312-49 · Question #431
Jonathan is a network administrator who is currently testing the internal security of his network. He is attempting to hijack a session, using Ettercap, of a user connected to his Web server. Why…
The correct answer is C. HTTP protocol does not maintain session. Jonathan will not succeed in hijacking an HTTP session using Ettercap because HTTP is a stateless protocol and does not inherently maintain session state.
Question
Jonathan is a network administrator who is currently testing the internal security of his network. He is attempting to hijack a session, using Ettercap, of a user connected to his Web server. Why will Jonathan not succeed?
Options
- AOnly FTP traffic can be hijacked
- BOnly an HTTPS session can be hijacked
- CHTTP protocol does not maintain session
- DOnly DNS traffic can be hijacked
How the community answered
(50 responses)- A4% (2)
- B2% (1)
- C92% (46)
- D2% (1)
Why each option
Jonathan will not succeed in hijacking an HTTP session using Ettercap because HTTP is a stateless protocol and does not inherently maintain session state.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sessions are stateful and can be vulnerable to hijacking if not secured, so this statement is incorrect.
HTTPS sessions, being encrypted, are generally *more resistant* to hijacking than HTTP sessions because the encryption protects session tokens and communication from eavesdropping and tampering.
The HTTP protocol itself is stateless, meaning each request from a client to a server is treated as an independent transaction without inherent knowledge of previous requests. While web applications use mechanisms like cookies or URL rewriting to manage user sessions *on top of* HTTP, the protocol fundamentally does not maintain a persistent session that can be hijacked in the same manner as stateful protocols, making direct HTTP session hijacking problematic without targeting these higher-layer mechanisms.
DNS traffic can be manipulated or poisoned (e.g., DNS spoofing), but 'DNS session hijacking' in the context of user application sessions is not a typical attack vector; it relates more to redirecting traffic or resolving hostnames maliciously.
Concept tested: HTTP statelessness, session hijacking fundamentals
Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/HTTP_session_management
Topics
Community Discussion
No community discussion yet for this question.