Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

What type of attack was performed by William on the deprovisioned cloud server?

1. Cross-site scripting

2. Phishing attack

3. Cloudborne attack

4. Insider threat

The correct answer is: Cloudborne attack

A cloudborne attack refers to any malicious activity that targets cloud computing environments directly, often leveraging vulnerabilities specific to cloud services. In this context, if William executed an attack on a deprovisioned cloud server, it implies he took advantage of weaknesses associated with cloud storage or services that are no longer actively managed or secured. The fact that the server was deprovisioned suggests it was removed from active service, possibly leaving residual data or security flaws that could be exploited without the usual protective measures in place. This allows an attacker like William to access information or resources that should have been eliminated or secured during the decommissioning process. In contrast, cross-site scripting is a web security vulnerability that allows an attacker to inject malicious scripts into content from otherwise trusted websites. Phishing is a social engineering technique used to deceive individuals into providing sensitive information. An insider threat typically involves an individual with authorized access exploiting their privileges for malicious purposes. While all these techniques can be dangerous, the scenario specifically highlights an attack targeted at a cloud server, making cloudborne attack the most applicable choice in this situation.