, eventually reading and displaying the password file to the attacker. The Impact of a Successful Attack If an attacker successfully reads /etc/passwd , the consequences can be severe:
The pattern -page-....-2F-2F....-2F-2F....-2F-2Fetc-2Fpasswd (often appearing in logs as ?page=../../../../etc/passwd or encoded as ..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd ) is a textbook example of an attacker attempting to escape the intended website directory to access restricted system files, such as the Unix password file ( /etc/passwd ). 1. What is Directory Traversal? -page-....-2F-2F....-2F-2F....-2F-2Fetc-2Fpasswd
As Alex examined the subject line more closely, they noticed that the sequence of characters seemed to resemble a URL. The "-page-" part stood out, followed by a series of "-2F-" codes, which looked suspiciously like URL-encoded characters. , eventually reading and displaying the password file
Attackers can read sensitive data to plan further attacks, such as exploiting specific service versions or cracking user passwords found in the file. What is Directory Traversal
: This is a manipulation of the standard dot-dot-slash ( ../ ) shortcut used to move up one level in a file directory.
Each incident underscores how dangerous even a single, overlooked file inclusion vulnerability can be.
: If an attacker can combine LFI with "log poisoning" (injecting malicious PHP/code into server access logs or SSH logs) and then view that log file via the path traversal vulnerability, the server will execute their code.