Critical Zero-Day in Indian Government Web App
Silent Breach Labs

Silent Breach’s Red Team has uncovered a critical zero-day vulnerability within a key Indian government web application. This flaw, embedded in an exposed configuration file, revealed a wide array of secrets capable of handing over full control to any determined threat actor.
Background
While conducting proactive reconnaissance as part of our global threat surface monitoring operations, Silent Breach identified an open ".env" file—a common configuration file used in Laravel-based web applications—left publicly accessible online. This single file acted as a skeleton key, providing root-level administrative access, unrestricted cloud storage credentials, encrypted communication secrets, and control over application-level authentication and messaging infrastructure.
Technical Breakdown
Among the sensitive data exposed were complete MySQL root credentials, giving unrestricted access to government databases labeled under DB_DATABASE=laravel. The file also included full AWS S3 cloud storage credentials (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_BUCKET), making it possible for an attacker to browse, delete, or exfiltrate terabytes of sensitive government documents. Real-time communication channels, facilitated via Pusher, were similarly exposed through unredacted PUSHER_APP_KEY and PUSHER_APP_SECRET values, offering adversaries the ability to intercept or spoof live communications. The SMTP configuration allowed for email hijacking via Mailtrap, while the presence of a valid Laravel APP_KEY enabled an attacker to forge user sessions and authentication tokens.
In aggregate, this meant that a single unprotected file held the keys to breach, impersonate, manipulate, and even destroy critical data flows and user access mechanisms across the platform. The practical implications were severe: a capable actor could impersonate government officials, issue false communications, exfiltrate citizen data from cloud buckets, or use the mail server to deliver high-trust phishing campaigns.
Strategic Significance
What makes this zero-day particularly concerning is its simplicity. No complex exploit chain, brute-force techniques, or social engineering were required. Instead, the entire compromise was achievable through a publicly accessible endpoint that had gone unnoticed during standard vulnerability scans and configuration audits.
Silent Breach promptly and responsibly disclosed this vulnerability via Open Bug Bounty (https://www.openbugbounty.org/reports/4097706/), allowing the Indian government time to secure the system and rotate exposed secrets before the issue became public.
This incident illustrates a critical lesson in modern cybersecurity: misconfigurations are now just as dangerous as memory corruption bugs or logic flaws. As infrastructures grow increasingly complex and distributed, secure configuration hygiene must be treated as a first-class security concern.
Silent Breach remains committed to protecting what matters most through offensive research, advanced threat intelligence, and global monitoring operations. If your organization relies on publicly exposed applications or third-party platforms, Silent Breach offers hardened red teaming and exposure assessment services to ensure you remain secure in an increasingly adversarial digital world.
To learn more or request a targeted threat simulation, contact Silent Breach today.
About Silent Breach: Silent Breach is an award-winning provider of cyber security services. Our global team provides cutting-edge insights and expertise across the Data Center, Enterprise, SME, Retail, Government, Finance, Education, Automotive, Hospitality, Healthcare and IoT industries.
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