Inside the Looker Breach: How Two Critical Flaws Opened Google’s Data Vaults

In the high-stakes world of business intelligence, data is king - and sometimes, the crown jewels are left dangerously exposed. This was the case with Google Looker, a popular analytics platform trusted by Fortune 500s and startups alike. Recent findings by Tenable, a leading cybersecurity firm, have uncovered two glaring vulnerabilities that, if left unchecked, could have given threat actors the keys to entire corporate kingdoms.

Fast Facts

• Two critical vulnerabilities - dubbed “LookOut” - were discovered in Google Looker by Tenable researchers.
• These flaws allowed attackers with developer permissions to achieve remote code execution and steal sensitive information.
• The vulnerabilities could enable full admin control, data manipulation, and even cross-tenant attacks in cloud environments.
• Google patched the issues in late September 2025 for its cloud-hosted instances; self-hosted users must update manually.
• No evidence of exploitation in the wild was found, but the risk window was significant.

Cracks in the Cloud: How Looker’s Weaknesses Emerged

Google Looker serves as a nerve center for organizational data, consolidating disparate datasets into a single, powerful platform for real-time analytics and dashboarding. Enterprises rely on its robust capabilities to drive business decisions, often trusting Looker with their most sensitive data. But what happens when the platform itself becomes a vector for attack?

Tenable’s investigation uncovered two vulnerabilities, collectively codenamed “LookOut.” The first, a remote code execution (RCE) flaw, could be exploited by anyone with developer-level access to a Looker instance. With this foothold, an attacker could escalate privileges, seize full administrative control, and move laterally within the organization’s infrastructure - potentially accessing secrets, manipulating core data, or even breaching additional systems within the network.

The second flaw was an authorization bypass, allowing attackers to latch onto Looker’s internal database connections. Using a technique known as error-based SQL injection, malicious actors could exfiltrate the entire internal MySQL database - an unprecedented data heist, all from within the platform’s walls.

Of particular concern was the risk in cloud-hosted Looker instances: the vulnerabilities could theoretically enable cross-tenant attacks, letting a single compromise ripple out to multiple organizations sharing the same cloud infrastructure. While Google rapidly issued patches for its managed cloud users in September 2025, customers managing their own Looker deployments were left to fend for themselves and urged to update immediately.

No evidence has emerged that these vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild, but the implications are sobering. With business intelligence platforms sitting at the heart of modern enterprises, the stakes for security have never been higher.

Reflections: Trust, But Verify

The Looker incident is a stark reminder: even the most trusted platforms can harbor unseen dangers. As data continues to flow into the cloud and analytics become more central to business strategy, organizations must not only trust their tools - but rigorously verify their security as well. Vigilance, timely patching, and a healthy dose of skepticism remain the best defenses in a landscape where today’s insights could become tomorrow’s exposures.

WIKICROOK

• Remote Code Execution (RCE): Remote Code Execution (RCE) is when an attacker runs their own code on a victim’s system, often leading to full control or compromise of that system.
• SQL Injection: SQL Injection is a hacking technique where attackers insert malicious code into user inputs to trick a database into executing harmful commands.
• Cross: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a cyberattack where hackers inject malicious code into websites to steal user data or hijack sessions.
• Authorization Bypass: Authorization bypass is a flaw that allows users to access systems or data without proper permission checks, leading to potential security risks.
• Privilege Escalation: Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker gains higher-level access, moving from a regular user account to administrator privileges on a system or network.