What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?











up vote
41
down vote

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Assume that my internet history is made public (accidentally or on purpose). And this release is over 24 hours since the visits were made.



Also assume that there aren't an embarrassing sites on there: there isn't any blackmail potential.



(My most embarrassing page visited in the last week is actually the TV tropes page for my little pony, for which I have a valid reason and a witness).



What potential attacks does this allow? I'm mildly concerned about seeing massive links like:




https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ap-post-redirect?openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dtp&aToken=Atza%7CIwEBIO9mWoekr9KzK7rH_Db0gp93sewMCe6UcFPm_MbUhq-jp1m7kF-x0erh6NbjdLX3bm8Gfo3h7yU1nBYHOWso0LiOyUMLgLIDCEMGKGZBqv1EMyT6-EDajBYsH21sek92r5aH6Ahy9POCGEplpeKBVrAiU-vl3uIfOAHihKnB5r2yXPytFCITXM70wB5HBT-MIX3F1Y2G4WfWA-EgIfZY8bLdLangmgVq8hE61eDIFRzcSDtAf0Sz7_zxm1Ix8lV8XFBS8GSML9YSwZ1Gq6nSt9pG7hTZoGQns9nzKLk7WpAWE8RazDLKxVJD-nDsQ9VdBJe7JZJtD7c77swkYneOZ5HXgeGFkGhKsMnP7GSYndXhC_PqzY251iDt0X7e5TWvh86WZA0tG2qZ_lyIagZtB3iw&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.mode=id_res&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fsignin&openid.response_nonce=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z4004222742336216632&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fkdp.amazon.com%2Fap-post-redirect&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2CaToken%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cns%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2CsiteState%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_policies%2Cpape.auth_time%2Csigned&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fnone&openid.pape.auth_time=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z&openid.sig=5cx5iHjeLyWTTA9iJ%2BucszunqanOw36djKuNF6%2FOfsM%3D&serial=&siteState=clientContext%3D135-4119325-2722413%2CsourceUrl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fkdp.amazon.com%252Fbookshelf%253Flanguage%253Den_US%2Csignature%3DgqJ53erzurnmO1SPLDK1gLwh9%2FUP6rGUwGF2uZUAAAABAAAAAFwPv8dyYXcAAAAAAsF6s-obfie4v1Ep9rqj




in my history and worrying that secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere.



I am aware that this makes it easier to impersonate my identity, I'm mostly interested in the leakage of information via the URL itself.










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  • 1




    Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
    – thepip3r
    yesterday








  • 2




    @thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
    – Joe
    yesterday






  • 3




    I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
    – BlueWizard
    10 hours ago















up vote
41
down vote

favorite
8












Assume that my internet history is made public (accidentally or on purpose). And this release is over 24 hours since the visits were made.



Also assume that there aren't an embarrassing sites on there: there isn't any blackmail potential.



(My most embarrassing page visited in the last week is actually the TV tropes page for my little pony, for which I have a valid reason and a witness).



What potential attacks does this allow? I'm mildly concerned about seeing massive links like:




https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ap-post-redirect?openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dtp&aToken=Atza%7CIwEBIO9mWoekr9KzK7rH_Db0gp93sewMCe6UcFPm_MbUhq-jp1m7kF-x0erh6NbjdLX3bm8Gfo3h7yU1nBYHOWso0LiOyUMLgLIDCEMGKGZBqv1EMyT6-EDajBYsH21sek92r5aH6Ahy9POCGEplpeKBVrAiU-vl3uIfOAHihKnB5r2yXPytFCITXM70wB5HBT-MIX3F1Y2G4WfWA-EgIfZY8bLdLangmgVq8hE61eDIFRzcSDtAf0Sz7_zxm1Ix8lV8XFBS8GSML9YSwZ1Gq6nSt9pG7hTZoGQns9nzKLk7WpAWE8RazDLKxVJD-nDsQ9VdBJe7JZJtD7c77swkYneOZ5HXgeGFkGhKsMnP7GSYndXhC_PqzY251iDt0X7e5TWvh86WZA0tG2qZ_lyIagZtB3iw&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.mode=id_res&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fsignin&openid.response_nonce=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z4004222742336216632&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fkdp.amazon.com%2Fap-post-redirect&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2CaToken%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cns%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2CsiteState%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_policies%2Cpape.auth_time%2Csigned&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fnone&openid.pape.auth_time=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z&openid.sig=5cx5iHjeLyWTTA9iJ%2BucszunqanOw36djKuNF6%2FOfsM%3D&serial=&siteState=clientContext%3D135-4119325-2722413%2CsourceUrl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fkdp.amazon.com%252Fbookshelf%253Flanguage%253Den_US%2Csignature%3DgqJ53erzurnmO1SPLDK1gLwh9%2FUP6rGUwGF2uZUAAAABAAAAAFwPv8dyYXcAAAAAAsF6s-obfie4v1Ep9rqj




in my history and worrying that secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere.



I am aware that this makes it easier to impersonate my identity, I'm mostly interested in the leakage of information via the URL itself.










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Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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  • 1




    Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
    – thepip3r
    yesterday








  • 2




    @thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
    – Joe
    yesterday






  • 3




    I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
    – BlueWizard
    10 hours ago













up vote
41
down vote

favorite
8









up vote
41
down vote

favorite
8






8





Assume that my internet history is made public (accidentally or on purpose). And this release is over 24 hours since the visits were made.



Also assume that there aren't an embarrassing sites on there: there isn't any blackmail potential.



(My most embarrassing page visited in the last week is actually the TV tropes page for my little pony, for which I have a valid reason and a witness).



