# CWE-359: Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor

> As of 2026-10-05, CWE-359 (Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor) underlies 4 CVEs tracked by Threadlinqs, none of them in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and is cited by 17 tracked threats.

**Last updated:** 2026-10-05

## What is CWE-359?

The product does not properly prevent a person's private, personal information from being accessed by actors who either (1) are not explicitly authorized to access the information or (2) do not have the implicit consent of the person about whom the information is collected.

CWE-359 is a base-level weakness in MITRE’s Common Weakness Enumeration. Applicable platforms: Language: Not Language-Specific; Technology: Mobile.

_Source: [MITRE CWE](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/359.html) (CWE-359 definition, reproduced verbatim). Counts and linkage below are Threadlinqs data._

## Consequences

- **Confidentiality** — Read Application Data

_Source: MITRE CWE, common consequences._

## How CWE-359 is exploited in the wild

Threadlinqs maps 4 CVEs to CWE-359, published between 2026-04-22 and 2026-09-16. None of them is in the CISA KEV catalog yet. By CVSS v3 severity the set splits into 1 high, 2 medium. The highest EPSS score in the set is 0.3% (CVE-2026-62328), the modelled probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. 17 tracked threats reference CWE-359 directly or through a CVE it covers; the most recent is “Poper Blocker Chrome Extension Spyware: Big Star Labs' 'Featured' Ad Blocker Exfiltrates Browsing History, Screenshots, and AI Chatbot Conversations From Millions” (2026-09-28). Affected products concentrate in Apple (1), angular (1), decolua (1), among 4 vendors in total.

## Vulnerabilities (CVEs)

All 4 CVEs mapped to CWE-359, CISA KEV first, then by CVSS score.

- [CVE-2026-62328](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-62328) — CVSS 7.5 high · EPSS 0.3% · published 2026-07-13
- [CVE-2026-61588](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-61588) — CVSS 6.5 medium · published 2026-09-16
- [CVE-2026-28950](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-28950) — CVSS 6.2 medium · EPSS 0.0% · published 2026-04-22
- [CVE-2026-54264](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-54264) — published 2026-06-22

## Affected vendors

- [Apple](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/vendors/apple) — 1 CVE
- **angular** — 1 CVE
- **decolua** — 1 CVE
- **djust-org** — 1 CVE

## Threat activity

17 tracked threats cite CWE-359:

