An attacker can compromise the security of a web application by manipulating input to navigate to and manipulate files located in the server's filesystem that are not intended to be accessible.
A directory traversal attack, also known as path or file traversal, involves manipulating variables that reference files with dot-dot-slash (../) sequences and similar techniques, to access arbitrary files and directories on the application server filesystem, including application source code, configuration, and critical system files. This attack occurs when user input is not properly sanitized, allowing attackers to traverse the directory tree. Therefore, the correct answer is that the statement is true, as this kind of input manipulation is indeed a method used in directory traversal attacks. Incorrect answers might seem plausible if they relate to information disclosure only or suggest that the attack cannot manipulate files, but these are incorrect because directory traversal can potentially allow both reading and writing to files outside of the intended directory structure.
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What is a directory traversal attack?
What does it mean for user input to be properly sanitized?
What are the consequences of a successful directory traversal attack?