Practice Test 1 Flashcards
NIST SP800-53 discusses a set of security controls as what type of security tool?
a. A configuration list
b. A threat management strategy
c. A baseline
d. The CIS standard
C. NIST SP 800-53 discusses security control baselines as a list of security controls. CIS releases security baselines, and a baseline is a useful part of a threat management strategy and may contain a list of acceptable configuration items.
Ed has been tasked with identifying a service that will provide a low-latency, high-performance, and high-availability way to host content for his employer. What type of solution should he seek out to ensure that his employer’s customers around the world can access their content quickly, easily, and reliably?
a. A hot site
b. A CDN
c. Redundant servers
d. A P2P CDN
B. A Content Distribution Network (CDN) is designed to provide reliable, low-latency, geographically distributed content distribution. In this scenario, a CDN is an ideal solution. A P2P CDN like BitTorrent isn’t a typical choice for a commercial entity, whereas redundant servers or a hot site can provide high availability but won’t provide the remaining requirements.
Which one of the following is not a function of a forensic device controller?
a. Preventing the modification of data on a storage device
b. Returning data requested from the device
c. Reporting errors sent by the device to the forensic host
d. Blocking read commands sent to the device
D. A forensic disk controller performs four functions. One of those, write blocking, intercepts write commands sent to the device and prevents them from modifying data on the device. The other three functions include returning data requested by a read operation, returning access-significant information from the device, and reporting errors from the device back to the forensic host. The controller should not prevent read commands from being sent to the device because those commands may return crucial information.
Mike is building a fault-tolerant server and wishes to implement RAID 1. How many physical disks are required to build this solution?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 5
B. RAID 1, disk mirroring, requires two physical disks that will contain copies of the same data.
Which Kerberos service generates a new ticket and session keys and sends them to the client?
a. KDC
b. TGT
c. AS
d. TGS
D. The TGS, or Ticket-Granting Service (which is usually on the same server as the KDC) receives a TGT from the client. It validates the TGT and the user’s rights to access the service they are requesting to use. The TGS then issues a ticket and session keys to the client. The AS serves as the authentication server, which forwards the username to the KDC.
Communication systems that rely on start and stop flags or bits to manage data transmission are known as what type of communication?
a. Analog
b. Digital
c. Synchronous
d. Asynchronous
D. Asynchronous communications rely on a a built-in stop and start flag or bit. This makes asynchronous communications less efficient than synchronous communications, but better suited to some types of communication.
What type of motion detector uses high microwave frequency signal transmissions to identify potential intruders?
a. Infrared
b. Heat-based
c. Wave pattern
d. Capacitance
C. Wave pattern motion detectors transmit ultrasonic or microwave signals into the monitor area, watching for changes in the returned signals bouncing off objects.
Susan sets up a firewall that keeps track of the status of the communication between two systems, and allows a remote system to respond to a local system after the local system starts communication. What type of firewall is Susan using?
a. A static packet filtering firewall
b. An application-level gateway firewall
c. A stateful packet inspection firewall
d. A circuit-level gateway firewall
C. Stateful packet inspection firewalls, also known as dynamic packet filtering firewalls, track the state of a conversation, and can allow a response from a remote system based on an internal system being allowed to start the communication. Static packet filtering and circuit level gateways only filter based on source, destination, and ports, whereas application-level gateway firewalls proxy traffic for specific applications.
Questions 9–11 refer to the following scenario:
Ben owns a coffeehouse and wants to provide wireless Internet service for his customers. Ben’s network is simple and uses a single consumer grade wireless router and a cable modem connected via a commercial cable data contract. Using this information about Ben’s network, answer the following questions.
How can Ben provide access control for his customers without having to provision user IDs before they connect while also gathering useful contact information for his business purposes?
a. WPA2 PSK
b. A captive portal
c. Require customers to use a publicly posted password like “BensCoffee.”
d. Port security
B. A captive portal can require those who want to connect to and use Wi-Fi to provide an email address to connect. This allows Ben to provide easy-to-use wireless while meeting his business purposes. WPA2 PSK is the preshared key mode of WPA and won’t provide information about users who are given a key. Sharing a password doesn’t allow for data gathering either. Port security is designed to protect wired network ports based on MAC addresses.
