What is the common cause of buffer over flows, cross-site scripting, SQL injection and format string attacks?
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Unvalidated input
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Lack of authentication
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Improper error handing
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Insecure configuration management
All these vulnerabilities share a root cause: insufficient validation or sanitization of untrusted input. When user input is not properly validated before use, attackers can manipulate it to trigger buffer overflows, inject malicious scripts or SQL commands, or exploit format string vulnerabilities.
Buffer overflows, XSS, SQL injection, and format string bugs all stem from the same root cause: the application trusts and processes attacker-supplied input without validating its length, type, or content before using it. If input were properly validated/sanitized at the trust boundary, each of these distinct attack classes would be blocked, which is why 'unvalidated input' is the common thread rather than authentication or configuration issues.