A victim is logged onto a popular home router forum site in order to troubleshoot some router
configuration issues. The router is a fairly standard configuration and has an IP address of
192.168.1.1. The victim is logged into their router administrative interface in one tab and clicks a forum
link in another tab. Due to clicking the forum link, the home router reboots. Which of the following
attacks MOST likely occurred?

A.
Brute force password attack

B.
Cross-site request forgery

C.
Cross-site scripting

D.
Fuzzing

Explanation:
Cross-Site Request Forgery—also known as XSRF, session riding, and one-click attack—involves
unauthorized commands coming from a trusted user to the website. This is often done without the user’s
knowledge, and it employs some type of social networking to pull it off. For example, assume that Evan
and Spencer are chatting through Facebook. Spencer sends Evan a link to what he purports is a funny
video that will crack him up. Evan clicks the link, but it actually brings up Evan’s bank account information
in another browser tab, takes a screenshot of it, closes the tab, and sends the information to Spencer.
The reason the attack is possible is because Evan is a trusted user with his own bank. In order for it to
work, Evan would need to have recently accessed that bank’s website and have a cookie that had yet toexpire. The best protection against cross-site scripting is to disable the running of scripts (and browser
profi les).
Incorrect Answers:
A: A Brute Force attack is usually carried out by software that attempts to guess a password by sending
multiple authentication requests will different passwords until authentication is successful. This is not
what is described in this question.
C: Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in Web
applications. XSS enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users.
Cross-site scripting uses known vulnerabilities in web-based applications, their servers, or plug-in systems
on which they rely. Exploiting one of these, attackers fold malicious content into the content being
delivered from the compromised site. When the resulting combined content arrives at the client-side web
browser, it has all been delivered from the trusted source, and thus operates under the permissions
granted to that system. By finding ways of injecting malicious scripts into web pages, an attacker can gain
elevated access-privileges to sensitive page content, session cookies, and a variety of other information
maintained by the browser on behalf of the user.
Unlike cross-site scripting (XSS), which exploits the trust a user has for a particular site, Cross-Site Request
Forgery exploits the trust that a site has in a user’s browser.
D: Fuzz testing or fuzzing is a software testing technique used to discover coding errors and security
loopholes in software, operating systems or networks by inputting massive amounts of random data,
called fuzz, to the system in an attempt to make it crash. If a vulnerability is found, a tool called a fuzz
tester (or fuzzer), indicates potential causes. Fuzz testing was originally developed by Barton Miller at the
University of Wisconsin in 1989. This is not what is described in this question.

Dulaney, Emmett and Chuck Eastton, CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, 6th Edition, Sybex, Indianapolis,
2014, p. 335
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/fuzz-testing