Questions 9–11 refer to the following scenario:
Ben owns a coffeehouse and wants to provide wireless Internet service for his customers. Ben’s network is simple and uses a single consumer grade wireless router and a cable modem connected via a commercial cable data contract. Using this information about Ben’s network, answer the following questions.
Ben intends to run an open (unencrypted) wireless network. How should he connect his business devices?
a. Run WPA2 on the same SSID.
b. Set up a separate SSID using WPA2.
c. Run the open network in Enterprise mode.
d. Set up a separate wireless network using WEP.
B. Many modern wireless routers can provide multiple SSIDs. Ben can create a private, secure network for his business operations, but he will need to make sure that the customer and business networks are firewalled or otherwise logically separated from each other. Running WPA2 on the same SSID isn’t possible without creating another wireless network and would cause confusion for customers (SSIDs aren’t required to be unique). Running a network in Enterprise mode isn’t used for open networks, and WEP is outdated and incredibly vulnerable.
Questions 9–11 refer to the following scenario:
Ben owns a coffeehouse and wants to provide wireless Internet service for his customers. Ben’s network is simple and uses a single consumer grade wireless router and a cable modem connected via a commercial cable data contract. Using this information about Ben’s network, answer the following questions.
After implementing the solution from the first question, Ben receives a complaint about users in his cafe hijacking other customers’ web traffic, including using their usernames and passwords. How is this possible?
a. The password is shared by all users, making traffic vulnerable.
b. A malicious user has installed a Trojan on the router.
c. A user has ARP spoofed the router, making all traffic broadcast to all users.
d. Open networks are unencrypted, making traffic easily sniffable.
D. Unencrypted open networks broadcast traffic in the clear. This means that unencrypted sessions to websites can be easily captured with a packet sniffer. Some tools like FireSheep have been specifically designed to capture sessions from popular websites. Fortunately, many now use TLS by default, but other sites still send user session information in the clear. Shared passwords are not the cause of the vulnerability, ARP spoofing isn’t an issue with wireless networks, and a Trojan is designed to look like safe software, not to compromise a router.
Which one of the following is not a mode of operation for the Data Encryption Standard?
a. CBC
b. CFB
c. OFB
d. AES
D. The DES modes of operation are Electronic Codebook (ECB), Cipher Block Chaining (CBC), Cipher Feedback (CFB), Output Feedback (OFB), and Counter (CTR). The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a separate encryption algorithm.
Tom is tuning his security monitoring tools in an attempt to reduce the number of alerts received by administrators without missing important security events. He decides to configure the system to only report failed login attempts if there are five failed attempts to access the same account within a one-hour period of time. What term best describes the technique that Tom is using?
a. Thresholding
b. Sampling
c. Account lockout
d. Clipping
D. Clipping is an analysis technique that only reports alerts after they exceed a set threshold. It is a specific form of sampling, which is a more general term that describes any attempt to excerpt records for review. Thresholding is not a commonly used term. Administrators may choose to configure automatic or manual account lockout after failed login attempts but that is not described in the scenario.
Sally has been tasked with deploying an authentication, authorization, and accounting server for wireless network services in her organization, and needs to avoid using proprietary technology. What technology should she select?
a. OAuth
b. RADIUS
c. TACACS
d. TACACS+
B. RADIUS is a common AAA technology used to provide services for dial-up, wireless networks, network devices, and a range of other systems. OAuth is an authentication protocol used to allow applications to act on a user’s behalf without sharing the password, and is used for many web applications. While both TACACS and TACACS+ provide the functionality Sally is looking for, both are Cisco proprietary protocols.
