Understand Payload Encoding

Imagine trying to sneak a secret message past a guard who's only looking for specific keywords. If the guard is looking for the word "attack," you might write it in code—like "DWWWDFN"—to get it past them. This is the core idea behind payload encoding in cybersecurity. Attackers disguise their malicious code (the payload) using formats like Base64, URL, or Hex encoding. This makes the payload look like harmless data, allowing it to bypass simple security filters and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) that are only programmed to spot obvious attack patterns.