vulnerability in Esri Portal for ArcGIS versions 11.5 through 12.0 and earlier that may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to reflect sensitive information in a http response body.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/22/2026
The identified vulnerability within Esri Portal for ArcGIS represents a critical security flaw affecting version ranges from 11.5 up to 12.0 and all preceding releases. This specific weakness is classified as an Information Disclosure vulnerability, which fundamentally undermines the confidentiality of system data by exposing sensitive internal states or configuration details to external parties who should not have access. The core technical mechanism involves a failure in input validation and error handling procedures within the web application layer. When a remote attacker constructs a specifically crafted HTTP request targeting specific endpoints or parameters, the server fails to sanitize its response appropriately. Instead of returning a generic error message or an empty body, the application reflects detailed internal information directly into the HTTP response body. This behavior indicates that the underlying code is likely echoing back user-supplied input or stack traces without proper filtering, allowing the attacker to observe how the system processes malformed or unexpected data inputs.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses a significant risk as it requires no authentication and can be exploited remotely over standard network protocols such as HTTP or HTTPS. The ability for an unauthenticated actor to extract sensitive information drastically lowers the barrier to entry for further attacks. While the immediate impact is limited to the leakage of data contained within the response body, this initial foothold often serves as a reconnaissance phase for more severe exploits. Attackers can utilize the disclosed information to map out the application architecture, identify specific software versions and patch levels, discover internal IP addresses or domain names, and potentially uncover valid session tokens or API keys if they are inadvertently included in error responses. This intelligence gathering significantly aids adversaries in planning targeted attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, or privilege escalation attempts against other components of the ArcGIS infrastructure.
In terms of industry standard classifications, this vulnerability aligns closely with CWE-209: Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information and CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor. These categories highlight the failure to implement secure coding practices regarding error handling and data sanitization. Furthermore, from a tactical standpoint as defined by the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this activity falls under the T1598 subtechnique of Gather Victim Host Information, specifically HTTP Scraping or Probing for Sensitive Data in Error Messages. The reflection aspect also touches upon CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component if the reflected data is subsequently processed by client-side scripts, although the primary concern here remains the passive exfiltration of server-side state information.
To mitigate this vulnerability and reduce the attack surface associated with Esri Portal for ArcGIS, immediate action is required to apply the latest security patches provided by Esri. Organizations running affected versions must upgrade to a patched release that addresses these specific input validation flaws. In addition to patching, administrators should implement strict web application firewall rules designed to detect and block anomalous HTTP requests that attempt to trigger error conditions or reflect unusual data patterns. It is also advisable to configure the portal to return generic, non-descriptive error messages for all unhandled exceptions, ensuring that stack traces, database queries, or internal paths are never exposed in client responses. Regular security audits and penetration testing focused on information leakage vectors should be conducted to verify that these mitigations are effective and that no other similar vulnerabilities exist within the application logic.