An accounting clerk for Christopher’s Cheesecakes does not have access to the salary information for individual employees but wanted to know the salary of a new hire. He pulled total payroll expenses for the pay period before the new person was hired and then pulled the same expenses for the following pay period. He computed the difference between those two amounts to determine the individual’s salary. What type of attack occurred?
a. Aggregation
b. Data diddling
c. Inference
d. Social engineering
C. In an inference attack, the attacker uses several pieces of generic nonsensitive information to determine a specific sensitive value.
Alice would like to have read permissions on an object and knows that Bob already has those rights and would like to give them to herself. Which one of the rules in the Take-Grant protection model would allow her to complete this operation if the relationship exists between Alice and Bob?
a. Take rule
b. Grant rule
c. Create rule
d. Remote rule
A. The take rule allows a subject to take the rights belonging to another object. If Alice has take rights on Bob, she can give herself the same permissions that Bob already possesses.
During a log review, Danielle discovers a series of logs that show login failures:
Jan 31 11:39:12 ip-10-0-0-2 sshd[29092]: Invalid user admin from remotehost passwd=aaaaaaaa
Jan 31 11:39:20 ip-10-0-0-2 sshd[29098]: Invalid user admin from remotehost passwd=aaaaaaab
Jan 31 11:39:23 ip-10-0-0-2 sshd[29100]: Invalid user admin from remotehost passwd=aaaaaaac
Jan 31 11:39:31 ip-10-0-0-2 sshd[29106]: Invalid user admin from remotehost passwd=aaaaaaad
Jan 31 20:40:53 ip-10-0-0-254 sshd[30520]: Invalid user admin from remotehost passwd=aaaaaaad
What type of attack has Danielle discovered?
a. A pass-the-hash attack
b. A brute-force attack
c. A man-in-the-middle attack
d. A dictionary attack
B. Brute-force attacks try every possible password. In this attack, the password is changing by one letter at each attempt, which indicates that it is a brute-force attack. A dictionary attack would use dictionary words for the attack, whereas a man-in-the-middle or pass-the-hash attack would most likely not be visible in an authentication log except as a successful login.
What property of a relational database ensures that two executing transactions do not affect each other by storing interim results in the database?
a. Atomicity
b. Isolation
c. Consistency
d. Durability
B. Isolation requires that transactions operate separately from each other. Atomicity ensures that if any part of a database transaction fails, the entire transaction must be rolled back as if it never occurred. Consistency ensures that all transactions are consistent with the logical rules of the database, such as having a primary key. Durability requires that once a transaction is committed to the database it must be preserved.
Kim is the system administrator for a small business network that is experiencing security problems. She is in the office in the evening working on the problem and nobody else is there. As she is watching, she can see that systems on the other side of the office that were previously behaving normally are now exhibiting signs of infection. What type of malware is Kim likely dealing with?
a. Virus
b. Worm
c. Trojan horse
d. Logic bomb
B. Worms have built-in propagation mechanisms that do not require user interaction, such as scanning for systems containing known vulnerabilities and then exploiting those vulnerabilities to gain access. Viruses and Trojan horses typically require user interaction to spread. Logic bombs do not spread from system to system but lie in wait until certain conditions are met, triggering the delivery of their payload.
Which one of the following attack types takes advantage of a vulnerability in the network fragmentation function of some operating systems?
a. Smurf
b. Land
c. Teardrop
d. Fraggle
C. In a teardrop attack, the attacker fragments traffic in such a way that the system is unable to reassemble them. Modern systems are not vulnerable to this attack if they run current operating systems, but the concept of this attack illustrates the danger of relying upon users following protocol specifications instead of performing proper exception handling.
Which of the following sequences properly describes the TCP 3-way handshake?
a. SYN, ACK, SYN/ACK
b. PSH, RST, ACK
c. SYN, SYN/ACK, ACK
d. SYN, RST, FIN
C. The TCP three-way handshake consists of initial contact via a SYN, or synchronize flagged packet, which receives a response with a SYN/ACK, or synchronize and acknowledge flagged packet, which is acknowledged by the original sender with an ACK, or acknowledge packet. RST is used in TCP to reset a connection, PSH is used to send data immediately, and FIN is used to end a connection.
