What is the primary goal of negative testing in application security?

The primary goal of negative testing in application security is centered on ensuring that the application can gracefully handle invalid input or unexpected user behavior. This type of testing is crucial for identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring that the application does not crash, produce incorrect outputs, or expose sensitive information when faced with unexpected or malicious inputs. By checking how the system responds to invalid data, negative testing helps developers understand the robustness of the application and its ability to manage errors in a secure manner.

The rationale behind negative testing is that systems will often encounter erroneous or malicious input in a real-world scenario, so it is essential to ascertain that these instances are handled appropriately without compromising security or user experience. This aligns perfectly with the goals of application security, as it aims to defend against potential attacks that exploit weaknesses in input validation processes.

Other testing strategies, such as verifying responses to valid inputs or assessing performance under load, while important, do not specifically focus on the application's ability to handle errors and unexpected behavior, which is the crux of negative testing. Similarly, ensuring data integrity with valid inputs is essential, but it does not address the security implications of how the application manages invalid inputs, reinforcing why option B is the correct choice.