Which security mechanism is the LEAST effective against common web application attacks?

Homework Help: Questions and Answers: Which security mechanism is the LEAST effective against common web application attacks?

a) Blacklisting
b) Whitelisting
c) Escaping
d) Parameterized queries

Answer:

First, let’s understand the question: It’s about which security mechanism is the least effective against common web application attacks.

Given Options: Step by Step Answering

a) Blacklisting

• Blacklisting involves blocking known malicious inputs or characters. For example, banning certain SQL keywords to prevent SQL injection attacks.
• This method is often less effective because attackers can use unblocked variations of malicious inputs. New attack vectors or obfuscation techniques can easily bypass the blacklist. Backlisting is not a foolproof method since it can miss unknown threats or newer variations of attacks.

b) Whitelisting

• Whitelisting involves allowing only predefined, safe inputs (e.g., allowing only digits in a phone number field).
• This is generally more effective than blacklisting because it limits inputs to only what is strictly necessary and excludes everything else. It’s a stronger security mechanism than blacklisting.

c) Escaping

• Escaping ensures that user inputs are treated as plain text rather than executable code. For example, HTML escaping converts characters like < and > into < and > to prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
• Escaping is an effective way to mitigate attacks like XSS by preventing execution of malicious scripts. Escaping is a well-established security mechanism.

d) Parameterized queries

• Parameterized queries use placeholders for user inputs, ensuring that input data is treated as parameters rather than part of the SQL command.
• This is one of the most effective methods to prevent SQL injection attacks because it prevents user input from altering the query structure. It’s a highly reliable method for preventing SQL injection.

Final Answer:

Based on the above analysis, the correct answer is: 

a) Blacklisting

Blacklisting is the least effective option because it can be easily bypassed by sophisticated attackers using unknown or obfuscated inputs.

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