Which one of the following technologies is not normally a capability of Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions?
a. Remotely wiping the contents of a mobile device
b. Assuming control of a nonregistered BYOD mobile device
c. Enforcing the use of device encyrption
d. Managing device backups
B. MDM products do not have the capability of assuming control of a device not currently managed by the organization. This would be equivalent to hacking into a device owned by someone else and might constitute a crime.
Jim is implementing an IDaaS solution for his organization. What type of technology is he putting in place?
a. Identity as a Service
b. Employee ID as a service
c. Cloud based RADIUS
d. OAuth
A. Identity as a Service (IDaaS) provides an identity platform as a third-party service. This can provide benefits, including integration with cloud services and removing overhead for maintenance of traditional on-premise identity systems, but can also create risk due to third-party control of identity services and reliance on an offsite identity infrastructure.
Gina recently took the CISSP certification exam and then wrote a blog post that included the text of many of the exam questions that she experienced. What aspect of the (ISC)2 code of ethics is most directly violated in this situation?
a. Advance and protect the profession.
b. Act honorably, honestly, justly, responsibly, and legally.
c. Protect society, the common good, necessary public trust and confidence, and the infrastructure.
d. Provide diligent and competent service to principals.
A. Gina’s actions harm the CISSP certification and information security community by undermining the integrity of the examination process. While Gina also is acting dishonestly, the harm to the profession is more of a direct violation of the code of ethics.
Gordon is conducting a risk assessment for his organization and determined the amount of damage that flooding is expected to cause to his facilities each year. What metric has Gordon identified?
a. ALE
b. ARO
c. SLE
d. EF
A. The annualized loss expectancy is the amount of damage that the organization expects to occur each year as the result of a given risk.
Greg would like to implement application control technology in his organization. He would like to limit users to installing only approved software on their systems. What type of application control would be appropriate in this situation?
a. Blacklisting
b. Graylisting
c. Whitelisting
d. Bluelisting
C. The whitelisting approach to application control allows users to install only those software packages specifically approved by administrators.. This would be an appropriate approach in a scenario where application installation needs to be tightly controlled.
Frank is the security administrator for a web server that provides news and information to people located around the world. His server received an unusually high volume of traffic that it could not handle and was forced to reject requests. Frank traced the source of the traffic back to a botnet. What type of attack took place?
a. Denial of service
b. Reconaissance
c. Compromise
d. Malicious insider
A. This is a clear example of a denial-of-service attack—denying legitimate users authorized access to the system through the use of overwhelming traffic. It goes beyond a reconnaissance attack because the attacker is affecting the system, but it is not a compromise because the attacker did not attempt to gain access to the system. There is no reason to believe that a malicious insider was involved.
In the database table shown here, which column would be the best candidate for a primary key?
a. Company ID
b. Company Name
c. ZIP Code
d. Sales Rep
A. The Company ID is likely unique for each row in the table, making it the best choice for a primary key. There may be multiple companies that share the same name or ZIP code. Similarly, a single sales representative likely serves more than one company, making those fields unsuitable for use as a unique identifier.
Information about an individual like their name, Social Security number, date and place of birth, or their mother’s maiden name is an example of what type of protected information?
a. PHI
b. Proprietary Data
c. PII
d. EDI
C. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes data that can be used to distinguish or trace that person’s identity, and also includes information like their medical, educational, financial, and employment information. PHI is personal health information, EDI is electronic data interchange, and proprietary data is used to maintain an organization’s competitive advantage.
Bob is configuring egress filtering on his network, examining traffic destined for the Internet. His organization uses the public address range 12.8.195.0/24. Packets with which one of the following destination addresses should Bob permit to leave the network?
a. 12.8.195.15
b. 10.8.15.9
c. 192.168.109.55
d. 129.53.44.124
D. 129.53.44.124 is a valid public IP address and a legitimate destination for traffic leaving Bob’s network. 12.8.195.15 is a public address on Bob’s network and should not be a destination address on a packet leaving the network. 10.8.15.9 and 192.168.109.55 are both private IP addresses that should not be routed to the Internet.
