A penetration tester is testing a web application that is hosted by a public cloud provider.
The tester is able to query the provider's metadata and get the credentials used by the instance to authenticate itself.
Which of the following vulnerabilities has the tester exploited?
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A. B. C. D.B.
https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Server_Side_Request_ForgeryThe vulnerability that the penetration tester has exploited is "Server-side request forgery" (SSRF).
Server-side request forgery (SSRF) is a type of vulnerability that allows an attacker to manipulate a web application's functionality to access resources or data that should be restricted.
In this case, the penetration tester was able to query the cloud provider's metadata, which is a service provided by cloud providers to allow instances to access information about themselves, such as their credentials, location, and other metadata. The penetration tester used this access to retrieve the credentials used by the instance to authenticate itself.
SSRF vulnerabilities are commonly exploited by attackers to perform various malicious actions, such as accessing internal resources, exfiltrating data, or escalating privileges. In this case, the penetration tester was able to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information, which could be used to compromise the security of the web application or the cloud infrastructure.
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a type of vulnerability that allows an attacker to manipulate a victim's web browser to perform unwanted actions on a web application that the victim is currently authenticated to. Remote file inclusion (RFI) and local file inclusion (LFI) are vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to include external files into a web application's code, which could lead to arbitrary code execution or sensitive information disclosure. These vulnerabilities are not related to the scenario described in the question.