CompTIA Flash Cards

0
Q

What is WAP?

A

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a security protocol for mobile devices (such as cell phones and PDAs) that employs Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS).

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1
Q

What is discretionary access control (DAC)?

A

DAC is based on user identity. Users granted access through access control lists (ACLs) on objects at the discretion of the object’s owner or creator.

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2
Q

What is WEP?

A

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was designed to provide security and encryption on wireless networks. WEP is a security protocol for 802.11b (wireless) networks that attempts to establish the same security for them as would be present in a wired network.

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3
Q

What is network hardening?

A

Network hardening takes the concept of operating system hardening and applies it to the network.

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4
Q

What is operating system hardening?

A

Operating system hardening is the process of reducing vulnerabilities, managing risk, and improving the security provided by or for an operating system.

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5
Q

What is a multifactor authentication?

A

Multifactor authentication is the requirement that a user must provide two or more authentication factors in order to prove their identity.

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6
Q

What is mutual authentication?

A

Mutual authentication is two-way authentication. The subject (user) authenticates to the object (server), and the object (server) authenticates back to the subject (user).

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8
Q

What are certificates used for?

A

Certificates serve a single purpose: proving the identity of a user or the source of an object.

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9
Q

What is a certificate?

A

A certificate is an electronic means of proving subject and object identity. Certificates are issued by certificate authorities (CAs).

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10
Q

What is a digital signature?

A

A digital signature is an electronic mechanism to prove that a message was sent from a specific user (nonrepudiation) and that the message wasn’t changed while in transit (integrity).

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11
Q

What is mandatory access control (MAC)?

A

MAC is based on hierarchical classification rules. Objects are assigned sensitivity labels, and subjects are assigned clearance labels.

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11
Q

What is role-based access control (RBAC)?

A

Role-based access control (RBAC) is based on job description. Users are granted access based on their assigned work tasks. RBAC is most suitable in environments with a high rate of employee turnover.

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12
Q

What is auditing?

A

Auditing is the process of recording information about various events between subjects and objects to check compliance with security policy and to discover security violations or system errors.

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13
Q

What are tokens?

A

A token is a device that generates one-time-use passwords or that computes the response to an authentication server-issued challenge. Tokens are a “something you have” type of authentication.

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14
Q

What are the common media/mandatory access control (MAC) hierarchies?

A

The government or military media/mandatory access control (MAC) hierarchy is unclassified, sensitive but unclassified, confidential, secret, and top secret.
The private sector MAC hierarchy is public, sensitive, private, and confidential.

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14
Q

What is Kerberos?

A

Kerberos is a trusted third-party authentication protocol. It uses encryption keys as tickets with time stamps to prove identity and grant access to resources.

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15
Q

What are the basic types of firewalls?

A

The three basic types of firewalls are packet filtering, circuit-level gateway, and application-level gateway. A fourth type combines features from these three and is called a stateful-inspection firewall.

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16
Q

What is CHAP?

A

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is an authentication protocol that uses a one-way hash to protect passwords and periodically reauthenticates clients.

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17
Q

What are passwords?

A

A password is a string of characters that a user must memorize. Passwords are the most common form of authentication, but they’re also the weakest.

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18
Q

What is biometrics?

A

Biometrics is the collection of physical attributes of the human body that can be used as authentication factors (“something you are”).

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19
Q

What are the security risks of non-essential software?

A

Non-essential software increases the attack surface if your systems. Removing every element of software that isn’t required will improve the security of a system.

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20
Q

What is a denial-of-service attack?

A

Denial-of-service (DoS) is a form of attack that has the primary goal of preventing the victimized system from performing legitimate activity or responding to legitimate traffic.

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21
Q

What are some examples of DoS attacks?

A

Examples of denial-of-service (DoS) include Smurf, fraggle, SYN flood, teardrop, land, ping flood, ping of death, bonk, and boink.