- [Poper Blocker Chrome Extension Spyware: Big Star Labs' 'Featured' Ad Blocker Exfiltrates Browsing History, Screenshots, and AI Chatbot Conversations From Millions](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-2739) — HIGH · 2026-09-28
- [OWASP GenAI LLM Top 10 2026 — Community-Driven Security Guidance for AI Applications](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1913) — MEDIUM · 2026-08-06
- [RedWing: Android Malware-as-a-Service Spyware Operation Targeting Russian Financial Institutions](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1478) — HIGH · 2026-07-18
- [ModHeader Chrome/Edge Extension (v7.0.17-7.0.18, 1.6M Installs) Contains Dormant AES-GCM Browsing-History Exfiltration Pipeline to api.stanfordstudies.com](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1289) — HIGH · 2026-07-14
- [Microsoft July 2026 Patch Tuesday: 570 Vulnerabilities Fixed, Including 2 Actively Exploited Zero-Days (CVE-2026-56164, CVE-2026-56155)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1325) — CRITICAL · 2026-07-14
- [Malicious 'Free VPN' Chrome and Firefox Extensions (VPN Go) Deploy Clipboard-Stealing Malware via Trojanized Updates](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1198) — HIGH · 2026-07-10
- [Dark Web Data-Leak Roundup (June 2026): Iran Hajj Organization (168M records), AdressFakta/SUPEReROI Sweden (5.4M+), Chrysler/Salesforce (1TB+, Everest Ransomware), and Crypto-Platform Lead Lists](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0803) — HIGH · 2026-06-15
- [SHADOWBYT3$ Claims Breach of Nintendo via Third-Party TINYpulse HR-Engagement SaaS Exposure (~859 MB, $2M Extortion)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0808) — MEDIUM · 2026-06-15
- [SearchJack: 23 Malicious Chrome Extensions Hijack Search Queries via chrome_settings_overrides (Yahoo Affiliate Monetization)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0812) — HIGH · 2026-06-15
- [Instagram Web Password-Reset Logic Bug — Unredacted Email & Phone Disclosure (June 2026)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0710) — HIGH · 2026-06-07
- [TrickMo.C Android Banking Trojan Adopts TON Blockchain ADNL for Covert C2 Targeting Banking and Crypto Users in France, Italy, and Austria](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0494) — HIGH · 2026-05-11
- [NVIDIA GeForce NOW Armenian Data Breach via GFN.am Alliance Partner Compromise — ShinyHunters-Branded PII Theft](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0485) — HIGH · 2026-05-08
- [Apple iOS/iPadOS Notification Services Data Retention Zero-Day (CVE-2026-28950) — Exploited In-The-Wild for Forensic Extraction of Signal Messages](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0413) — HIGH · 2026-04-23
- [Microsoft Vibing — Microsoft-Store-Distributed GenAI Application Silently Captures Screenshots, Clipboard, Microphone Audio, and Active Window Titles via Azure Front Door WebSocket Beacon](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0418) — HIGH · 2026-04-23
- [AI-Assisted Phishing Campaign Exploits Browser Permissions via edgeone.app Infrastructure to Capture Biometric Data](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0233) — HIGH · 2026-03-16
- [Malicious Chrome Extension CL Suite Steals Meta Business Manager Data & TOTP 2FA Seeds](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0081) — HIGH · 2026-02-13
- [ShinyHunters Leaks 5.1 Million Panera Bread Customer Records](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-0055) — HIGH · 2026-02-03

## Mitigations

- **Requirements**: Identify and consult all relevant regulations for personal privacy. An organization may be required to comply with certain federal and state regulations, depending on its location, the type of business it conducts, and the nature of any private data it handles. Regulations may include Safe Harbor Privacy Framework [REF-340], Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) [REF-341], Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) [REF-342], General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [REF-1047], California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) [REF-1048], and others.
- **Architecture and Design**: Carefully evaluate how secure design may interfere with privacy, and vice versa. Security and privacy concerns often seem to compete with each other. From a security perspective, all important operations should be recorded so that any anomalous activity can later be identified. However, when private data is involved, this practice can in fact create risk. Although there are many ways in which private data can be handled unsafely, a common risk stems from misplaced trust. Programmers often trust the operating environment in which a program runs, and therefore believe that it is acceptable store private information on the file system, in the registry, or in other locally-controlled resources…
- **Implementation, Operation / Attack Surface Reduction**: Some tools can automatically analyze documents to redact, strip, or "sanitize" private information, although some human review might be necessary. Tools may vary in terms of which document formats can be processed. When calling an external program to automatically generate or convert documents, invoke the program with any available options that avoid generating sensitive metadata. Some formats have well-defined fields that could contain private data, such as Exchangeable image file format (Exif), which can contain potentially sensitive metadata such as geolocation, date, and time [REF-1515] [REF-1516].

_Source: MITRE CWE, potential mitigations._

## Detection methods (MITRE CWE)

- **Architecture or Design Review** (effectiveness: High): Private personal data can enter a program in a variety of ways: Directly from the user in the form of a password or personal information Accessed from a database or other data store by the application Indirectly from a partner or other third party If the data is written to an external location - such as the console, file system, or network - a privacy violation may occur.
- **Automated Static Analysis** (effectiveness: High): Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
- **Automated Static Analysis**: Tools are available to analyze documents (such as PDF, Word, etc.) to look for private information such as names, addresses, etc.

_Source: MITRE CWE, detection methods. Threadlinqs detection rules for the threats above are Blue tier and higher._

## Related weaknesses

- [CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cwe/CWE-200)

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cwe/CWE-359
Source definition: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/359.html
Detection rules and IOCs for threats exploiting CWE-359 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp