312-50V13 · Question #425
Which of the following web vulnerabilities would an attacker be attempting to exploit if they delivered the following input?
The correct answer is A. XXE. An attacker delivering XML input with references to external entities aims to exploit an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in the application's XML parser.
Question
Options
- AXXE
- BSQLi
- CIDOR
- DXXS
How the community answered
(51 responses)- A92% (47)
- C2% (1)
- D6% (3)
Why each option
An attacker delivering XML input with references to external entities aims to exploit an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in the application's XML parser.
XXE exploits occur when a web application processes XML input containing external entity references, allowing the attacker to access files on the server, execute server-side requests, or disclose internal network information by tricking the XML parser into retrieving malicious content. This vulnerability leverages features designed for legitimate XML document processing but misconfigured or inadequately secured.
SQLi (SQL Injection) exploits vulnerabilities in database queries, not XML parsing, by injecting malicious SQL code into input fields.
IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) involves bypassing authorization checks to directly access protected resources, which is unrelated to the type of input delivered in this context.
XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) involves injecting malicious client-side scripts into web pages to be executed in a user's browser, which is a different attack vector than server-side XML processing.
Concept tested: XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability
Source: https://owasp.org/www-project-top-ten/2017/A4_2017-XML_External_Entities_(XXE)
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