Exposing passwords in a passwords.txt file can lead to:

: Users or admins accidentally leaving clear-text password files in public folders.

Many people believe that if they don't link to a file, it remains invisible. This is a dangerous myth. Search engine bots (and automated scrapers) are constantly "crawling" the web. If your directory allows indexing, those "hidden" text files will eventually be cataloged and searchable by anyone using specific queries [1, 3]. How to Protect Your Data Disable Directory Browsing: