What issue does a memory leak typically cause?

A memory leak typically causes performance problems due to allocated memory not being released. When a program allocates memory for temporary use and fails to free that memory after it is no longer needed, it continues to consume available memory resources. Over time, this can lead to a significant reduction in the system's available memory, causing the system or application to become sluggish as it struggles to manage resources effectively. Eventually, if the leak is severe enough, it can result in the application crashing or the entire system becoming unresponsive, as there isn't enough memory for essential processes to run efficiently.

The other choices do not accurately represent the primary consequence of a memory leak. Unauthorized access to memory pertains more to security vulnerabilities, while failure to compress data and data corruption during transfer are unrelated to memory leaks and pertain to different issues in software behavior and data handling.