To stop malicious code from running in a user's web browser when data from an API is shown on a page, what specific process should the application perform on the API response data?

To stop malicious code from running in a user's web browser when data from an API is shown on a page, the application must perform output encoding, also commonly referred to as HTML escaping, on the API response data. This process converts specific characters within the data that have special meaning in HTML into their corresponding HTML entity equivalents. Special characters, such as the less-than sign (`<`), greater-than sign (`>`), ampersand (`&`), double quote (`"`), and single quote (`'`), are converted into entities like `&lt;`, `&gt;`, `&amp;`, `&quot;`, and `&#39;` respectively. When the web browser processes the encoded data, it interprets these entities as plain text to be displayed on the page rather than as executable code, HTML tags, or commands. For example, if an API response contains malicious code like `<script>alert('attack');</script>`, output encoding transforms this string into `&lt;script&gt;alert('attack');&lt;/script&gt;`. The browser then simply displays "<script>alert('attack');</script>" as text to the user without executing the embedded JavaScript. This crucial step prevents Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities, which occur when an attacker injects client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users, potentially leading to data theft, session hijacking, or website defacement. It is essential that the encoding is performed based on the specific context where the data will be inserted into the HTML document, such as within an HTML element's text content, within an HTML attribute, or inside a JavaScript string, to ensure comprehensive protection.