[Incident Handling and Response Process] Which of the following terms refers to vulnerable account management functions, including account update, recovery of forgotten or lost passwords, and password reset, that might weaken valid authentication schemes?

Broken account management refers to vulnerabilities within the functions that handle the user account lifecycle, such as password resets, account recovery, and updates. When these features are implemented insecurely, they can create a weak point that bypasses the primary authentication scheme. For instance, if an attacker can predict or manipulate the password reset tokens sent to a user's email, they can take over the account without ever needing to know the original password. This directly undermines the security of the entire authentication system.

A. SQL injection: This is a database attack technique where malicious SQL code is inserted into input fields, not a vulnerability in account management logic itself.
C. Directory traversal: This attack exploits improper path handling to access files and directories stored outside the intended web root folder, unrelated to account functions.
D. Cross-site scripting: This involves injecting malicious scripts into a web page to be executed by other users' browsers, targeting the user, not the backend account logic.

1. OWASP Foundation. (2021). OWASP Top 10:2021. A07:2021 – Identification and Authentication Failures. The document states, "Failures can occur when... password reset and recovery workflows are not secure." This directly aligns with the concept of broken account management functions weakening authentication. (Reference: owasp.org/Top10/A072021-IdentificationandAuthenticationFailures/)

2. Felten, E. W., & Miller, A. (2018). Security, Lecture 10: Web Security. Princeton University, COS 432. The lecture notes discuss authentication systems and their common failure points, including insecure password recovery mechanisms as a critical vulnerability that subverts standard login protections.

3. Boneh, D. (2018). CS 155: Computer and Network Security, Lecture 5: Web Security Model. Stanford University. The course materials cover authentication and session management, detailing how flaws in secondary mechanisms like password reset can lead to complete account compromise, fitting the description of broken account management.