A route leak is a situation in which a network, often an autonomous system (AS), incorrectly announces routes it has learned from one provider or peer to another provider or peer. This misconfiguration causes Internet traffic to flow through unintended or insecure paths, potentially exposing sensitive data or enabling malicious interception. Route leaks can occur due to errors in routing policies or mismanagement of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configurations. They can degrade network performance, cause traffic outages, or facilitate man-in-the-middle attacks. Detecting and mitigating route leaks is crucial for maintaining the security and stability of global Internet routing.