compTIA Security+ Flashcards
An engineer needs to find a solution that creates an added layer of security by preventing unauthorized access to internal company resources. Which of the following would be the best solution?
* RDP server
* Jump server
* Proxy server
* Hypervisor
Answer: JUMP SERVER | Secure Gateway requiring authentication before accesing internal systems
RDP server: While RDP can be used for remote access, it doesn’t provide the same level of security as a jump server, as it directly connects users to internal systems.
Proxy server: Proxy servers are primarily used for caching and filtering network traffic, not for preventing unauthorized access.
Hypervisor: Hypervisors are used for virtualization and don’t directly address security concerns related to unauthorized access.
Which of the following vulnerabilities is associated with installing software outside of a manufacturer’s approved software repository?
* Jailbreaking
* Memory injection
* Resource reuse
* Side loading
Side Loading | Process of installing software onto a device from sources other than official app store
Jailbreaking: This refers to the process of modifying a device’s operating system to allow for more customization, but it doesn’t directly relate to the risk of installing malicious software.
Memory injection: This is a type of attack that involves injecting malicious code into a running process, but it’s not directly related to the source of the software.
Resource reuse: This is a type of vulnerability that can occur in certain programming languages or frameworks, but it’s not specifically associated with installing software from unofficial sources.
A security analyst is reviewing alerts in the SIEM related to potential malicious network traffic coming from an employee’s corporate laptop. The security analyst has determined that additional data about the executable running on the machine is necessary to continue the investigation. Which of the following logs should the analyst use as a data source?
* Application
* IPS/IDS
* Network
* Endpoint
Endpoint Logs capture information about activities and processes running on indiv devices
Application logs: While application logs can provide information about specific applications, they may not capture the necessary details about the executable running on the device.
IPS/IDS logs: IPS/IDS logs primarily record network-level traffic and intrusion attempts, which might not provide the specific details about the executable running on the endpoint.
Network logs: Network logs can provide information about network traffic, but they may not capture detailed information about the specific executable running on the device.
A cyber operations team informs a security analyst about a new tactic malicious actors are using to compromise networks. SIEM alerts have not yet been configured. Which of the following best describes what the security analyst should do to identify this behavior?
* Digital Forensics
* E Discovery
* Incident Response
* Threat Hunting
Threat Hunting | Proactively searching for malicious activity within a network
Digital forensics: Digital forensics is typically used to investigate a specific incident or breach after it has occurred. In this case, there is no specific incident to investigate yet.
E-discovery: E-discovery is a legal process for identifying, preserving, retrieving, and producing electronically stored information. It’s not directly relevant to the task of proactively identifying malicious activity.
Incident response: Incident response involves responding to a specific security incident after it has occurred. Since there is no known incident yet, incident response would not be appropriate.
A company purchased cyber insurance to address items listed on the risk register. Which of the following strategies does this represent?
* Accept
* Transfer
* Mitigate
* Avoid
Transfer | Company is transferring financial risk associated with cyberattacks to insurance provider
A security administrator would like to protect data on employees’ laptops. Which of the following encryption techniques should the security administrator use?
* Partition
* Asymmetric
* Full Disk
* Database
Full Disk Encryption | Encryptes the entire contents of a hard drive - ensuring all data is protected even if the laptop is stolen or lost
Partition: Partitioning divides a hard drive into multiple logical sections, but it doesn’t provide encryption for the data stored on those partitions.
Asymmetric: Asymmetric encryption is a type of encryption that uses a pair of keys (public and private). While it can be used for data encryption, it’s not as suitable for protecting the entire contents of a hard drive.
Database: Database encryption specifically protects data within a database, but it doesn’t protect the entire contents of the laptop.
Which of the following security control types does an acceptable use policy best represent?
* Detective
* Compensating
* Corrective
* Preventitive
Preventitive -> An AUP is preventative because it outlines rules and guidelines
Which of the following is the most likely to be used to document risks, responsible parties, and thresholds?
* Risk tolerance
* Risk transfer
* Risk register
* Risk analysis
Risk register is the most likely tool to document risks, thresholds, etc..
Risk Tolerance is the level of risk an organization is willing to accept.
Which of the following is used to add extra complexity before using a one-way data transformation algorithm?
* Key stretching
* Data masking
* Steganography
* Salting
Key Stretching - Password or passphrase from cryptographic key
Data Masking: Obscuring or hiding sensitive data
Stenography: Hiding information within other data
Salting: Adding a random value to a password
A company is expanding its threat surface program and allowing individuals to security test the company’s internet-facing application. The company will compensate researchers based on the vulnerabilities discovered. Which of the following best describes the program the company is setting up?
