After a recent release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein exposed victim information, credentials and other sensitive data, new reports suggest the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not adequately redact all files, as select blacked-out documents contain raw email data. 

This discovery was made by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi, Founder of NeoSmart Technologies, a private software research and development firm. Al-Qudsi detailed his findings in a blog post, stating he’d come across it by accident. 

While searching the files, he uncovered something noteworthy: some emails contained pages of base64 code — which is the way SMTP email protocol codes attachments for transferal over wire. The result is “seemingly meaningless page after page of hex content,” but Al-Qudsi recognized it for what it was: raw email data. 

According to Cybernews, this enabled Al-Quisi and an online community experienced in cyber forensics to decode the email attachment and reconstruct it. 

While most of the files cannot be restored in this manner, as the exposed raw code only appears in select instances, this inadequate redaction nevertheless leaked information meant to be secured.