What potential attacks does this allow? I'm mildly concerned about seeing massive links like:




https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ap-post-redirect?openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dtp&aToken=Atza%7CIwEBIO9mWoekr9KzK7rH_Db0gp93sewMCe6UcFPm_MbUhq-jp1m7kF-x0erh6NbjdLX3bm8Gfo3h7yU1nBYHOWso0LiOyUMLgLIDCEMGKGZBqv1EMyT6-EDajBYsH21sek92r5aH6Ahy9POCGEplpeKBVrAiU-vl3uIfOAHihKnB5r2yXPytFCITXM70wB5HBT-MIX3F1Y2G4WfWA-EgIfZY8bLdLangmgVq8hE61eDIFRzcSDtAf0Sz7_zxm1Ix8lV8XFBS8GSML9YSwZ1Gq6nSt9pG7hTZoGQns9nzKLk7WpAWE8RazDLKxVJD-nDsQ9VdBJe7JZJtD7c77swkYneOZ5HXgeGFkGhKsMnP7GSYndXhC_PqzY251iDt0X7e5TWvh86WZA0tG2qZ_lyIagZtB3iw&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.mode=id_res&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fsignin&openid.response_nonce=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z4004222742336216632&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fkdp.amazon.com%2Fap-post-redirect&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2CaToken%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cns%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2CsiteState%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_policies%2Cpape.auth_time%2Csigned&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fnone&openid.pape.auth_time=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z&openid.sig=5cx5iHjeLyWTTA9iJ%2BucszunqanOw36djKuNF6%2FOfsM%3D&serial=&siteState=clientContext%3D135-4119325-2722413%2CsourceUrl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fkdp.amazon.com%252Fbookshelf%253Flanguage%253Den_US%2Csignature%3DgqJ53erzurnmO1SPLDK1gLwh9%2FUP6rGUwGF2uZUAAAABAAAAAFwPv8dyYXcAAAAAAsF6s-obfie4v1Ep9rqj




in my history and worrying that secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere.



I am aware that this makes it easier to impersonate my identity, I'm mostly interested in the leakage of information via the URL itself.










share|improve this question









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Joe is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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Assume that my internet history is made public (accidentally or on purpose). And this release is over 24 hours since the visits were made.



Also assume that there aren't an embarrassing sites on there: there isn't any blackmail potential.



(My most embarrassing page visited in the last week is actually the TV tropes page for my little pony, for which I have a valid reason and a witness).



What potential attacks does this allow? I'm mildly concerned about seeing massive links like:




https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/ap-post-redirect?openid.assoc_handle=amzn_dtp&aToken=Atza%7CIwEBIO9mWoekr9KzK7rH_Db0gp93sewMCe6UcFPm_MbUhq-jp1m7kF-x0erh6NbjdLX3bm8Gfo3h7yU1nBYHOWso0LiOyUMLgLIDCEMGKGZBqv1EMyT6-EDajBYsH21sek92r5aH6Ahy9POCGEplpeKBVrAiU-vl3uIfOAHihKnB5r2yXPytFCITXM70wB5HBT-MIX3F1Y2G4WfWA-EgIfZY8bLdLangmgVq8hE61eDIFRzcSDtAf0Sz7_zxm1Ix8lV8XFBS8GSML9YSwZ1Gq6nSt9pG7hTZoGQns9nzKLk7WpAWE8RazDLKxVJD-nDsQ9VdBJe7JZJtD7c77swkYneOZ5HXgeGFkGhKsMnP7GSYndXhC_PqzY251iDt0X7e5TWvh86WZA0tG2qZ_lyIagZtB3iw&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fid%2Famzn1.account.AEK7TIVVPUJDAK3JIFQIQ77WZWDQ&openid.mode=id_res&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fap%2Fsignin&openid.response_nonce=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z4004222742336216632&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fkdp.amazon.com%2Fap-post-redirect&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2CaToken%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cns%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2CsiteState%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_policies%2Cpape.auth_time%2Csigned&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fnone&openid.pape.auth_time=2018-12-11T13%3A46%3A52Z&openid.sig=5cx5iHjeLyWTTA9iJ%2BucszunqanOw36djKuNF6%2FOfsM%3D&serial=&siteState=clientContext%3D135-4119325-2722413%2CsourceUrl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fkdp.amazon.com%252Fbookshelf%253Flanguage%253Den_US%2Csignature%3DgqJ53erzurnmO1SPLDK1gLwh9%2FUP6rGUwGF2uZUAAAABAAAAAFwPv8dyYXcAAAAAAsF6s-obfie4v1Ep9rqj




in my history and worrying that secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere.



I am aware that this makes it easier to impersonate my identity, I'm mostly interested in the leakage of information via the URL itself.







web-browser url






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edited yesterday









The Guy with The Hat

202113




202113






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asked yesterday









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  • 1




    Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
    – thepip3r
    yesterday








  • 2




    @thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
    – Joe
    yesterday






  • 3




    I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
    – BlueWizard
    10 hours ago














  • 1




    Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
    – thepip3r
    yesterday








  • 2




    @thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
    – Joe
    yesterday






  • 3




    I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
    – BlueWizard
    10 hours ago








1




1




Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
– thepip3r
yesterday






Is it just your browser history or it a complete account/host compromise? It matters because, while your browser history might not provide much (unless you're into obscure porn), if they had access to your computer/profile, cookies, key loggers, screen scrapers are a whole different ballgame.
– thepip3r
yesterday






2




2




@thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
– Joe
yesterday




@thepip3r browser history only - and actually in this use case: url and timestamp pairs.
– Joe
yesterday




3




3




I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
– BlueWizard
10 hours ago




I can't believe that nobody mentioned spearphishing yet. With recent information of what you look at an attacker could easily send fake invoices or otherwise create very undetectable phishing mails.
– BlueWizard
10 hours ago










6 Answers
6






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
42
down vote



accepted










Your question might be more undefined than you realise. Any kind of data can be passed using URL parameters. Usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, settings, form data, or anything the web developer chooses. It's not always good practice to use URL parameters to for this, but it is always possible.



And it's entirely up to each individual web developer on each individual page (not just site) as to what might be exposed and when. So you might not be able to predict what might be exposed.



