AP Cybersecurity Unit 5 Case File 5: Protect the Data

AP Cybersecurity • Unit 5 • Case File 05

Protect the Data

You are reviewing the web app and data stores at Wellspring Rx, an online pharmacy. Find the flaws and lock the data down.

Points: 0 / 11

Case closed.

You protected the data. Finish the report, then take the cold case.

Case briefing

Wellspring Rx stores prescription records behind a web app. Audit the code, the access model, the cryptography, and the detection.

Stage 1 • Application Vulnerabilities

Spot the SQL injection

CED 5.1.A, 5.5 • Lessons: SQL Injection, Input Sanitization

App code

query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE name = '" + input + "'";

Stage 2 • Application Vulnerabilities

Spot the XSS

CED 5.1.A • Lesson: XSS

Behavior

A comment field renders user input straight into the page. A comment containing a script tag runs in every visitor browser.

Stage 3 • Access Controls

Least privilege

CED 5.2.A • Lesson: Access Controls (five models, least privilege, chmod)

Findings

A delivery-driver account can read full prescription records. The patient-records file is set to chmod 777.

Stage 4 • Cryptography

Choose the crypto

CED 5.3, 5.4 • Lesson: Cryptography (symmetric vs asymmetric)

Stage 5 • Detecting Attacks on Data

Catch the tampering

CED 5.6.A • Lesson: Detecting Data Attacks (file integrity with hashes)

Evidence

The config file stored hash no longer matches its recomputed hash. An access log shows a 2 GB export at 03:00 by the delivery account.

Analyst's report

Name the highest-severity flaw with a reason, then give one fix for each issue.

Model answer. The highest-severity flaw is the SQL injection, because it can dump or alter the entire prescription database with no further access. It leads.

Fixes: input sanitization for the injection; clean-and-encode sanitization for the XSS; least-privilege roles plus tightening the file off chmod 777 for the access problems; encrypt the database at rest with symmetric crypto and use the pharmacy public key for data sent in, decrypted with its private key; and keep file-integrity monitoring, which caught the tamper, while investigating the 3am export as data exfiltration.

Cold case

Re-running the hash on the restored config file produces the original value again. What does that confirm?

Field glossary (terms from the lessons)
SQL injectioninput sanitizationXSScross-site scriptingleast privilegeaccess control modelchmodLinux permissionssymmetric encryptionasymmetric encryptionpublic keyprivate keyhashingfile integritydata exfiltration
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