SECAI Core · phase 11 of 15 · noun
Sensitive information disclosure
When the model unintentionally reveals private or proprietary data
The Explain card
- Plain English
- Sensitive information disclosure is when a model unintentionally reveals private or proprietary data, whether memorized training data, other users' inputs, or internal configuration.
- Example
- A coding assistant, asked for a sample config file, outputs a real API key that appeared in a repository within its training data.
- Why it matters
- LLMs can regurgitate what they were trained on and whatever sits in their context. Defenders scrub training data, scan outputs for secrets, and keep tenant data strictly separated.
- Hook
- The model that talks in its sleep.
Word knowledge
How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.
In a sentence
During a red-team test, the evaluator logged sensitive information disclosure when the chatbot printed an API key from its system prompt.
Why these words
- sensitive Medieval Latin sensitivus, capable of sensation marks the material as requiring protection or careful handling
- information Latin informatio, conception or instruction names the material involved in the security event
- disclosure from disclose, based on Old French desclore, to open classifies the event as an exposure
Where it came from
- Origin
- Modern English compound built from sensitive, information, and disclosure, ultimately drawing on Latin and Old French roots
- Entered the language
- 20th century
- What changed
- Sensitive moved from physical perception to protected status, information became closely associated with stored data, and disclosure developed into a formal security term.
How it is spelled
- Pattern
- sensitive ends in the adjective suffix -ive
- Pattern
- information ends in the noun suffix -ation
- Pattern
- disclosure ends in -sure, as does closure
Spelled like
- responsive
- formation
- confirmation
- closure
- exposure
Broken into chunks
-
sens
- sense
- sensation
- sensory
-
inform
- inform
- informative
- informed
-
clos
- close
- closure
- enclose
What it sits beside
Same subject
- data leakage
- prompt injection
- model inversion
- training data extraction
Same shape
- sensitive data exposure
- confidential information disclosure
- personal data breach
AI security findings
- sensitive information disclosure
- prompt injection
- model extraction
protected information
- API keys
- personal data
- proprietary source code
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 11: Threat Landscape: Attack Vectors and Adversarial Techniques
With defences named, learn what they must defend against — the full catalogue of attack techniques targeting AI systems, their inputs, outputs, training pipelines, and supply chains.
