Cisco Cyber Security Practice Exam

What type of attack occurs when an attacker floods the memory of an application to gain control over a device?

1. Denial of Service

2. Buffer Overflow

3. SQL Injection

4. Cross-Site Scripting

The correct answer is: Buffer Overflow

A buffer overflow attack occurs when an attacker intentionally sends more data to a program than it can handle. This excess data can overflow into adjacent memory, allowing the attacker to manipulate the application’s control flow. By exploiting a buffer overflow, the attacker may gain unauthorized control over a device or application, often leading to the execution of arbitrary code or the injection of malicious payloads. Understanding buffer overflow is critical in cybersecurity because it highlights vulnerabilities in how applications handle memory. Applications that do not properly validate input lengths, or that allocate insufficient memory for user-submitted data, are particularly susceptible to this type of attack. In contrast, other types of attacks mentioned, such as Denial of Service, focus on overwhelming a service to make it unavailable rather than exploiting memory directly, while SQL Injection targets databases by inserting malicious SQL statements into queries. Cross-Site Scripting involves injecting scripts into web pages viewed by users, which does not involve direct manipulation of application memory. Each of these attack types serves different purposes and exploits different vulnerabilities within systems or applications.