Certified Reliability Engineer Practice Test 2026 – All-in-One Guide to Master Your Certification!

When check array bounds is not followed, one significant vulnerability that can occur is the unauthorized writing of executable code into memory. This situation arises from buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Buffer overflows occur when a program writes more data to a block of memory, or buffer, than it was allocated. If the boundaries of the buffer are not correctly checked, the excess data can overwrite adjacent memory locations. This overwriting may include returning function addresses or control data that dictate how the program should execute.

Malicious users can exploit these vulnerabilities by injecting their own code into the memory space and manipulating program execution. When they manage to overwrite a return address with the address of their injected code, the program can inadvertently execute this unauthorized code, leading to potential security breaches, unauthorized system access, or damage to data integrity.

The other choices, while possible outcomes of programming errors or memory mismanagement, do not specifically encapsulate the risk associated with bypassing array bounds checks as directly as the unauthorized writing of executable code into memory does.