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22
Q

What is a backdoor?

A

The term “backdoor” can refer to a developer-installed access method that bypasses all security restrictions or a hacker-installed remote access client.

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23
Q

What is a spoofing attack?

A

Spoofing is the act of falsifying data. Usually the falsification changes the source address of network packets.

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24
Q

What is a man-in-the-middle attack?

A

A man-in-the-middle attack is a form of communications eavesdropping attack. Attackers position themselves in the communication stream between a client and a server.

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25
Q

What is a replay attack?

A

In a replay attack, an attacker captures network traffic and then replays the captured traffic in an attempt to gain unauthorized access to a system.

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26
Q

What is a TCP/IP hijacking attack?

A

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) hijacking is a form of attack in which the attacker takes over an existing communication session.

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27
Q

What is the issue of weak keys?

A

Weak keys imply that the cryptographic key selected to encrypt a file or a communication session is either too short or too easily guessed. Weak keys are generally anything less than 64 bits in length.

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28
Q

What is a mathematical attack?

A

A mathematical attack is directed against an algorithm in an attempt to exploit the arithmetic employed by it.

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29
Q

What is a birthday attack?

A

A birthday attack exploits a property that says that if the same function is performed on two values and the results is the same for each, then the original values are the same.

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30
Q

What is password guessing?

A

Password guessing is an attack aimed at discovering the passwords employed by user accounts. Password guessing is often called password cracking.

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31
Q

What is software exploitation?

A

Software exploitation attacks are directed toward known flaws, bugs, errors, oversights, or normal functions of the operating system, protocols, services, or installed applications.

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32
Q

What are viruses?

A

Viruses are programs that are designed to spread from one system to another through self-replication and to perform any of a wide range of malicious activities.

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33
Q

What is a Trojan horse?

A

A Trojan horse is a form of malicious software that is disguised as something useful or legitimate.

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35
Q

What is a logic bomb?

A

A logic bomb is a form of malicious code that remains dormant until a triggering event occurs.

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36
Q

What is a worm?

A

A worm is a type of program that is designed to exploit a single flaw or hole in a system (operating system, protocol, service, or application) and then use that flaw or hole to replicate itself to other systems with the same flaw.

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37
Q

What are countermeasures to malicious code?

A

The best countermeasure to viruses is an antivirus scanner that is updated regularly and that monitors all local activities. Whitelisting is another option where all executions are blocked except for those on a preapproved whitelist.

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38
Q

What is a social-engineering attack?

A

Social engineering is a unique type of attack that attempts to take advantage of human behavior. Social-engineering attacks can take many forms, from skillfully worded websites to over-the-phone or face-to-face acting.

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39
Q

What is system scanning?

A

System scanning evaluates the configuration of a system or network to determine if all known security weaknesses have been patched or addressed correctly.

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40
Q

What is a VPN?

A

A virtual private network (VPN) is a communication tunnel between two entities across an intermediary network.

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41
Q

What are some virtual private network (VPN) protocols?

A

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPP), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) are VPN protocols.

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42
Q

What is RADIUS?

A

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a centralized authentication system. It’s often deployed to provide an additional layer of security for a network.

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43
Q

What is TACACS?

A

Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS) is a centralized remote access authentication solution similar to RADIUS. TACACS uses ports TCP 49 and UDP 49.

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44
Q

What is PPTP?

A

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is based on Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), is limited to Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, and uses TCP port 1723. PPTP supports Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), Shiva Password Authentication Protocol (SPAP), Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), and Microsoft CHAP (MS-CHAP) v1 and v2.

45
Q

What is L2TP?

A

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is a tunneling protocol created by Microsoft and Cisco and is often used with virtual private networks (VPNs). L2TP is based on Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and Layer 2 Forwarding (L2F), supports any LAN protocol, uses UDP port 1701, and often uses Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) for encryption.

46
Q

What is SSH?

