Topic 5.1: Application and Data Vulnerabilities and Attacks
An adversary enters the following text into a search field on a poorly designed e-commerce website: `'; DROP TABLE products; --`. The website then deletes its entire product database. This is an example of what type of attack?
A user visits a popular forum and reads a comment left by another user. Unbeknownst to them, the comment contains malicious JavaScript code. When the user's browser renders the comment, the script executes and steals the user's session cookie. This is a classic example of a:
An adversary crafts a URL for a web application like `http://example.com/viewfile.php?file=../../../../etc/passwd`. They are attempting to access a sensitive system file located outside of the web server's root directory. This attack is known as:
A program expects a user to enter their 10-digit phone number. The memory buffer allocated for this input is 11 bytes long. An adversary intentionally provides 100 bytes of data, which overwrites adjacent memory locations and causes the program to crash. This is a(n):
What is the fundamental vulnerability that allows injection attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting to succeed?
An organization stores its employee salary data in an unencrypted spreadsheet on a shared network drive that all employees can access. This primarily represents a risk to which security principle?
In a reflected (Type I) XSS attack, where is the malicious script typically embedded?
Why is giving regular users administrative privileges on their computers a security risk?
Topic 5.2: Protecting Applications and Data: Managerial Controls and Access Controls
Data that is currently stored on a hard drive or a backup tape is referred to as:
The Bell-LaPadula model is a Mandatory Access Control (MAC) model that enforces the rule 'write up, read down.' What is the primary goal of this model?
An organization's policy dictates that employees should only be granted the minimum level of access to data and systems necessary to perform their job duties. This policy is an implementation of:
Under a Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model, how is a user's permission to access a file determined?
A user runs the command `chmod 750 myfile.txt` on a Linux system. What permissions are set for the 'group' that owns the file?
Using the symbolic method in Linux, which command would remove write permission for 'others' (users not the owner and not in the group) on a file named `report.docx`?
A hospital must protect patient medical records. This type of data is classified as Protected Health Information (PHI) and is regulated by:
The concept of 'secure by default' means that:
Topics 5.3 & 5.4: Symmetric and Asymmetric Cryptography
A user wants to encrypt a file on their hard drive so that only they can read it. They use a password to generate a single key that is used for both encrypting and decrypting the file. This is an example of:
Alice wants to send a secure message to Bob using asymmetric encryption. Which key does Alice use to encrypt the message?
After receiving the encrypted message from Alice, which key does Bob use to decrypt it?
The security of asymmetric encryption relies on which of the following principles?
A security administrator is choosing an encryption algorithm. They note that AES can use keys of 128, 192, or 256 bits. Why would they choose a 256-bit key over a 128-bit key?
Which of the following is a primary disadvantage of symmetric encryption compared to asymmetric encryption?
AES is a block cipher. What does this mean?
The primary difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption is:
Topic 5.6: Detecting Attacks on Data and Applications
A security analyst places a file named `All_User_Passwords.xlsx` on a server. The file contains fake, but realistically formatted, data. An automated alert is configured to trigger if any user attempts to access this file. This security control is a(n):
A system administrator calculates the SHA256 hash of a critical configuration file and records it. A week later, they recalculate the hash and find that it is different. What can they conclude?
A company wants to ensure that a critical financial report has not been altered since it was created. Which cryptographic tool should they use to verify the report's integrity?
What is a primary limitation of using cryptographic hashes to detect attacks on data?
An organization's incident response plan includes a step to 'contain' a security breach. What is the primary goal of this step?
A security analyst is reviewing logs and sees a series of HTTP GET requests for URLs containing sequences of `../`. This is a strong indicator of an attempted:
A user's input to a web application is a very long string of 2,000 characters being submitted to a field that should only contain a 5-digit zip code. This could be an indicator of an attempted: