Which consequence is commonly associated with a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack for other users?

Which consequence is commonly associated with a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack for other users?

• A. Cookie theft
• B. Server downtime
• C. Data center physical damage
• D. Network traffic increase

Answer: (A)

Cross-site scripting lets malicious code run in another user’s browser. That code executes with the victim’s privileges and can read data stored by the site on the client, including cookies. If those cookies contain a session token or other authentication data, the attacker can send them to themselves and impersonate the user’s session. That’s why cookie theft is the classic consequence for other users in an XSS attack. The other options don’t fit as typical outcomes: server downtime isn’t caused by XSS, physical damage to a data center isn’t related to in-browser scripts, and while network traffic can increase, it isn’t the defining impact of XSS on other users.

Cross-site scripting lets malicious code run in another user’s browser. That code executes with the victim’s privileges and can read data stored by the site on the client, including cookies. If those cookies contain a session token or other authentication data, the attacker can send them to themselves and impersonate the user’s session. That’s why cookie theft is the classic consequence for other users in an XSS attack. The other options don’t fit as typical outcomes: server downtime isn’t caused by XSS, physical damage to a data center isn’t related to in-browser scripts, and while network traffic can increase, it isn’t the defining impact of XSS on other users.