Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v13) — Question 250

While testing a web application in development, you notice that the web server does not properly ignore the “dot dot slash” (../) character string and instead returns the file listing of a folder higher up in the folder structure of the server.
What kind of attack is possible in this scenario?

Answer options

• A. Cross-site scripting
• B. SQL injection
• C. Denial of service
• D. Directory traversal

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is Directory traversal because the web server's failure to properly handle the '../' input allows an attacker to navigate the file system and access files outside the intended directory. The other options, such as Cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and Denial of service, involve different methods of exploitation and do not relate to the issue of navigating the file system.