So, to answer your question, in the worst case, you could experience a complete and utter disclosure of any amount of personal data including credentials.



By request, I did a search for the practice of "passwords in URL parameters" and restricted results to this year. Here's one of the top hits:



https://answers.splunk.com/answers/622600/how-to-pass-username-and-password-as-a-parameter-v.html



That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this.



Here is OWASP's official page on this vulnerability:




The parameter values for 'user', 'authz_token', and 'expire' will be
exposed in the following locations when using HTTP or HTTPS:



Referer

Header
Web Logs
Shared Systems
Browser History
Browser Cache

Shoulder Surfing







share|improve this answer



















  • 4




    The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
    – thepip3r
    yesterday








  • 3




    and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
    – Ben Voigt
    yesterday






  • 1




    "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
    – Justin Lardinois
    11 hours ago






  • 1




    @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
    – schroeder
    10 hours ago








  • 1




    @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
    – Justin Lardinois
    5 hours ago


















up vote
12
down vote













Quite a bit actually:




  • Extortion based off content

  • Mapping systems that are not public

  • Sensitive parameters in certain requests

  • Personal information


Extortion



That search of yours that may be embarrassing and taken out of context. A WebMD search for a medical condition you don't want made known to co-workers for example. A search that was best done in incognito mode you forgot about.



Mapping systems that are not public



How about your works intranet site or that production web portal, well those names are going to pop up in your history now and if its something like Jenkins - thats a great candidate for a DNS rebind attack.



Sensitive parameters in certain requests



If you visit a site that just does the internet wrong and the parameter contains an API key, password, credential or just an account ID well that is captured and can be used now.



Personal information



I see you've been searching for holidays in March for 2 weeks - that would be a great time to break in to your house or impersonate you. Looking for an engagement ring well that sounds like something worth stealing. You did a google map from your address to another location?






share|improve this answer




























    up vote
    7
    down vote













    One of the threats I'd like to mention that has not been named yet is de-anonymization.



    The URIs in your history could leak information about your user accounts on different sites - for instance if you constantly check your own profile on social media sites. If you use some web services anonymously and others under your real name (Facebook, Twitter) an adversary can very easily de-anonymize and dox you. That can be especially damning for you if you appear on a platform anonymously and want it to stay that way (dating platforms, file sharing platforms, free speech platforms).



    Data on the internet also has the tendency to be there for a long time, so this threat is very persistent.






    share|improve this answer

















    • 1




      Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
      – Shawn
      10 hours ago


















    up vote
    2
    down vote













    I'll try my hand at this one... Keep in mind that there is a difference between 'all possible' and 'targeted attacks'. With that in mind, I'd break up the attack types into at least two categories: cyber and behavioral. They can be derived from one another but are inherently different in nature.



    Cyber threats to someone having access to your URLs:




    • HTTP POST/GET Variables -- If a particular website practices poor security standards like including sensitive personally identifiable information or secrets (passwords) in reversible or plaintext methods, this is probably the most apparent--but as I said in @schroeder's answer comments, you'd have to evaluate each URL as https://someco.com/sub1/?var1=something;var2=somethingelse might be securely written but http://someco.com/sub2/var1=something;var2=secrets. This is because most large web presences have a small army of web developers working on their front-end, back-end, and everything in between. Where there is a lack of standards in each org (which is never known to us, end-users) one part of a page may be worse off than others.


    • While session data also has interesting information, it cannot be gleaned from URLs alone. So while interesting from a host-compromise scenario, it's not applicable here which is why I asked for scope of the question in my original comment.



    Cyber+Behavioral threats to someone having access to your URLs




    • Personal Weaknesses: What sites you frequent indicates social patterns: likes/dislikes, politics, health, wealth, etc. e.g.: If an attacker is targeting you for exploitation and knows you're visiting debt consolidation sites, they might offer you financial help in return for favors. If you're frequenting ashleymadison.com and you're married, they might approach you with blackmail to not out you to your spouse. I don't mean this to be offensive but assuming you're un-blackmailable is rather naive.


    • Personal Habits: If you're a creature of habit (as most people are), over time, they can see the times of the day you're connected to the Internet and potentially from what device(s) and what location(s). If the attacker is targeting your house, they can derive when you work, when you're home, and how erratic a confidence-level is in predicting where you'll be tomorrow or the next day.







    share|improve this answer




























      up vote
      0
      down vote













      To add to the post about information leakage in URL:



      An attacker that has this may:



      1: Extract what sites you use to try and log into to see if you are using the same creds [assumes attacker has captured a cred]



      2: This info grants much more advanced knowledge for creating phishing attacks EX: "you've been selected to screen the new MLP season [whatever]"



      3: Possible physical tracking based on sites "oh their kid goes to "little gals daycare" because I see them log into to pay that bill"



      Could be more depending on what's in there.






      share|improve this answer























      • I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
        – schroeder
        yesterday






      • 1




        @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
        – Acccumulation
        yesterday










      • @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
        – schroeder
        yesterday






      • 1




        @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
        – bashCypher
        yesterday










      • @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
        – schroeder
        23 hours ago


















      up vote
      0
      down vote













      Having your browsing history exposed means the attacker has in possession the list of url's your browser has accessed. From a complex url an attacker can identify these information:




      1. Protocol

      2. Subdomain

      3. Domain

      4. Port

      5. Path

      6. Parameters of a query

      7. Fragment


      enter image description here



      Now, your privacy depends on the way the developer has built the site.



      If you logged in in a website that has an url like this:



      www.example.com/?login=**myusers**&password=**mypassword**


      then the attacker has your credentials for that site.



