The malicious URL is likely used to exploit vulnerabilities in web applications or servers. Here are a few possible scenarios:
If the web application does something like: /var/www/html/page- + user input + .html Then the attacker might inject ../../../etc/passwd to read system files. -page-....-2F-2F....-2F-2F....-2F-2Fetc-2Fpasswd
Imagine a website that shows you help articles using a link like help.php?page=intro.html . The server looks in its "articles" folder for intro.html . The malicious URL is likely used to exploit
$page = $_GET['page']; include("/var/www/pages/" . $page . ".php"); include("/var/www/pages/" . $page . ".php")
Path traversal (directory traversal) attacks allow attackers to access arbitrary files by manipulating input that is concatenated with a base directory. This paper examines a specific encoded payload, decodes it, explains how it works against vulnerable web parameters, and discusses detection and prevention.