What is the primary consequence of Heartbleed?

• A. It makes the private key of compromised systems easily exploitable.
• B. It leaks user passwords.
• C. It causes DNS cache poisoning.
• D. It triggers certificate revocation.

Answer: (A)

Heartbleed centers on memory exposure in the TLS implementation. The flaw in the OpenSSL heartbeat feature allowed an attacker to read up to a chunk of memory from the server. That memory can contain sensitive data such as private keys, usernames, passwords, and session tokens. The most consequential risk is exposure of the server’s private key, because with that key an attacker can impersonate the server in TLS connections and decrypt traffic, undermining the trust and confidentiality of communications. The other potential outcomes—like leaked passwords, DNS-related issues, or automatic certificate revocation—are not the defining danger of Heartbleed.