Understanding how these payloads function is essential for securing modern web infrastructure. Anatomy of the Payload

GET /index.php?page=-include-..-2F GET /*.php?*-include-* GET /*.*-2Froot-2F

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URL encoding is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) using only the limited US-ASCII characters. It's often used to avoid special character conflicts in URL paths and query strings. The %2F in the path is an example of URL encoding for the / character.

It looks like you’ve provided a path traversal pattern ( -include-../../../../root/2F etc.) rather than a full request.

The string -include-..-2F..-2F..-2F..-2Froot-2F represents a specialized syntax used in cybersecurity testing and exploitation. It is a variations of a (or Directory Traversal) attack string, specifically utilizing URL encoding to bypass basic security filters.

: Once at the root directory, this directs the application into the /root/ directory, which is the home directory for the Linux system administrator.

The most effective defense is a strict whitelist. If the application only needs to include a fixed set of pages, map user input to an allowed list of files.