How many possible keys exist in a cryptographic algorithm that uses 6-bit encryption keys?
a. 12
b. 16
c. 32
d. 64
D. Binary keyspaces contain a number of keys equal to 2 raised to the power of the number of bits. Two to the sixth power is 64, so a 6-bit keyspace contains 64 possible keys. The number of viable keys is usually smaller in most algorithms due to the presence of parity bits and other algorithmic overhead or security issues that restrict the use of some key values.
What problem drives the recommendation to physically destroy SSD drives to prevent data leaks when they are retired?
a. Degaussing only partially wipes the data on SSDs.
b. SSDs don’t have data remanence.
c. SSDs are unable to perform a zero fill.
d. The built-in erase commands are not completely effective on some SSDs.
D. Research has shown that traditional methods of sanitizing files on SSDs were not reliable. SSDs remap data sectors as part of wear leveling, and erase commands are not consistently effective across multiple SSD brands. Zero fills can be performed on SSDs but may not be effective, much like erase commands. Degaussing doesn’t work on SSDs because they are flash media, rather than magnetic media. SSDs don’t have data remanence issues, but that doesn’t create the need to destroy them.
GAD Systems is concerned about the risk of hackers stealing sensitive information stored on a file server. They choose to pursue a risk mitigation strategy. Which one of the following actions would support that strategy?
a. Encrypting the files
b. Deleting the files
c. Purchasing cyberliability insurance
d. Taking no action
A. Encrypting the files reduces the probability that the data will be successfully stolen, so it is an example of risk mitigation. Deleting the files would be risk avoidance. Purchasing insurance would be risk transference. Taking no action would be risk acceptance.
How should samples be generated when assessing account management practices?
a. They should be generated by administrators.
b. The last 180 days of accounts should be validated.
c. Sampling should be conducted randomly.
d. Sampling is not effective, and all accounts should be audited.
C. Sampling should be done randomly to avoid human bias. Choosing a timeframe may miss historic issues or only account for the current administrator’s processes. Sampling is an effective process if it is done on a truly random sample of sufficient size to provide effective coverage of the userbase.
The International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles includes seven tenets. Which of the following lists correctly identifies all seven?
a. Awareness, selection, control, security, data integrity, access, enforcement
b. Notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, enforcement
c. Privacy, security, control, notification, data integrity, access, enforcement
d. Submission, editing, updates, confidential, integrity, security, access
B. The European Data Protection Directive’s seven primary tenets are:
Notice
Choice
Onward transfer
Security
Data integrity
Access
Enforcement
In what type of software testing does the attacker have complete knowledge of the system implementation prior to beginning the test?
a. Black box
b. Blue box
c. Gray box
d. White box
D. In a white box test, the attacker has access to full implementation details of the system, including source code, prior to beginning the test. In gray box testing, the attacker has partial knowledge. In black box testing, the attacker has no knowledge of the system and tests it from a user perspective. Blue boxes are a phone hacking tool and are not used in software testing.
What type of log is shown in the figure?
a. Firewall log
b. Change log
c. Application log
d. System log
C. The file clearly shows HTTP requests, as evidenced by the many GET commands. Therefore, this is an example of an application log from an HTTP server.
Captain Crunch, famous phone phreak, was known for using a toy whistle to generate the 2600 Hz tones that phone trunk systems used to communicate. What is the common name for a phreaking tool with this capability?
a. A black box
b. A red box
c. A blue box
d. A white box
C. A blue box was used to generate the 2600 Hz tones that trunking systems required. White boxes included a dual-tone, multifrequency generator to control phone systems. Black boxes were designed to steal long-distance service by manipulating line voltages, and red boxes simulated the tones of coins being deposited into payphones.