      Some of possible attacks would be:




      1. sql injection

      2. URL Manipulation

      3. Directory Traversal

      4. Identify theft


      In simple words, your privacy/risk depends on the security level the site has.






      share|improve this answer



















      • 5




        All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
        – AndrolGenhald
        yesterday












      • Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
        – Vini7
        yesterday






      • 6




        Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
        – AndrolGenhald
        yesterday











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      6 Answers
      6






      active

      oldest

      votes








      6 Answers
      6






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes








      up vote
      42
      down vote



      accepted










      Your question might be more undefined than you realise. Any kind of data can be passed using URL parameters. Usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, settings, form data, or anything the web developer chooses. It's not always good practice to use URL parameters to for this, but it is always possible.



      And it's entirely up to each individual web developer on each individual page (not just site) as to what might be exposed and when. So you might not be able to predict what might be exposed.



      So, to answer your question, in the worst case, you could experience a complete and utter disclosure of any amount of personal data including credentials.



      By request, I did a search for the practice of "passwords in URL parameters" and restricted results to this year. Here's one of the top hits:



      https://answers.splunk.com/answers/622600/how-to-pass-username-and-password-as-a-parameter-v.html



      That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this.



      Here is OWASP's official page on this vulnerability:




      The parameter values for 'user', 'authz_token', and 'expire' will be
      exposed in the following locations when using HTTP or HTTPS:



      Referer

      Header
      Web Logs
      Shared Systems
      Browser History
      Browser Cache

      Shoulder Surfing







      share|improve this answer



















      • 4




        The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
        – thepip3r
        yesterday








      • 3




        and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
        – Ben Voigt
        yesterday






      • 1




        "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
        – Justin Lardinois
        11 hours ago






      • 1




        @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
        – schroeder
        10 hours ago








      • 1




        @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
        – Justin Lardinois
        5 hours ago















      up vote
      42
      down vote



      accepted










      Your question might be more undefined than you realise. Any kind of data can be passed using URL parameters. Usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, settings, form data, or anything the web developer chooses. It's not always good practice to use URL parameters to for this, but it is always possible.



      And it's entirely up to each individual web developer on each individual page (not just site) as to what might be exposed and when. So you might not be able to predict what might be exposed.



      So, to answer your question, in the worst case, you could experience a complete and utter disclosure of any amount of personal data including credentials.



      By request, I did a search for the practice of "passwords in URL parameters" and restricted results to this year. Here's one of the top hits:



      https://answers.splunk.com/answers/622600/how-to-pass-username-and-password-as-a-parameter-v.html



      That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this.



      Here is OWASP's official page on this vulnerability:




      The parameter values for 'user', 'authz_token', and 'expire' will be
      exposed in the following locations when using HTTP or HTTPS:



      Referer

      Header
      Web Logs
      Shared Systems
      Browser History
      Browser Cache

      Shoulder Surfing







      share|improve this answer



















      • 4




        The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
        – thepip3r
        yesterday








      • 3




        and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
        – Ben Voigt
        yesterday






      • 1




        "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
        – Justin Lardinois
        11 hours ago






      • 1




        @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
        – schroeder
        10 hours ago








      • 1




        @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
        – Justin Lardinois
        5 hours ago













      up vote
      42
      down vote



      accepted







      up vote
      42
      down vote



      accepted






      Your question might be more undefined than you realise. Any kind of data can be passed using URL parameters. Usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, settings, form data, or anything the web developer chooses. It's not always good practice to use URL parameters to for this, but it is always possible.



      And it's entirely up to each individual web developer on each individual page (not just site) as to what might be exposed and when. So you might not be able to predict what might be exposed.



      So, to answer your question, in the worst case, you could experience a complete and utter disclosure of any amount of personal data including credentials.



      By request, I did a search for the practice of "passwords in URL parameters" and restricted results to this year. Here's one of the top hits:



      https://answers.splunk.com/answers/622600/how-to-pass-username-and-password-as-a-parameter-v.html



      That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this.



      Here is OWASP's official page on this vulnerability:




      The parameter values for 'user', 'authz_token', and 'expire' will be
      exposed in the following locations when using HTTP or HTTPS:



      Referer

      Header
      Web Logs
      Shared Systems
      Browser History
      Browser Cache

      Shoulder Surfing







      share|improve this answer














      Your question might be more undefined than you realise. Any kind of data can be passed using URL parameters. Usernames, passwords, authentication tokens, settings, form data, or anything the web developer chooses. It's not always good practice to use URL parameters to for this, but it is always possible.



      And it's entirely up to each individual web developer on each individual page (not just site) as to what might be exposed and when. So you might not be able to predict what might be exposed.



      So, to answer your question, in the worst case, you could experience a complete and utter disclosure of any amount of personal data including credentials.



      By request, I did a search for the practice of "passwords in URL parameters" and restricted results to this year. Here's one of the top hits:



      https://answers.splunk.com/answers/622600/how-to-pass-username-and-password-as-a-parameter-v.html



      That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this.



      Here is OWASP's official page on this vulnerability:




      The parameter values for 'user', 'authz_token', and 'expire' will be
      exposed in the following locations when using HTTP or HTTPS:



      Referer

      Header
      Web Logs
      Shared Systems
      Browser History
      Browser Cache

      Shoulder Surfing








      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited yesterday

























      answered yesterday









      schroeder

      72.5k29160194




      72.5k29160194








      • 4




        The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
        – thepip3r
        yesterday








      • 3




        and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
        – Ben Voigt
        yesterday






      • 1




        "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
        – Justin Lardinois
        11 hours ago






      • 1




        @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
        – schroeder
        10 hours ago








      • 1




        @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
        – Justin Lardinois
        5 hours ago














      • 4




        The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
        – thepip3r
        yesterday








      • 3




        and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
        – Ben Voigt
        yesterday






      • 1




        "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
        – Justin Lardinois
        11 hours ago






      • 1




        @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
        – schroeder
        10 hours ago








      • 1




        @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
        – Justin Lardinois
        5 hours ago








      4




      4




      The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
      – thepip3r
      yesterday