A

Secure Shell (SSH) is a secure replacement for Telnet, rlogon, rsh, and rcp. SSH encrypts authentication and data traffic; it operates over TCP port 22.

47
Q

What is IPSec?

A

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) is a VPN protocol and can be used with Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP). IPSec can be used in dial-up or network-to-network connections. It operates at OSI model layer 3 (the Network layer). IPSec provides encrypted communication tunnels between individual systems or entire networks.

48
Q

What is spam?

A

Spam is undesired or unsolicited email. Some spam carries malicious code; some spam carries a social-engineering attack (also known as hoax email).

49
Q

What is an email filter?

A

An email filter is a list of email addresses, domain names, or Internet Protocol (IP) addresses where spam is known to originate.

50
Q

What is spoofed email?

A

A spoofed email is a message that has a fake source address. When an email server receives an email message, it should perform a reverse lookup on the message’s source address.

51
Q

What are hoax emails?

A

A hoax is an email message that includes incorrect or misleading information. It’s a written form of social-engineering attack.

52
Q

Over what protocol and port number does basic web traffic operate?

A

The Web uses Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) over TCP port 80 to transmit Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents between a web server and a web browser.

52
Q

What are cookies?

A

Cookies are text files that gather information about your identity, logon credentials, surfing habits, work habits, and much more. They’re a common means of violating your privacy.

53
Q

What are FTP vulnerabilities?

A

Because all FTP traffic is transmitted in the clear, it is vulnerable to packet sniffing and other forms of eavesdropping.

54
Q

What is a site survey?

A

A site survey is the process of investigating the presence, strength, and reach of wireless access points deployed in an environment.

55
Q

What is a firewall?

A

A firewall is a software or hardware product that provides protection by controlling traffic entering and leaving a network. Firewalls manage traffic using filters or rules.

57
Q

What are removable media?

A

Removable media include the mobile forms of electronic, logical, and digital storage mechanisms as well as printed materials.

58
Q

What is an intranet?

A

An intranet is any private local area network (LAN) that uses the same protocol and information services as the Internet.

59
Q

What is a honeypot?

A

A honeypot is a fictitious environment designed to lure attackers and intruders away from the private secured network and to gather evidence.

60
Q

What is network configuration security?

A

Proper configuration of systems connected to the network directly affects the security of the overall network.

60
Q

What is confidentiality?

A

Confidentiality is the security service that protects the secrecy of data, information, or resources. It ensures that no one other than the intended recipient of a message receives it or is able to read it.

61
Q

What is integrity?

A

Integrity is the security service that protects the reliability and correctness of data. Integrity protection prevents unauthorized alterations of data. It ensures that data remains correct, unaltered, and preserved.

62
Q

What is a trust list?

A

A trust list is a form of trust model where a web browser, or similar application, is provided a list of root certificates of trusted certificate authorities (CAs).

63
Q

What is privilege escalation?

A

Privilege escalation occurs when a user account obtains unauthorized access to higher levels of privileges. For example, a normal user account might be able to perform administrative functions.

64
Q

What are AH and ESP?

A

Authentication Header (AH) provides authentication of the sender’s data, and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) provides encryption of the transferred data as well as limited authentication. AH performs the functions of authentication and link establishment. The Internet a Protocol (IP) header protocol field value of AH is 51. ESP performs the function of encryption. The Internet Protocol (IP) header protocol field value of ESP is 50.

65
Q

What are tunnel mode and transport mode?

A

In tunnel mode, both the payload and the message are encrypted, and a temporary link header is added. In transport mode, just the payload is encrypted, and the original message header is left intact.

66
Q

What is IKE?

A

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) is a component of IPSec that manages the cryptography keys needed for secure authentication, hashing, and encryption. The components of IKE are Secure Key Exchange Mechanism (SKEME), Oakley, and Internet Security Association Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP). IKE ensures the secure exchange of secret keys between communication partners in order to establish an encrypted virtual private network (VPN) tunnel.