When an attacker calls an organization’s help desk and persuades them to reset a password for them due to the help desk employee’s trust and willingness to help, what type of attack succeeded?
a. A human Trojan
b. Social engineering
c. Phishing
d. Whaling
B. Social engineering exploits humans to allow attacks to succeed. Since help desk employees are specifically tasked with being helpful, they may be targeted by attackers posing as legitimate employees. Trojans are a type of malware, whereas phishing is a targeted attack via electronic communication methods intended to capture passwords or other sensitive data. Whaling is a type of phishing aimed at high-profile or important targets.
When a user attempts to log into their online account, Google sends a text message with a code to their cell phone. What type of verification is this?
a. Knowledge-based authentication
b. Dynamic knowledge–based authentication
c. Out-of-band identity proofing
d. Risk-based identity proofing
C. Identity proofing that relies on a type of verification outside of the initial environment that required the verification is out-of-band identity proofing. This type of verification relies on the owner of the phone or phone number having control of it but removes the ability for attackers to use only Internet-based resources to compromise an account. Knowledge-based authentication relies on answers to preselected information, whereas dynamic knowledge–based authentication builds questions using facts or data about the user. Risk-based identity proofing uses risk-based metrics to determine whether identities should be permitted or denied access. It is used to limit fraud in financial transactions, such as credit card purchases. This is a valid form of proofing but does not necessairly use an out-of-band channel, such as SMS.
What mathematical operation, when substituted for the blank lines shown here, would make the equations correct?
a. MOD
b. XOR
c. NAND
d. DIV
A. The modulo function is the remainder value left over after an integer division operation takes place.
Questions 42–44 refer to the following scenario:
The organization that Ben works for has a traditional onsite Active Directory environment that uses a manual provisioning process for each addition to their 350-employee company. As the company adopts new technologies, they are increasingly using Software as a Service applications to replace their internally developed software stack.
Ben has been tasked with designing an identity management implementation that will allow his company to use cloud services while supporting their existing systems. Using the logical diagram shown here, answer the following questions about the identity recommendations Ben should make.
If availability of authentication services is the organization’s biggest priority, what type of identity platform should Ben recommend?
a. Onsite
b. Cloud based
c. Hybrid
d. Outsourced
C. A hybrid authentication service can provide authentication services in both the cloud and on-premise, ensuring that service outages due to interrupted links are minimized. An onsite service would continue to work during an Internet outage but would not allow the e-commerce website to authenticate. A cloud service would leave the corporate location offline. Outsourcing authentication does not indicate whether the solution is on or off-premise, and thus isn’t a useful answer.
Questions 42–44 refer to the following scenario:
The organization that Ben works for has a traditional onsite Active Directory environment that uses a manual provisioning process for each addition to their 350-employee company. As the company adopts new technologies, they are increasingly using Software as a Service applications to replace their internally developed software stack.
Ben has been tasked with designing an identity management implementation that will allow his company to use cloud services while supporting their existing systems. Using the logical diagram shown here, answer the following questions about the identity recommendations Ben should make.
If Ben needs to share identity information with the business partner shown, what should he investigate?
a. Single sign-on
b. Multifactor authentication
c. Federation
d. IDaaS
C. Federation links identity information between multiple organizations. Federating with a business partner can allow identification and authorization to occur between them, making integration much easier. Single sign-on would reduce the number of times a user has to log in but will not facilitate the sharing of identity information. Multifactor can help secure authentication, but again, doesn’t help integrate with a third party. Finally, an Identity as a Service provider might provide federation but doesn’t guarantee it.
Questions 42–44 refer to the following scenario:
The organization that Ben works for has a traditional onsite Active Directory environment that uses a manual provisioning process for each addition to their 350-employee company. As the company adopts new technologies, they are increasingly using Software as a Service applications to replace their internally developed software stack.
Ben has been tasked with designing an identity management implementation that will allow his company to use cloud services while supporting their existing systems. Using the logical diagram shown here, answer the following questions about the identity recommendations Ben should make.
