CompTIA CASP+ Practice Test

What application issue best describes a situation where a hacker can execute remote code due to a browser crash caused by accessing unused heap memory?

1. Memory Leak

2. Use after Free

3. Buffer Overflow

4. Race Condition

The correct answer is: Use after Free

The situation described involves a hacker executing remote code as a result of a browser crash related to accessing unused heap memory. This corresponds to the "Use after Free" vulnerability. In memory management, "Use after Free" occurs when a program continues to use a pointer after the memory that it points to has been freed or deallocated. In other words, the application no longer owns that memory, and accessing it can lead to unpredictable behavior, including crashes, data corruption, or execution of malicious code. This situation can be exploited by attackers to run malicious code using the memory that is freed, allowing them to control the execution flow of the application. Unlike other vulnerabilities, a memory leak involves allocating memory without proper deallocation, a buffer overflow typically refers to writing beyond the boundaries of allocated memory leading to corruption, and a race condition arises when the program's behavior depends on the timing of events, which is distinct from the described issue involving accessing freed memory. By accurately identifying "Use after Free," one can recognize a critical aspect of application security involving proper memory management and the risks posed by incorrect handling of memory allocations and deallocations.