      The only thing I'd add to this is that the problem is also worse because while you're correct that any data can be passed via URL, the problem is compounded by the fact that what information is passed via a URL and whether and how it is secured is up to each individual company you're visiting and furthermore, the standards of the web programmers who developed each page. So you could never say by looking at one URL that there wasn't any sensitive data passed--you couldn't even say that about different URLs from the same site...
      – thepip3r
      yesterday






      3




      3




      and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
      – Ben Voigt
      yesterday




      and even if passwords aren't passed in the query string, if the session token is, you'd better hope that the developers restricted it to a single IP address and limited time validity...
      – Ben Voigt
      yesterday




      1




      1




      "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
      – Justin Lardinois
      11 hours ago




      "That's a forum from Feb 2018 from a major, publicly traded company talking about how to do this." That's misleading—your link is to a community forum, where two Splunk users are discussing doing this unsafely. It's not a demonstration of Splunk itself passing sensitive information in URL parameters.
      – Justin Lardinois
      11 hours ago




      1




      1




      @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
      – schroeder
      10 hours ago






      @JustinLardinois not misleading at all - Splunk actually offers the setting enable_insecure_login Splunk is actually passing sensitive information
      – schroeder
      10 hours ago






      1




      1




      @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
      – Justin Lardinois
      5 hours ago




      @schroeder From that answer, though, it looks like it's something that's disabled by default.
      – Justin Lardinois
      5 hours ago












      up vote
      12
      down vote













      Quite a bit actually:




      • Extortion based off content

      • Mapping systems that are not public

      • Sensitive parameters in certain requests

      • Personal information


      Extortion



      That search of yours that may be embarrassing and taken out of context. A WebMD search for a medical condition you don't want made known to co-workers for example. A search that was best done in incognito mode you forgot about.



      Mapping systems that are not public



      How about your works intranet site or that production web portal, well those names are going to pop up in your history now and if its something like Jenkins - thats a great candidate for a DNS rebind attack.



      Sensitive parameters in certain requests



      If you visit a site that just does the internet wrong and the parameter contains an API key, password, credential or just an account ID well that is captured and can be used now.



      Personal information



      I see you've been searching for holidays in March for 2 weeks - that would be a great time to break in to your house or impersonate you. Looking for an engagement ring well that sounds like something worth stealing. You did a google map from your address to another location?






      share|improve this answer

























        up vote
        12
        down vote













        Quite a bit actually:




        • Extortion based off content

        • Mapping systems that are not public

        • Sensitive parameters in certain requests

        • Personal information


        Extortion



        That search of yours that may be embarrassing and taken out of context. A WebMD search for a medical condition you don't want made known to co-workers for example. A search that was best done in incognito mode you forgot about.



        Mapping systems that are not public



        How about your works intranet site or that production web portal, well those names are going to pop up in your history now and if its something like Jenkins - thats a great candidate for a DNS rebind attack.



        Sensitive parameters in certain requests



        If you visit a site that just does the internet wrong and the parameter contains an API key, password, credential or just an account ID well that is captured and can be used now.



        Personal information



        I see you've been searching for holidays in March for 2 weeks - that would be a great time to break in to your house or impersonate you. Looking for an engagement ring well that sounds like something worth stealing. You did a google map from your address to another location?






        share|improve this answer























          up vote
          12
          down vote










          up vote
          12
          down vote









          Quite a bit actually:




          • Extortion based off content

          • Mapping systems that are not public

          • Sensitive parameters in certain requests

          • Personal information


          Extortion



          That search of yours that may be embarrassing and taken out of context. A WebMD search for a medical condition you don't want made known to co-workers for example. A search that was best done in incognito mode you forgot about.



          Mapping systems that are not public



          How about your works intranet site or that production web portal, well those names are going to pop up in your history now and if its something like Jenkins - thats a great candidate for a DNS rebind attack.



          Sensitive parameters in certain requests



          If you visit a site that just does the internet wrong and the parameter contains an API key, password, credential or just an account ID well that is captured and can be used now.



          Personal information



          I see you've been searching for holidays in March for 2 weeks - that would be a great time to break in to your house or impersonate you. Looking for an engagement ring well that sounds like something worth stealing. You did a google map from your address to another location?






          share|improve this answer












          Quite a bit actually:




          • Extortion based off content

          • Mapping systems that are not public

          • Sensitive parameters in certain requests

          • Personal information


          Extortion



          That search of yours that may be embarrassing and taken out of context. A WebMD search for a medical condition you don't want made known to co-workers for example. A search that was best done in incognito mode you forgot about.



          Mapping systems that are not public



          How about your works intranet site or that production web portal, well those names are going to pop up in your history now and if its something like Jenkins - thats a great candidate for a DNS rebind attack.



          Sensitive parameters in certain requests



          If you visit a site that just does the internet wrong and the parameter contains an API key, password, credential or just an account ID well that is captured and can be used now.



          Personal information



          I see you've been searching for holidays in March for 2 weeks - that would be a great time to break in to your house or impersonate you. Looking for an engagement ring well that sounds like something worth stealing. You did a google map from your address to another location?







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered yesterday









          McMatty

          2,6201214




          2,6201214






















              up vote
              7
              down vote













              One of the threats I'd like to mention that has not been named yet is de-anonymization.



              The URIs in your history could leak information about your user accounts on different sites - for instance if you constantly check your own profile on social media sites. If you use some web services anonymously and others under your real name (Facebook, Twitter) an adversary can very easily de-anonymize and dox you. That can be especially damning for you if you appear on a platform anonymously and want it to stay that way (dating platforms, file sharing platforms, free speech platforms).



              Data on the internet also has the tendency to be there for a long time, so this threat is very persistent.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 1




                Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
                – Shawn
                10 hours ago















              up vote
              7
              down vote













              One of the threats I'd like to mention that has not been named yet is de-anonymization.



