In the bustling digital marketplace of Miami's tech corridor, ethical hacker Sofia Alvarez probes the...

A Directory Traversal attack, also known as path traversal, exploits weaknesses in how a web server or web application processes user-supplied file and directory paths through URLs or parameters. In CEH-aligned terminology, the attacker crafts requests that use traversal sequences such as dot-dot-slash patterns or encoded equivalents to escape the intended web root or permitted directory and reach sensitive locations on the underlying file system. The question states Sofia “manipulates resource paths” and successfully accesses “restricted system files,” revealing “sensitive configuration data.” This is the defining outcome of directory traversal: unauthorized access to files that should never be directly retrievable via the web interface, including application configuration files, server configuration, environment files, or other OS-level resources.

The prompt also eliminates other options by describing what the issue is not. It is not header manipulation, which would be more consistent with HTTP response splitting or header injection behaviors. It is not cached content tampering, which points to web cache poisoning. It is not credential compromise, which would indicate password cracking. Instead, the root cause is explicitly “failure to validate input paths,” matching CEH emphasis on inadequate input validation and improper path normalization or canonicalization before file access. Defensive guidance typically focuses on strict allowlisting of accessible resources, canonicalizing paths and enforcing a fixed base directory, blocking traversal tokens and their encoded forms, using indirect references instead of raw file paths, and applying least-privilege permissions to reduce impact if traversal is attempted.