IPA FE Subject A 2023 Question 9
A question IPA Japan published in 令和５年度 基本情報技術者試験 科目A 公開問題 問9, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Which of the following corresponds to a drive-by download attack?
Explanation
Infecting a visitor’s PC through a web browser vulnerability — a drive-by download installs malware just because the user views a malicious or tampered web page, without the user choosing to download anything.
The attacker plants code on a website that exploits a vulnerability in the web browser or its plug-ins. When a user merely opens the page, the malware is downloaded and run in the background. Keeping the browser and its plug-ins patched is the main defence.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) — physical theft of a hard disk drive followed by publishing its data; nothing is downloaded onto a victim’s PC
- •(b) — ransomware: the files are encrypted after the user opens an e-mail attachment, and money is demanded for the key
- •(d) — a Trojan horse hidden in free software that works as spyware; the user downloads and installs it by their own action, which a drive-by download does not need
Key rule: A drive-by download infects a PC merely by visiting a web page through an unpatched browser; if the user is tricked into installing the program, it is a Trojan horse instead.
Security · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.