Multiple choice technology security

With a successful format string attack against the web application, the attacker is able to …

  1. Read only certain memory areas using the %s token

  2. Write only certain areas using other tokens

  3. Read and write to memory at will

  4. None of the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Format string attacks occur when user input is passed as the format string to functions like printf() without validation. Using format specifiers like %s (read), %n (write), and %x (read), attackers can read arbitrary memory contents and write to arbitrary memory addresses, potentially executing arbitrary code. Options A and B are incomplete - format string attacks enable both reading and writing memory.

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