Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

What type of attack was performed when a malicious link tricked an employee into exposing their device?

1. Phishing attack

2. User-initiated code

3. Replay attack

4. Sniffing attack

The correct answer is: User-initiated code

The attack described, where a malicious link tricks an employee into exposing their device, aligns with a phishing attack. In this scenario, phishing typically involves deceiving a user into clicking a link or providing sensitive information, which can lead to malware installation or data theft. User-initiated code would imply that the user intentionally executed a piece of code that resulted in unintended consequences, but in the context of this question, we are looking at how an attack was specifically orchestrated to manipulate the user into taking action, rather than the consequence of them executing code themselves. Phishing is the term that captures the essence of this deceptive act, where social engineering is leveraged to gain access to a device or data. Replay attacks involve capturing and replaying valid data transmissions, while sniffing attacks focus more on intercepting network traffic. Neither of these accurately reflects the behavior described in the question, which focuses on the pivotal role of user deception through a malicious link.