What technology is likely to be involved when Ben’s organization needs to provide authentication and authorization assertions to their e-commerce cloud partner?
a. Active Directory
b. SAML
c. RADIUS
d. SPML
B. Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is frequently used to integrate cloud services and provides the ability to make authentication and authorization assertions. Active Directory integrations are possible but are less common for cloud service providers, and RADIUS is not typically used for integrations like this. Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) is used to provision users, resources, and services, not for authentication and authorization.
Dave is responsible for password security in his organization and would like to strengthen the security of password files. He would like to defend his organization against the use of rainbow tables. Which one of the following techniques is specifically designed to frustrate the use of rainbow tables?
a. Password expiration policies
b. Salting
c. User education
d. Password complexity policies
B. Rainbow tables use precomputed password hashes to conduct cracking attacks against password files. They may be frustrated by the use of salting, which adds a specified value to the password prior to hashing, making it much more difficult to perform precomputation. Password expiration policies, password complexity policies, and user education may all contribute to password security, but they are not direct defenses against the use of rainbow tables.
Which one of the following is a single system designed to attract attackers because it seemingly contains sensitive information or other attractive resources?
a. Honeynet
b. Darknet
c. Honeypot
d. Pseudoflaw
C. A honeypot is a decoy computer system used to bait intruders into attacking. A honeynet is a network of multiple honeypots that creates a more sophisticated environment for intruders to explore. A pseudoflaw is a false vulnerability in a system that may attract an attacker. A darknet is a segment of unused network address space that should have no network activity and, therefore, may be easily used to monitor for illicit activity.
When evaluating biometric devices, what is another term used to describe the equal error rate?
a. FAR
b. FRR
c. CER
d. ERR
C. The crossover error rate (CER) is the point where both the false acceptance rate and the false rejection rate cross. CER and ERR, or equal error rate, mean the same thing and are used interchangeably.
A smart card is an example of what type of authentication factor?
a. Type 1
b. Type 2
c. Type 3
d. Type 4
B. A Type 2 is something you have, like a smart card or hardware token. A Type 1 authentication factor is something you know. A Type 3 authentication factor is something you are, like a biometric identifier. There is no such thing as a Type 4 authentication factor.
Sean suspects that an individual in his company is smuggling out secret information despite his company’s careful use of data loss prevention systems. He discovers that the suspect is posting photos, including the one shown here, to public Internet message boards. What type of technique may the individuals be using to hide messages inside this image?
a. Watermarking
b. VPN
c. Steganography
d. Covert timing channel
C. Steganography is the art of using cryptographic techniques to embed secret messages within other content. Steganographic algorithms work by making invisible alterations to files, such as modifying the least significant bits of the many bits that make up image files. VPNs may be used to obscure secret communications, but they provide protection in transit and can’t be used to embed information in an image. Watermarking does embed information in an image but with the intent of protecting intellectual property. A still image would not be used for a covert timing channel because it is a fixed file.
Roger is concerned that a third-party firm hired to develop code for an internal application will embed a backdoor in the code. The developer retains rights to the intellectual property and will only deliver the software in its final form. Which one of the following languages would be least susceptible to this type of attack because it would provide Roger with code that is human-readable in its final form?
a. JavaScript
b. C
c. C++
d. Java
A. JavaScript is an interpreted language so the code is not compiled prior to execution, allowing Roger to inspect the contents of the code. C, C++, and Java are all compiled languages—a compiler produces an executable file that is not human-readable.
Jesse is looking at the /etc/passwd file on a system configured to use shadowed passwords. What should she expect to see in the password field of this file?
a. Plaintext passwords
b. Encrypted passwords
c. Hashed passwords
d. x
D. When a system is configured to use shadowed passwords, the /etc/passwd file contains only the character x in the place of a password. It would not contain any passwords, in either plaintext, encrypted, or hashed form.
Ping of Death, Smurf attacks, and ping floods all abuse features of what important protocol?
a. IGMP
b. UDP
c. IP
d. ICMP
D. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is used for normal pings, as well as Pings of Death. Ping of Death describes attacks that were used to overflow poorly implemented ICMP handlers; Smurf attacks, which spoof broadcast pings to create huge amounts of traffic on a network; and ping floods, which are a type of denial-of-service attack.