67
Q

What is ISAKMP?

A

The Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) is used to negotiate and provide authenticated keying material (a common method of authentication) for security associations.

68
Q

What is SMTP?

A

Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) moves email messages across the Internet from sender to recipient. It doesn’t include native encryption. SMTP operates over TCP port 25.

69
Q

What are POP and IMAP?

A

Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internal Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) are used to pull email from an email server down to a client. POP operates over TCP port 110, and IMAP operates over TCP port 143.

70
Q

What is S/MIME?

A

Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) is an Internet standard for encrypting and digitally signing email. It uses RSA (an asymmetric encryption scheme) to encrypt and protect email.

71
Q

What is PGP?

A

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is used to encrypt and digitally sign email messages. It uses RSA or Diffie-Hellman asymmetric cryptography solutions.

72
Q

What is the most common malicious-code delivery vehicle?

A

Email is the most prevalent delivery vehicle for malicious code such as viruses, logic bombs, and Trojan horses.

73
Q

What is SSL?

A

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol used to encrypt traffic. It uses a six-step handshake process to establish a secure web session. SSL uses 40- or 128-bit symmetric session keys and operates over TCP port 443.

74
Q

What is TLS?

A

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol used to encrypt traffic between a web server and a web browser in much the same way as SSL. TLS operates over TCP port 443 or 80. It isn’t interoperable with SSL.

75
Q

What is HTTPS?

A

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over SSL. The presence of HTTPS at the beginning of a URL indicates the use of SSL or TLS.

77
Q

What is a buffer overflow?

A

A buffer overflow occurs when a program receives input that is larger than the program was designed to accept or process. The extra input can be interpreted as CPU instructions without any security restrictions.

78
Q

What is IPv4?

A

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is in widespread use with a 32-bit addressing scheme and operates at the Network layer or Layer 3 of the OSI protocol stack.

79
Q

What is PEAP?

A

Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) encapsulates Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) methods within a Transport Live Security (TLS) tunnel that provides authentication and, potentially, encryption.

80
Q

What is a MAC filter?

A

A media/mandatory access control (MAC) filter is a list of authorized wireless client interface MAC addresses that is used by a wireless access point to block access to all non-authorized devices.

81
Q

What are some common WiFi antenna types?

A

A wide variety of antenna types can be used for wireless clients and base stations. They include omnidirectional pole antennas as well as many directional antennas, such as Yagi, cantenna, panel, and parabolic.

82
Q

What is access control?

A

Access control is the security service that restricts access to secured data to authorized users. Cryptographic access control is enforced through the possession of encryption keys.

83
Q

What is IPv6?

A

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) uses a 128-bit addressing scheme, eliminates broadcasts and fragmentation, and includes native communication encryption features.

84
Q

What is bluesnarfing?

A

Bluesnarfing is the unauthorized accessing of data via Bluetooth connection. Successful bluesnarfing attacks against PDAs, cell phones, and notebooks have been able to extract calendars, contact lists, text messages, emails, pictures, videos, and more.

85
Q

What is defense in depth?

A

Defense in depth or layered security is the use of multiple types of access controls in literal or concentric circles or layers.

86
Q

What is single sign-on?

A

Single sign-on means that once a user (or other subject) is authenticated into the realm, they need not reauthenticate to access resources on any realm entity.

87
Q

What is war driving?

A

War driving is the act of using a detection tool to look for wireless networking signals. Often, war driving is used to describe the process of someone looking for a wireless network they are not authorized to access.

88
Q

What is “need to know”?

A

A “need to know” security policy restricts access by compartmentalizing resources. To gain access to those items, the subjects must prove the need to know based on assigned work tasks.

89
Q

What is Fibre Channel?

A

Fibre Channel is a form of network data storage solution (storage area network [SAN] or network area storage [NAS]) that allows for high-speed file transfers.