              The URIs in your history could leak information about your user accounts on different sites - for instance if you constantly check your own profile on social media sites. If you use some web services anonymously and others under your real name (Facebook, Twitter) an adversary can very easily de-anonymize and dox you. That can be especially damning for you if you appear on a platform anonymously and want it to stay that way (dating platforms, file sharing platforms, free speech platforms).



              Data on the internet also has the tendency to be there for a long time, so this threat is very persistent.






              share|improve this answer

















              • 1




                Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
                – Shawn
                10 hours ago













              up vote
              7
              down vote










              up vote
              7
              down vote









              One of the threats I'd like to mention that has not been named yet is de-anonymization.



              The URIs in your history could leak information about your user accounts on different sites - for instance if you constantly check your own profile on social media sites. If you use some web services anonymously and others under your real name (Facebook, Twitter) an adversary can very easily de-anonymize and dox you. That can be especially damning for you if you appear on a platform anonymously and want it to stay that way (dating platforms, file sharing platforms, free speech platforms).



              Data on the internet also has the tendency to be there for a long time, so this threat is very persistent.






              share|improve this answer












              One of the threats I'd like to mention that has not been named yet is de-anonymization.



              The URIs in your history could leak information about your user accounts on different sites - for instance if you constantly check your own profile on social media sites. If you use some web services anonymously and others under your real name (Facebook, Twitter) an adversary can very easily de-anonymize and dox you. That can be especially damning for you if you appear on a platform anonymously and want it to stay that way (dating platforms, file sharing platforms, free speech platforms).



              Data on the internet also has the tendency to be there for a long time, so this threat is very persistent.







              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered yesterday









              Tom K.

              5,28032047




              5,28032047








              • 1




                Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
                – Shawn
                10 hours ago














              • 1




                Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
                – Shawn
                10 hours ago








              1




              1




              Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
              – Shawn
              10 hours ago




              Not to mention that just about any internet user is likely to have been caught up in one breach or another where a password has leaked. And since way too many users reuse passwords, if someone has one of your breached password and a list of sites you visit, it could be trivial for them to breach one of your sites.
              – Shawn
              10 hours ago










              up vote
              2
              down vote













              I'll try my hand at this one... Keep in mind that there is a difference between 'all possible' and 'targeted attacks'. With that in mind, I'd break up the attack types into at least two categories: cyber and behavioral. They can be derived from one another but are inherently different in nature.



              Cyber threats to someone having access to your URLs:




              • HTTP POST/GET Variables -- If a particular website practices poor security standards like including sensitive personally identifiable information or secrets (passwords) in reversible or plaintext methods, this is probably the most apparent--but as I said in @schroeder's answer comments, you'd have to evaluate each URL as https://someco.com/sub1/?var1=something;var2=somethingelse might be securely written but http://someco.com/sub2/var1=something;var2=secrets. This is because most large web presences have a small army of web developers working on their front-end, back-end, and everything in between. Where there is a lack of standards in each org (which is never known to us, end-users) one part of a page may be worse off than others.


              • While session data also has interesting information, it cannot be gleaned from URLs alone. So while interesting from a host-compromise scenario, it's not applicable here which is why I asked for scope of the question in my original comment.



              Cyber+Behavioral threats to someone having access to your URLs




              • Personal Weaknesses: What sites you frequent indicates social patterns: likes/dislikes, politics, health, wealth, etc. e.g.: If an attacker is targeting you for exploitation and knows you're visiting debt consolidation sites, they might offer you financial help in return for favors. If you're frequenting ashleymadison.com and you're married, they might approach you with blackmail to not out you to your spouse. I don't mean this to be offensive but assuming you're un-blackmailable is rather naive.


              • Personal Habits: If you're a creature of habit (as most people are), over time, they can see the times of the day you're connected to the Internet and potentially from what device(s) and what location(s). If the attacker is targeting your house, they can derive when you work, when you're home, and how erratic a confidence-level is in predicting where you'll be tomorrow or the next day.







              share|improve this answer

























                up vote
                2
                down vote













                I'll try my hand at this one... Keep in mind that there is a difference between 'all possible' and 'targeted attacks'. With that in mind, I'd break up the attack types into at least two categories: cyber and behavioral. They can be derived from one another but are inherently different in nature.



                Cyber threats to someone having access to your URLs:




                • HTTP POST/GET Variables -- If a particular website practices poor security standards like including sensitive personally identifiable information or secrets (passwords) in reversible or plaintext methods, this is probably the most apparent--but as I said in @schroeder's answer comments, you'd have to evaluate each URL as https://someco.com/sub1/?var1=something;var2=somethingelse might be securely written but http://someco.com/sub2/var1=something;var2=secrets. This is because most large web presences have a small army of web developers working on their front-end, back-end, and everything in between. Where there is a lack of standards in each org (which is never known to us, end-users) one part of a page may be worse off than others.


                • While session data also has interesting information, it cannot be gleaned from URLs alone. So while interesting from a host-compromise scenario, it's not applicable here which is why I asked for scope of the question in my original comment.



                Cyber+Behavioral threats to someone having access to your URLs




                • Personal Weaknesses: What sites you frequent indicates social patterns: likes/dislikes, politics, health, wealth, etc. e.g.: If an attacker is targeting you for exploitation and knows you're visiting debt consolidation sites, they might offer you financial help in return for favors. If you're frequenting ashleymadison.com and you're married, they might approach you with blackmail to not out you to your spouse. I don't mean this to be offensive but assuming you're un-blackmailable is rather naive.


                • Personal Habits: If you're a creature of habit (as most people are), over time, they can see the times of the day you're connected to the Internet and potentially from what device(s) and what location(s). If the attacker is targeting your house, they can derive when you work, when you're home, and how erratic a confidence-level is in predicting where you'll be tomorrow or the next day.







                share|improve this answer























                  up vote
                  2
                  down vote










                  up vote
                  2
                  down vote









                  I'll try my hand at this one... Keep in mind that there is a difference between 'all possible' and 'targeted attacks'. With that in mind, I'd break up the attack types into at least two categories: cyber and behavioral. They can be derived from one another but are inherently different in nature.



