The FBI's terrorist watchlist found in an exposed web database without a password

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FBI watchlist exposed by misconfigured Elasticsearch cluster
A terrorist watchlist was found in an exposed database, and security researcher Bob Diachenko says there is no way of knowing just how long it was open to the public.
By Shaun Nichols
16 Aug 2021

An apparent U.S. government terrorism watchlist was found exposed to the open internet.

Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the data in an exposed Elasticsearch cluster and reported the list to the FBI.

...Diachenko says that server was discovered and reported on July 19, with the takedown completed on Aug. 9.

Comprising around 1.9 million records, the database was stored inside an Elasticsearch server that had not been configured to have any sort of password protection. The records included basic info such as names, dates of birth and countries of citizenship, as well as more sensitive information including passport numbers and whether that individual was also on the Transportation Security Administration's no-fly list.

The database was originally created by the FBI-led Terrorist Screening Center, an operation that also involves the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS referred request for comment to the FBI, whose spokespersons could not be reached to comment on the matter.

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On July 19, 2021, The exposed server was indexed by search engines Censys and ZoomEye. I discovered the exposed data on the same day and reported it to the DHS.

The exposed server was taken down about three weeks later, on August 9, 2021. It's not clear why it took so long, and I don't know for sure whether any unauthorized parties accessed it.

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