CPP Security & Error Handling

Question 1

What is input validation and why is it critical for secure software?

Accepted Answer

Checking that user inputs match expected formats and ranges to prevent injection attacks and data corruption

Answer

Input validation rejects or sanitizes unexpected inputs at system boundaries, preventing SQL injection, XSS, and buffer overflow attacks.

Question 2

What is the principle of least privilege in security?

Accepted Answer

Giving users and programs only the minimum access rights needed to perform their tasks

Answer

Least privilege minimizes the damage a compromised account or buggy code can do by limiting what resources it can access.

Question 3

What is SQL injection?

Accepted Answer

An attack where malicious SQL code is inserted into input fields to manipulate the database

Answer

SQL injection exploits unsanitized user input concatenated directly into SQL queries, allowing attackers to read, modify, or delete data.

Question 4

What is a try-catch-finally block used for?

Accepted Answer

Handling exceptions gracefully: try runs the code, catch handles exceptions, finally always runs for cleanup

Answer

Try-catch-finally provides structured exception handling: catching errors to prevent crashes and using finally to ensure resources are always released.

Question 5

What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)?

Accepted Answer

An attack where malicious scripts are injected into web pages viewed by other users

Answer

XSS injects malicious client-side scripts into pages, allowing attackers to steal cookies, session tokens, or redirect users.

CPP - Certified Professional Programmer Practice Test

CPP - Certified Professional Programmer Practice Test

CPP Security & Error Handling