                  Cyber threats to someone having access to your URLs:




                  • HTTP POST/GET Variables -- If a particular website practices poor security standards like including sensitive personally identifiable information or secrets (passwords) in reversible or plaintext methods, this is probably the most apparent--but as I said in @schroeder's answer comments, you'd have to evaluate each URL as https://someco.com/sub1/?var1=something;var2=somethingelse might be securely written but http://someco.com/sub2/var1=something;var2=secrets. This is because most large web presences have a small army of web developers working on their front-end, back-end, and everything in between. Where there is a lack of standards in each org (which is never known to us, end-users) one part of a page may be worse off than others.


                  • While session data also has interesting information, it cannot be gleaned from URLs alone. So while interesting from a host-compromise scenario, it's not applicable here which is why I asked for scope of the question in my original comment.



                  Cyber+Behavioral threats to someone having access to your URLs




                  • Personal Weaknesses: What sites you frequent indicates social patterns: likes/dislikes, politics, health, wealth, etc. e.g.: If an attacker is targeting you for exploitation and knows you're visiting debt consolidation sites, they might offer you financial help in return for favors. If you're frequenting ashleymadison.com and you're married, they might approach you with blackmail to not out you to your spouse. I don't mean this to be offensive but assuming you're un-blackmailable is rather naive.


                  • Personal Habits: If you're a creature of habit (as most people are), over time, they can see the times of the day you're connected to the Internet and potentially from what device(s) and what location(s). If the attacker is targeting your house, they can derive when you work, when you're home, and how erratic a confidence-level is in predicting where you'll be tomorrow or the next day.







                  share|improve this answer












                  I'll try my hand at this one... Keep in mind that there is a difference between 'all possible' and 'targeted attacks'. With that in mind, I'd break up the attack types into at least two categories: cyber and behavioral. They can be derived from one another but are inherently different in nature.



                  Cyber threats to someone having access to your URLs:




                  • HTTP POST/GET Variables -- If a particular website practices poor security standards like including sensitive personally identifiable information or secrets (passwords) in reversible or plaintext methods, this is probably the most apparent--but as I said in @schroeder's answer comments, you'd have to evaluate each URL as https://someco.com/sub1/?var1=something;var2=somethingelse might be securely written but http://someco.com/sub2/var1=something;var2=secrets. This is because most large web presences have a small army of web developers working on their front-end, back-end, and everything in between. Where there is a lack of standards in each org (which is never known to us, end-users) one part of a page may be worse off than others.


                  • While session data also has interesting information, it cannot be gleaned from URLs alone. So while interesting from a host-compromise scenario, it's not applicable here which is why I asked for scope of the question in my original comment.



                  Cyber+Behavioral threats to someone having access to your URLs




                  • Personal Weaknesses: What sites you frequent indicates social patterns: likes/dislikes, politics, health, wealth, etc. e.g.: If an attacker is targeting you for exploitation and knows you're visiting debt consolidation sites, they might offer you financial help in return for favors. If you're frequenting ashleymadison.com and you're married, they might approach you with blackmail to not out you to your spouse. I don't mean this to be offensive but assuming you're un-blackmailable is rather naive.


                  • Personal Habits: If you're a creature of habit (as most people are), over time, they can see the times of the day you're connected to the Internet and potentially from what device(s) and what location(s). If the attacker is targeting your house, they can derive when you work, when you're home, and how erratic a confidence-level is in predicting where you'll be tomorrow or the next day.








                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 14 hours ago









                  thepip3r

                  36718




                  36718






















                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      To add to the post about information leakage in URL:



                      An attacker that has this may:



                      1: Extract what sites you use to try and log into to see if you are using the same creds [assumes attacker has captured a cred]



                      2: This info grants much more advanced knowledge for creating phishing attacks EX: "you've been selected to screen the new MLP season [whatever]"



                      3: Possible physical tracking based on sites "oh their kid goes to "little gals daycare" because I see them log into to pay that bill"



                      Could be more depending on what's in there.






                      share|improve this answer























                      • I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                        – Acccumulation
                        yesterday










                      • @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                        – bashCypher
                        yesterday










                      • @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                        – schroeder
                        23 hours ago















                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      To add to the post about information leakage in URL:



                      An attacker that has this may:



                      1: Extract what sites you use to try and log into to see if you are using the same creds [assumes attacker has captured a cred]



                      2: This info grants much more advanced knowledge for creating phishing attacks EX: "you've been selected to screen the new MLP season [whatever]"



                      3: Possible physical tracking based on sites "oh their kid goes to "little gals daycare" because I see them log into to pay that bill"



                      Could be more depending on what's in there.






                      share|improve this answer























                      • I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                        – Acccumulation
                        yesterday










                      • @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                        – bashCypher
                        yesterday










                      • @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                        – schroeder
                        23 hours ago













                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote










                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote









                      To add to the post about information leakage in URL:



                      An attacker that has this may:



                      1: Extract what sites you use to try and log into to see if you are using the same creds [assumes attacker has captured a cred]



                      2: This info grants much more advanced knowledge for creating phishing attacks EX: "you've been selected to screen the new MLP season [whatever]"



                      3: Possible physical tracking based on sites "oh their kid goes to "little gals daycare" because I see them log into to pay that bill"



                      Could be more depending on what's in there.






                      share|improve this answer














                      To add to the post about information leakage in URL:



                      An attacker that has this may:



                      1: Extract what sites you use to try and log into to see if you are using the same creds [assumes attacker has captured a cred]



                      2: This info grants much more advanced knowledge for creating phishing attacks EX: "you've been selected to screen the new MLP season [whatever]"



                      3: Possible physical tracking based on sites "oh their kid goes to "little gals daycare" because I see them log into to pay that bill"



                      Could be more depending on what's in there.







