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Google Cloud Document AI Flaw Could Allow Theft

Vulnerabilities in cloud service disclosed.


A vulnerability exists in Google Cloud's Document AI service which could facilitate data exfiltration.

According to media reports, an attacker with adequate permissions could establish or alter processors even in organizations not using Document AI due to access being provided by the service's Core Service Agent, said researchers from Vectra AI. 

The researchers determined that as Document AI allows users to process documents stored in Cloud Storage by creating both online (standard) jobs and offline (batch) processing jobs; when performing batch processing, the service utilizes the Document AI Core Service Agent to handle data ingestion and output the results.

“Critically, this service agent possesses broad permissions to access any Cloud Storage bucket within the same project,” researchers said.

On top of that, the Document AI service is vulnerable to transitive access abuse, which can lead to unauthorised access and data theft.

Dan Raywood
Dan Raywood

Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.

He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.

Dan Raywood
Dan Raywood

Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.

He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.

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