mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CISA Practice Question: A financial institution recently experienced a…
A financial institution recently experienced a data breach where an attacker exfiltrated customer data through an SQL injection vulnerability in a web application. The IS auditor has been asked to review the application security controls. The web application is developed in-house and runs on an application server behind a web application firewall (WAF). The auditor reviews the WAF logs and finds that no SQL injection attacks were detected before the breach, but the logs show many blocked XSS attempts. The developer states that all input validation is performed on the client side using JavaScript. During the audit, the auditor also finds that the application uses a shared database account with DBA privileges for all connections. What is the MOST significant weakness that directly contributed to the breach?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Client-side input validation is insufficient and server-side validation is missing.
The most significant weakness that directly contributed to the SQL injection breach is that input validation is performed only on the client side, making it trivial for an attacker to bypass. Without server-side validation, malicious SQL payloads can be submitted directly to the server, allowing the attack to succeed. While the shared DBA account (option B) and WAF misconfiguration (option C) are security weaknesses, they are not as directly responsible for the breach; client-side-only validation is the immediate enabler. Option D is unsupported because no evidence of missing patches is mentioned.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Client-side input validation is insufficient and server-side validation is missing.
Why this is correct
Without server-side validation, the application is vulnerable to SQL injection.
- ✗
The use of a shared DBA database account violates the principle of least privilege.
Why it's wrong here
This increases risk but did not directly cause the SQL injection.
- ✗
The WAF is misconfigured to detect only XSS attacks but not SQL injection.
Why it's wrong here
This might be a contributing factor, but the primary cause is lack of server-side validation.
- ✗
The application server is not patched against known SQL injection vulnerabilities.
Why it's wrong here
There is no evidence of unpatched vulnerabilities; the issue is design.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CISA question is part of Courseiva's 995-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CISA exam.