What is a potential risk associated with JavaScript?

JavaScript poses a potential risk primarily because it can introduce malicious code into web applications. When a website executes JavaScript, it can interact with the Document Object Model (DOM) and manipulate the content of the webpage or communicate with other services. An attacker may exploit JavaScript by injecting malicious scripts, commonly known as cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. These scripts can compromise user data, steal cookies, or perform actions on behalf of users without their consent, leading to unauthorized access and data breaches.

The ability of JavaScript to run client-side and interact dynamically with users makes it a powerful tool but also a vector for attacks if proper security measures, such as input validation and output encoding, are not implemented. Therefore, the introduction of malicious code is a significant risk associated with JavaScript in the context of web security.