Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

In which layer of the vulnerability stack did a hacker target an organization's database server?

1. Layer 1

2. Layer 2

3. Layer 3

4. Layer 4

The correct answer is: Layer 4

The correct response indicates that the hacker targeted Layer 4 of the vulnerability stack, which primarily involves the transport layer of the OSI model. This layer is responsible for the end-to-end communication and flow control between devices. Targeting the database server at this layer could involve exploiting vulnerabilities related to network protocols, such as TCP or UDP, which can allow attackers to intercept or manipulate the data being transmitted to and from the server. By focusing on Layer 4, an attacker may take advantage of weaknesses in the network configuration or use techniques like SYN flooding to disrupt services, implement denial-of-service attacks, or exploit specific vulnerabilities within the transport layer to gain unauthorized access to the database server. Understanding why the other layers are less relevant in this specific context is also important. For instance, Layer 1 deals with the physical transmission of data, while Layer 2 focuses on data link protocols and MAC addressing. Layer 3 is concerned with network routing and addressing, and while these layers can certainly relate to database security, they do not directly relate to the exploitation of transport-level vulnerabilities as Layer 4 does.