CAPEC-116
Excavation
An adversary actively probes the target in a manner that is designed to solicit information that could be leveraged for malicious purposes.
On this page
This is achieved by exploring the target via ordinary interactions for the purpose of gathering intelligence about the target, or by sending data that is syntactically invalid or non-standard in an attempt to produce a response that contains the desired data. As a result of these interactions, the adversary is able to obtain information from the target that aids the attacker in making inferences about its security, configuration, or potential vulnerabilities. Examplar exchanges with the target may trigger unhandled exceptions or verbose error messages that reveal information like stack traces, configuration information, path information, or database design. This type of attack also includes the manipulation of query strings in a URI to produce invalid SQL queries, or by trying alternative path values in the hope that the server will return useful information.
Ask an AI about this attack pattern
Show the prompt
Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-116: Excavation: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/116.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/116?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
Prerequisites
An adversary requires some way of interacting with the system.
Resources required
A tool, such as an Adversary in the Middle (CAPEC-94) Proxy or a fuzzer, that is capable of generating and injecting custom inputs to be used in the attack.
Consequences
| Impact | Affects | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Read Data | Confidentiality |
Mitigations
Minimize error/response output to only what is necessary for functional use or corrective language.
Remove potentially sensitive information that is not necessary for the application's functionality.
Weaknesses it exploits
- CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CWE-1243 Sensitive Non-Volatile Information Not Protected During Debug
Recent CVEs with these weaknesses
- 4.3CVE-2026-124944
Information disclosure in the Marionette component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160.
- 4.3CVE-2026-124941
Information disclosure in the Security: RLBox component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160 and Firefox ESR 153.7.
- 4.3CVE-2026-124930
Information disclosure in the Address Bar component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160 and Firefox ESR 153.7.
- 4.3CVE-2026-124929
Information disclosure in the Layout: Form Controls component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160 and Firefox ESR 153.7.
- 4.3CVE-2026-124925
Information disclosure in the Layout component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160.
- 4.3CVE-2026-124909
Information disclosure in the Private Browsing component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 160 and Firefox ESR 153.7.
- 5.3CVE-2026-96769
The Extend B2B - Companies and Users Management for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in all versions up to, and including, 2.1.4 via the register_company_api. This makes it possible for unaut…
- 7.5CVE-2026-63644
bird-lg-go is a BIRD looking glass in Go. Prior to version 1.4.7, unsanitized input path enables arbitrary local file read, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to read sensitive files such as /etc/shadow and /root/.bash_history. Th…
The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.
Related attack patterns
- Can lead to
- CAPEC-163 Spear Phishing
MITRE's words, unchanged: CAPEC-116 at MITRE. CAPEC is Copyright © 2007–2026, The MITRE Corporation, used under the CAPEC terms of use: “The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC™) for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE’s copyright designation and this license in any such copy.” CAPEC and the CAPEC logo are trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Credits. All attack patterns.