* Open-source intelligence
* Bug bounty - Answer
* Red team
* Penetration testing
Bug Bounty: Program where individuals or groups are rewarded for discovering and reporting vulnerabilities in a company’s systems or applications
Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to use large financial resources to attack critical systems located in other countries?
* Insider
* Unskilled attacker
* Nation-state - Answer
* Hacktivist
Nation State
Which of the following enables the use of an input field to run commands that can view or manipulate data?
* Cross-site scripting
* Side loading
* Buffer overflow
* SQL injection
SQL Injection
A company has begun labeling all laptops with asset inventory stickers and associating them with employee IDs. Which of the following security benefits do these actions provide? (Choose two.)
* If a security incident occurs on the device, the correct employee can be notified.
* The security team will be able to send user awareness training to the appropriate device.
* Users can be mapped to their devices when configuring software MFA tokens.
* User-based firewall policies can be correctly targeted to the appropriate laptops.
* When conducting penetration testing, the security team will be able to target the desired laptops.
* Company data can be accounted for when the employee leaves the organization.
If a security incident occurs on the device && company data can be accounted for when the employee leaves the organization
A technician wants to improve the situational and environmental awareness of existing users as they transition from remote to in-office work. Which of the following is the best option?
* Send out periodic security reminders.
* Update the content of new hire documentation.
* Modify the content of recurring training. -ANSWER
* Implement a phishing campaign.
Modify the content of recurring training
A systems administrator receives the following alert from a file integrity monitoring tool: The hash of the cmd.exe file has changed. The systems administrator checks the OS logs and notices that no patches were applied in the last two months. Which of the following most likely occurred?
* The end user changed the file permissions.
* A cryptographic collision was detected.
* A snapshot of the file system was taken.
* A rootkit was deployed.
Rootkit: Type of malicious software that is designed to gain unauthorized access to a computer system and maintain control
Which of the following roles, according to the shared responsibility model, is responsible for securing the company’s database in an IaaS model for a cloud environment?
* Client
* Third-party vendor
* Cloud provider
* DBA
Client: In an Infrastructure as a Cloud model the client takes on most of the responsibility
A client asked a security company to provide a document outlining the project, the cost, and the completion time frame. Which of the following documents should the company provide to the client?
* MSA
* SLA –Service Level Agreement
* BPA –Business plan analysis
* SOW- Statement of Work
Statement of Work
Which of the following must be considered when designing a high-availability network?
* Ease of Recovery
* Ability to Patch
* Physical Isolation
* Responsiveness
* Attack Surface
* Extensible Authentication
Ease of Recovery && Responsiveness
Which of the following is the most likely outcome if a large bank fails an internal PCI DSS compliance assessment?
* Fines
* Audit findings
* Sanctions
* Reputation damage
Audit Findings
KEY is the internal PCI DSS
A company is developing a business continuity strategy and needs to determine how many staff members would be required to sustain the business in the case of a disruption. Which of the following best describes this step?
A. Capacity planning
B. Redundancy
C. Geographic dispersion
D. Tabletop exercise
Capacity Planning
Which of the following can best protect against an employee inadvertently installing malware on a company system?
A. Host-based firewall
B. System isolation
C. Least privilege
D. Application allow list
Application Allow List is a policy restricts the installation and execution of only approved applications on company systems.
Which of the following describes the reason root cause analysis should be conducted as part of incident response?
A. To gather IoCs for the investigation
B. To discover which systems have been affected
C. To eradicate any trace of malware on the network
D. To prevent future incidents of the same nature
Prevent future incidents of the same natures
Which of the following is the phase in the incident response process when a security analyst reviews roles and responsibilities?
A. Preparation
B. Recovery
C. Lessons learned
D. Analysis
Preparation
The management team notices that new accounts that are set up manually do not always have correct access or permissions. Which of the following automation techniques should a systems administrator use to streamline account creation?
A. Guard rail script
B. Ticketing workflow
C. Escalation script
D. User provisioning script
User Provisioning Script
A company is planning to set up a SIEM system and assign an analyst to review the logs on a weekly basis. Which of the following types of controls is the company setting up?
A. Corrective
B. Preventive
C. Detective
D. Deterrent
A technician is opening ports on a firewall for a new system being deployed and supported by a SaaS provider. Which of the following is a risk in the new system?
* Default credentials
* Non-segmented network-Answer
* Supply chain vendor
* Vulnerable software
Vulnerable Software: Outdated or Unpatched Software
A systems administrator is working on a solution with the following requirements: * Provide a secure zone. * Enforce a company-wide access control policy. * Reduce the scope of threats. Which of the following is the systems administrator setting up?
* Zero Trust
* AAA
* Non-repudiation
* CIA
Zero Trust
Which of the following involves an attempt to take advantage of database misconfigurations?
A. Buffer overflow
B. SQL injection
C. VM escape
D. Memory injection
SQL Injection
Which of the following is used to validate a certificate when it is presented to a user?
