An observable difference in error messaging was found in the Directus REST API. The /items/{collection} API returns different error messages for these two cases:
1. A user tries to access an existing collection which they are not authorized to access.
2. A user tries to access a non-existing collection.
The two differing error messages leak the existence of collections to users which are not authorized to access these collections.
The following response returns an error message, when requesting a collection the user is not authorized to access.
GET /items/no-access
{
"errors": [
{
"message": "You don't have permission to access collection \"no-access\" or it does not exist. Queried in root.",
"extensions": {
"reason": "You don't have permission to access collection \"no-access\" or it does not exist. Queried in root.",
"code": "FORBIDDEN"
}
}
]
}
The following response returns a different error message when requesting a collection which does not exist.
GET /items/does-not-exist
{
"errors": [
{
"message": "You don't have permission to access this.",
"extensions": {
"code": "FORBIDDEN"
}
}
]
}
The difference in errors between non-existent collections and collections blocked by permissions leak the existence of a collection to a user which is not authorized to access this object.
Sebastian Krause - Hackmanit GmbH
{
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-203",
"CWE-209"
],
"nvd_published_at": null,
"github_reviewed_at": "2025-11-13T23:07:31Z",
"severity": "MODERATE",
"github_reviewed": true
}