Steps to reproduce the issue

tested on Joomla 4.0-dev

Create a menu link to Smart Search
Visit that menu link and look in the Advanced Search -> Search by category dropdown - note what you see

UNPUBLISH all your categories.

Visit that menu link and look in the Advanced Search -> Search by category dropdown - note what you see

Expected result

I expect to NOT see any categories in the dropdown

Actual result

Smart search is leaking information and displaying the categories in the db

Also

repeat this with setting the categories to an ACL level your public has no access to (like Special or Super Users). Repeat the test. You can now view the categories name of items that are restricted to you by ACL.

This is probably a security issue then as its ACL not being applied correctly too.

@joomla/security