A. OCSP- Online Certificate Status Protocol
B. CSR - Certificate Signing Request
C. CA – Cert Authority
D. CRC- Cyclic Redundancy Check
OCSP
Which of the following actions could a security engineer take to ensure workstations and servers are properly monitored for unauthorized changes and software?
A. Configure all systems to log scheduled tasks.
B. Collect and monitor all traffic exiting the network.
C. Block traffic based on known malicious signatures.
D. Install endpoint management software on all systems
Install endpoint management software on all systems
One of a company’s vendors sent an analyst a security bulletin that recommends a BIOS update. Which of the following vulnerability types is being addressed by the patch?
A. Virtualization
B. Firmware
C. Application
D. Operating system
Firmware
Which of the following is used to quantitatively measure the criticality of a vulnerability?
A. CVE- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
B. CVSS - Common Vulnerability Scoring System
C. CIA- Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability
D. CERT- Computer Emergency Response Team
CVSS - Common Vulnerability Scoring System
Which of the following would the security analyst conclude for this reported vulnerability?
A. It is a false positive.
B. A rescan is required.
C. It is considered noise.
D. Compensating controls exist.
It is a false positive.-
An organization is leveraging a VPN between its headquarters and a branch location. Which of the following is the VPN protecting?
A. Data in use
B. Data in transit
C. Geographic restrictions
D. Data sovereignty
Data in transit
Which of the following should a systems administrator use to ensure an easy deployment of resources within the cloud provider?
* Software as a service
* Infrastructure as code
* Internet of Things
* Software-defined networking
Infrastructure as code
A organization disabled unneeded services and placed a firewall in front of a business-critical legacy system. Which of the following best describes the actions taken by the organization?
* Exception
* Segmentation
* Risk transfer
*Compensating controls
Compensating Controls
After a security awareness training session, a user called the IT help desk and reported a suspicious call. The suspicious caller stated that the Chief Financial Officer wanted credit card information in order to close an invoice. Which of the following topics did the user recognize from the training?
* Insider threat
* Email phishing
* Social engineering
* Executive whaling
Social Engineering
A security consultant needs secure, remote access to a client environment. Which of the following should the security consultant most likely use to gain access?
* EAP- Extensible Authentication Protocol
* DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
* IPSec- Internet Protocol Security
* NAT- Network Address Translation
IPSec - Internet Protocol Security
Which of the following is a hardware-specific vulnerability?
A. Firmware version - Answer
B. Buffer overflow
C. SQL injection
D. Cross-site scripting
Firmware Version
Which of the following would be the best way to block unknown programs from executing?
A. Access control list
B. Application allow list
C. Host-based firewall
D. DLP solution
Application Allow List
A company hired a consultant to perform an offensive security assessment covering penetration testing and social engineering. Which of the following teams will conduct this assessment activity?
* White
* Purple
* Blue
* Red-
Red
Malware spread across a company’s network after an employee visited a compromised industry blog. Which of the following best describes this type of attack?
* Impersonation
* Disinformation
* Watering-hole
* Smishing
Watering Hole: attack targets a specific group of people by compromising websites or blogs they frequently visit
Which of the following tools can assist with detecting an employee who has accidentally emailed a file containing a customer’s PII?
A. SCAP
B. NetFlow
C. Antivirus
D. DLP
Data Loss Prevention: Solutions that are specifically designed to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive data INLUDING PII
A company purchased cyber insurance to address items listed on the risk register. Which of the following strategies does this represent?
A. Accept
B. Transfer
C. Mitigate
* Avoid
Transfer
Which of the following allows for the attribution of messages to individuals?
A. Adaptive identity
B. Non-repudiation
C. Authentication
D. Access logs
Non-repudiation
A company’s marketing department collects, modifies, and stores sensitive customer data. The infrastructure team is responsible for securing the data while in transit and at rest. Which of the following data roles describes the customer?
* Processor
* Custodian
* Subject
* Owner
Subject
A software development manager wants to ensure the authenticity of the code created by the company. Which of the following options is the most appropriate?
A. Testing input validation on the user input fields
B. Performing code signing on company-developed software - Answer
C. Performing static code analysis on the software
D. Ensuring secure cookies are use
Performing code signing on company-developed software
A security administrator is deploying a DLP solution to prevent the exfiltration of sensitive customer data. Which of the following should the administrator do first?
* Block access to cloud storage websites.
* Create a rule to block outgoing email attachments.
* Apply classifications to the data.
* Remove all user permissions from shares on the file server.
Apply classifications to the data
Which of the following security concepts is the best reason for permissions on a human resources fileshare to follow the principle of least privilege?
A. Integrity
B. Availability
C. Confidentiality
D. Non-repudiation
Confidentiality