A zone file consists of which of the following Resource Records (RRs)?
Correct Answer: D
Question 7
Which of the following viruses tries to hide from anti-virus programs by actively altering and corrupting the chosen service call interruptions when they are being run?
Correct Answer: A
Question 8
You need to deploy a new web-based software package for your organization. The package requires three separate servers and needs to be available on the Internet. What is the recommended architecture in terms of server placement?
Correct Answer: A
Question 9
As a cybersecurity professional, you are responsible for securing a high-traffic web application that uses MySQL as its backend database. Recently, there has been a surge of unauthorized login attempts, and you suspect that a seasoned black-hat hacker is behind them. This hacker has shown proficiency in SQL Injection and appears to be using the 'UNION' SQL keyword to trick the login process into returning additional data. However, your application's security measures include filtering special characters in user inputs, a method usually effective against such attacks. In this challenging environment, if the hacker still intends to exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability, which strategy is he most likely to employ?
Correct Answer: D
SQL Injection is a type of attack that exploits a vulnerability in a web application that uses a SQL database. The attacker injects malicious SQL code into the user input, such as a login form, that is then executed by the database server. This can allow the attacker to access, modify, or delete data, or execute commands on the database server. The 'UNION' SQL keyword is often used in SQL Injection attacks to combine the results of two or more SELECT statements into a single result set. This can allow the attacker to retrieve additional data from other tables or columns that are not intended to be displayed by the application. For example, if the application uses the following query to check the user credentials: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '$username' AND password = '$password' The attacker can inject a 'UNION' statement to append another query, such as: ' OR 1 = 1 UNION SELECT * FROM credit_cards -- This will result in the following query being executed by the database server: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '' OR 1 = 1 UNION SELECT * FROM credit_cards --' AND password = '$password' The first part of the query will always return true, and the second part of the query will return the data from the credit_cards table. The '-' symbol is a comment that will ignore the rest of the query. The attacker can then see the credit card information in the application's response. However, some web applications implement security measures to prevent SQL Injection attacks, such as filtering special characters in user inputs. Special characters are symbols that have a special meaning in SQL, such as quotes, semicolons, dashes, etc. By filtering or escaping these characters, the application can prevent the attacker from injecting malicious SQL code. For example, if the application replaces single quotes with two single quotes, the previous injection attempt will fail, as the query will become: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '''' OR 1 = 1 UNION SELECT * FROM credit_cards --'' AND password = '$password' This will result in a syntax error, as the query is not valid SQL. In this challenging environment, if the hacker still intends to exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability, the strategy that he is most likely to employ is to bypass the special character filter by encoding his malicious input. Encoding is a process of transforming data into a different format, such as hexadecimal, base64, URL, etc. By encoding his input, the hacker can avoid the filter and still inject malicious SQL code. For example, if the hacker encodes his input using URL encoding, the previous injection attempt will become: %27%20OR%201%20%3D%201%20UNION%20SELECT%20*%20FROM%20credit_cards%20-- This will result in the following query being executed by the database server, after the application decodes the input: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '' OR 1 = 1 UNION SELECT * FROM credit_cards --' AND password = '$password' This will succeed in returning the credit card information, as the filter will not detect the special characters in the encoded input. Therefore, the hacker is most likely to employ the strategy of bypassing the special character filter by encoding his malicious input, which could potentially enable him to successfully inject damaging SQL queries. References: * SQL Injection | OWASP Foundation * SQL Injection Union Attacks * SQL Injection Bypassing WAF
Question 10
Kevin, an encryption specialist, implemented a technique that enhances the security of keys used for encryption and authentication. Using this technique, Kevin input an initial key to an algorithm that generated an enhanced key that is resistant to brute-force attacks. What is the technique employed by Kevin to improve the security of encryption keys?
