Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

What type of failure occurs when an application does not validate input data properly?

1. Misconfiguration

2. Injection flaws

3. Authorization failure

4. Information disclosure

The correct answer is: Injection flaws

When an application fails to validate input data properly, it leads to what are known as injection flaws. This type of failure occurs when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. If the application does not enforce strict guidelines on the input, an attacker can manipulate the data to execute harmful commands. For example, SQL injection is a common type of injection flaw where an attacker can input malicious SQL code through an input field, which the database then executes without proper validation. This can lead to unauthorized data access, data modification, or even full database compromise. In contrast, misconfiguration usually refers to incorrect settings within an application or system, which may expose it to vulnerabilities but does not specifically involve input data. Authorization failures occur when a system inadequately checks whether a user has permission to execute an action, which is not directly related to input validation. Information disclosure pertains to unauthorized access to sensitive information within an application, resulting from various types of vulnerabilities but again separate from the input validation issues that lead to injection flaws. Thus, injection flaws distinctly highlight failures in how data is processed and validated by an application.