Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

What should a security professional do when encountering suspicious applications that handle passwords?

1. Ignore them

2. Check them for vulnerabilities

3. Immediately uninstall them

4. Create backups of their data

The correct answer is: Check them for vulnerabilities

When encountering suspicious applications that handle passwords, checking them for vulnerabilities is a crucial step for a security professional. This approach allows the professional to assess whether the application could pose a security risk, such as being susceptible to exploitation or containing weaknesses that could lead to data breaches. By analyzing the application’s code, functionalities, and security measures, the professional can identify potential issues and take appropriate actions to mitigate risks. Additionally, simply ignoring the applications could lead to undetected security threats, while immediately uninstalling them might remove a tool that could potentially be safely used after remediation. Creating backups of data is a useful safety practice but does not address the need to evaluate and potentially secure the application. Thus, checking for vulnerabilities is the most proactive and responsible measure to ensure the security of sensitive information managed by the application.