                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited yesterday

























                      answered yesterday









                      bashCypher

                      680111




                      680111












                      • I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                        – Acccumulation
                        yesterday










                      • @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                        – bashCypher
                        yesterday










                      • @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                        – schroeder
                        23 hours ago


















                      • I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                        – Acccumulation
                        yesterday










                      • @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                        – schroeder
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                        – bashCypher
                        yesterday










                      • @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                        – schroeder
                        23 hours ago
















                      I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                      – schroeder
                      yesterday




                      I'm not sure how the URL parameters provide all that. Just the URLs would be enough.
                      – schroeder
                      yesterday




                      1




                      1




                      @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                      – Acccumulation
                      yesterday




                      @schroeder I didn't see that the question asked for only information that would need parameters.
                      – Acccumulation
                      yesterday












                      @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                      – schroeder
                      yesterday




                      @Acccumulation the focus is on the parameters, yes
                      – schroeder
                      yesterday




                      1




                      1




                      @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                      – bashCypher
                      yesterday




                      @schroeder parameters are mentioned but the question is: "What attacks are made possible by public release of my web history?" Please make sure to clearly check the question. Thank you.
                      – bashCypher
                      yesterday












                      @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                      – schroeder
                      23 hours ago




                      @bashCypher The OP discounts the sites themselves (domains), and explicitly states is concerned about "secure information might be passed in a URL somewhere" and " leakage of information via the URL itself". And the example is clearly about the large number of parameters.
                      – schroeder
                      23 hours ago










                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      Having your browsing history exposed means the attacker has in possession the list of url's your browser has accessed. From a complex url an attacker can identify these information:




                      1. Protocol

                      2. Subdomain

                      3. Domain

                      4. Port

                      5. Path

                      6. Parameters of a query

                      7. Fragment


                      enter image description here



                      Now, your privacy depends on the way the developer has built the site.



                      If you logged in in a website that has an url like this:



                      www.example.com/?login=**myusers**&password=**mypassword**


                      then the attacker has your credentials for that site.



                      Some of possible attacks would be:




                      1. sql injection

                      2. URL Manipulation

                      3. Directory Traversal

                      4. Identify theft


                      In simple words, your privacy/risk depends on the security level the site has.






                      share|improve this answer



















                      • 5




                        All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday












                      • Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                        – Vini7
                        yesterday






                      • 6




                        Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday















                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote













                      Having your browsing history exposed means the attacker has in possession the list of url's your browser has accessed. From a complex url an attacker can identify these information:




                      1. Protocol

                      2. Subdomain

                      3. Domain

                      4. Port

                      5. Path

                      6. Parameters of a query

                      7. Fragment


                      enter image description here



                      Now, your privacy depends on the way the developer has built the site.



                      If you logged in in a website that has an url like this:



                      www.example.com/?login=**myusers**&password=**mypassword**


                      then the attacker has your credentials for that site.



                      Some of possible attacks would be:




                      1. sql injection

                      2. URL Manipulation

                      3. Directory Traversal

                      4. Identify theft


                      In simple words, your privacy/risk depends on the security level the site has.






                      share|improve this answer



















                      • 5




                        All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday












                      • Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                        – Vini7
                        yesterday






                      • 6




                        Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday













                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote










                      up vote
                      0
                      down vote









                      Having your browsing history exposed means the attacker has in possession the list of url's your browser has accessed. From a complex url an attacker can identify these information:




                      1. Protocol

                      2. Subdomain

                      3. Domain

                      4. Port

                      5. Path

                      6. Parameters of a query

                      7. Fragment


                      enter image description here



                      Now, your privacy depends on the way the developer has built the site.



                      If you logged in in a website that has an url like this:



                      www.example.com/?login=**myusers**&password=**mypassword**


                      then the attacker has your credentials for that site.



                      Some of possible attacks would be:




                      1. sql injection

                      2. URL Manipulation

                      3. Directory Traversal

                      4. Identify theft


                      In simple words, your privacy/risk depends on the security level the site has.






                      share|improve this answer














                      Having your browsing history exposed means the attacker has in possession the list of url's your browser has accessed. From a complex url an attacker can identify these information:




                      1. Protocol

                      2. Subdomain

                      3. Domain

                      4. Port

                      5. Path

                      6. Parameters of a query

                      7. Fragment


                      enter image description here



                      Now, your privacy depends on the way the developer has built the site.



                      If you logged in in a website that has an url like this:



                      www.example.com/?login=**myusers**&password=**mypassword**


                      then the attacker has your credentials for that site.



                      Some of possible attacks would be:




                      1. sql injection

                      2. URL Manipulation

                      3. Directory Traversal

                      4. Identify theft


                      In simple words, your privacy/risk depends on the security level the site has.







                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited yesterday









                      AndrolGenhald

                      8,98241831




                      8,98241831










                      answered yesterday









                      Vini7

                      559413




                      559413








                      • 5




                        All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday












                      • Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                        – Vini7
                        yesterday






                      • 6




                        Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday














                      • 5




                        All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday












                      • Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                        – Vini7
                        yesterday






                      • 6




                        Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                        – AndrolGenhald
                        yesterday








                      5




                      5




                      All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                      – AndrolGenhald
                      yesterday






                      All of the attacks you list are attacks that could be possible against sites that he visited, none of them are attacks against him made possible by disclosure of the urls. URL Manipulation could be relevant, but I don't see how sql injection or directory traversal are.
                      – AndrolGenhald
                      yesterday














                      Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                      – Vini7
                      yesterday




                      Bad security of a site, brings automatically a threat to the users whom have information stored on that site.
                      – Vini7
                      yesterday




                      6




                      6




                      Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                      – AndrolGenhald
                      yesterday




                      Absolutely, but that threat exists with or without OP's browser history being exposed. The browser history may allow someone targeting him to look for vulnerabilities in those specific sites because they know he has an account there, but I certainly wouldn't say "sql injection is made possible by public release of browser history".
                      – AndrolGenhald
                      yesterday










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