Hack the Hackers 2025 – Master the Certified Ethical Hacker Challenge!

Application-level attacks primarily target the programming codes of an application. These types of attacks exploit vulnerabilities found within the application’s software itself, which could arise from coding errors, improper input validation, or business logic flaws. Attackers aim to manipulate the application in ways that it was not designed for, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data breaches, or denial of service.

Focusing on the underlying programming allows attackers to carry out specific actions such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), or buffer overflow attacks, which can compromise the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of the application and the data it processes.

The other choices do not align with the primary focus of application-level attacks. Network security protocols pertain to the defense mechanisms in place for network security rather than vulnerabilities in application coding. Underlying hardware vulnerabilities are more related to physical device weaknesses rather than the software code itself. User authentication processes involve securing access controls within an application but are not the main target of application-level attacks, which center more on the application’s programming rather than its authentication mechanisms.