The account lockout mechanism is designed to prevent brute-force attacks by locking an account after a certain number of failed login attempts. However, this security feature can be abused to perform a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. An attacker could deliberately fail the login process multiple times for a legitimate user’s account, causing the account to be locked and preventing the legitimate user from accessing their account. This type of attack exploits the security feature to deny service to legitimate users.

References: The explanation aligns with the security testing guidelines provided by the OWASP Foundation, which discusses the balance required in account lockout mechanisms to protect against unauthorized access while not denying access to authorized users1. Additionally, research papers such as those from Worcester Polytechnic Institute detail how account lockout mechanisms can be exploited to create DoS attacks2. For official EC-Council Application Security Engineer (CASE) JAVA documentation and learning resources, please refer to the EC-Council’s official materials and courses.