90
Q

What is cloud computing?

A

Cloud computing is the popular term referring to a concept of computing where processing and storage are performed elsewhere over a network connection rather than locally. Cloud computing is often thought of as Internet-based computing.

91
Q

What are the four risk-assessment values or formulas?

A

The four risk-assessment formulas are exposure factor (EF), single loss expectancy (SLE), annualized rate of occurrence (ARO), and annual loss expectancy (ALE).

92
Q

What is a switch?

A

A switch is like an intelligent multiport repeater. It receives signals in one port and transmits them out the port where the intended recipient is connected. Switches are often used to create virtual local area networks (VLANs).

93
Q

What is 802.11?

A

802.11 is the IEEE standard for wireless network communications. Versions include 802.11a (54 Mbps), 802.11b (11 Mbps), and 802.11g (54 Mbps). This standard also defines Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).

94
Q

What is a router?

A

A router is a device that enables traffic from one network segment to traverse into another network segment. However, the traffic must pass through the router’s filters in order to make the transition.

95
Q

What is a modem?

A

A modem is a device that creates a network communication link between two computers (or networks) over a telephone line. Modems are often secured with callback. They’re often attacked using war dialing.

96
Q

What is a smart card?

A

A smart card is a credit-card-sized ID, badge, or security pass with an embedded magnetic strip, bar code, or integrated circuit chip. A smart card can be used as an authentication factor (“something you have”). When used as such, the smart card hosts a memory chip that stores a password, PIN, certificate, private key, or digital signature.

97
Q

What is a DMZ?

A

A demilitarized zone (DMZ) is an area of a network that is designed specifically for public users to access. The DMZ is a buffer between the Internet and the private trusted local area network (LAN).

98
Q

What is an extranet?

A

An extranet is an intranet that functions as a demilitarized zone (DMZ) for business-to-business transactions. An extranet allows an organization to offer specialized services to business partners, suppliers, distributors, or customers.

99
Q

What is a VLAN?

A

Switches are often used to create virtual local area networks (VLANs) out of a single physical network. VLANs logically segment a network without altering its physical topology.

100
Q

What is a NAT?

A

Network address translation (NAT) is a proxy service that converts the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of internal systems found in the header of network packets into public IP addresses. It allows the use of private IP addresses (RFC 1918).

101
Q

What does RFC 1918 define?

A

RFC 1918 defines the ranges of private Internet Protocol (IP) addresses: 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix); 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix); & 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix).

102
Q

What is an IDS?

A

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is an automated system that watches activity in real time or reviews the contents of audit logs in order to detect intrusions or security policy violations.

103
Q

What is PKI?

A

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a cryptography concept that proves the identity of partners, provides a means to securely exchange session-based symmetric encryption keys, and protects message integrity.

104
Q

What is a mantrap?

A

A mantrap is a form of high-security barrier entrance device. It’s a small room with two doors. A person must properly authenticate themselves to unlock the inner door to gain entry.

105
Q

What is due care?

A

Due care is the display of proper security attention in an organization. By designing and implementing an organization-wide security policy, a business shows due care.

106
Q

What is separation of duties?

A

Separation of duties occurs when all the administrative or sensitive operations of a computer, system, or network are divided among several people.

107
Q

What is privacy?

A

Privacy is the level of confidentiality and isolation or seclusion protection that a user is given in a system. Most users falsely assume that they have privacy on company computers.

108
Q

What is the chain of custody?

A

The chain of custody is a document that indicates various details about evidence across its lifecycle. It includes the time and place of discovery, and who discovered, secured transported, protected, and analyzed the evidence.

109
Q

What is a security baseline?

A

A standardized minimum level of security that all systems in an organization must comply with. The security baseline is defined by the organization’s security policy.

110
Q

What is cross-certification?

A

Cross-certification occurs when a root certificate authority (CA) from one organization elects to trust a root CA from another organization.