CompTIA CASP+ Practice Test

What vulnerability is evident in the given source code of 'AuthenticatedArea.php'?

1. Cross-site scripting

2. SQL injection

3. Remote file inclusion

4. Buffer overflow

The correct answer is: Cross-site scripting

In the context of web security vulnerabilities, cross-site scripting (XSS) occurs when applications allow users to input data that is then displayed without proper validation or encoding. If the 'AuthenticatedArea.php' code is indeed vulnerable to XSS, it would mean that user inputs or data retrieved from a database are output to a web page without sanitizing them. As a consequence, an attacker could insert malicious scripts into the input fields, which would later execute in the browser of anyone viewing the affected page. This can lead to scenarios such as session hijacking, data theft, or other malicious activity affecting users. XSS vulnerabilities are typically identified by looking for dynamic data presentation that fails to properly escape or encode output where it can be executed as part of the page’s JavaScript context. The presence of variables or user input that are reflected in the web page output without encoding points to an XSS vulnerability. Other vulnerabilities such as SQL injection usually involve violations related to database queries, where user input is not properly escaped. Remote file inclusion pertains to server-side risks associated with including files from external sources due to inadequate input validation. Buffer overflow vulnerabilities relate to memory management issues in applications, often in languages like C or C++, and wouldn't typically arise in