What principle states that an individual should make every effort to complete his or her responsibilities in an accurate and timely manner?
a. Least privilege
b. Separation of duties
c. Due care
d. Due diligence
D. The due care principle states that an individual should react in a situation using the same level of care that would be expected from any reasonable person. It is a very broad standard. The due diligence principle is a more specific component of due care that states an individual assigned a responsibility should exercise due care to complete it accurately and in a timely manner.
Cable modems, ISDN, and DSL are all examples of what type of technology?
a. Baseband
b. Broadband
c. Digital
d. Broadcast
B. ISDN, cable modems, DSL, and T1 and T3 lines are all examples of broadband technology that can support multiple simultaneous signals. They are analog, not digital, and are not broadcast technologies.
What penetration testing technique can best help assess training and awareness issues?
a. Port scanning
b. Discovery
c. Social engineering
d. Vulnerability scanning
C. Social engineering is the best answer, as it can be useful to penetration testers who are asked to assess whether staff members are applying security training and have absorbed the awareness messages the organization uses. Port and vulnerability scanning find technical issues that may be related to awareness or training issues but that are less likely to be directly related. Discovery can involve port scanning or other data-gathering efforts, but is also less likely to be directly related to training and awareness.
Bill implemented RAID level 5 on a server that he operates using a total of three disks. How many disks may fail without the loss of data?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
B. RAID level 5 is also known as disk striping with parity. It uses three or more disks, with one disk containing parity information used to restore data to another disk in the event of failure. When used with three disks, RAID 5 is able to withstand the loss of a single disk.
Data is sent as bits at what layer of the OSI model?
a. Transport
b. Network
c. Data Link
d. Physical
D. The Physical layer deals with the electrical impulses or optical pulses that are sent as bits to convey data.
Bert is considering the use of an infrastructure as a service cloud computing partner to provide virtual servers. Which one of the following would be a vendor responsibility in this scenario?
a. Maintaining the hypervisor
b. Managing operating system security settings
c. Maintaining the host firewall
d. Configuring server access control
A. In an IaaS server environment, the customer retains responsibility for most server security operations under the shared responsibility model. This includes managing OS security settings, maintaining host firewalls, and configuring server access control. The vendor would be responsible for all security mechanisms at the hypervisor layer and below.
When Ben records data, then replays it against his test website to verify how it performs based on a real production workload, what type of performance monitoring is he undertaking?
a. Passive
b. Proactive
c. Reactive
d. Replay
B. Proactive monitoring, aka synthetic monitoring, uses recorded or generated traffic to test systems and software. Passive monitoring uses a network span, tap, or other device to capture traffic to be analyzed. Reactive and replay are not industry terms for types of monitoring.
What technology ensures that an operating system allocates separate memory spaces used by each application on a system?
a. Abstraction
b. Layering
c. Data hiding
d. Process isolation
D. Process isolation ensures that the operating system allocates a separate area of memory for each process, preventing processes from seeing each other’s data. This is a requirement for multilevel security systems.
Alan is considering the use of new identification cards in his organization that will be used for physical access control. He comes across a sample card and is unsure of the technology. He breaks it open and sees the following internal construction. What type of card is this?
a. Smart card
b. Proximity card
c. Magnetic stripe
d. Phase-two card
B. The use of an eletcromagnetic coil inside the card indicates that this is a proximity card.
Mark is planning a disaster recovery test for his organization. He would like to perform a live test of the disaster recovery facility but does not want to disrupt operations at the primary facility. What type of test should Mark choose?
a. Full interruption test
b. Checklist review
c. Parallel test
d. Tabletop exercise
C. During a parallel test, the team actually activates the disaster recovery site for testing, but the primary site remains operational. During a full interruption test, the team takes down the primary site and confirms that the disaster recovery site is capable of handling regular operations. The full interruption test is the most thorough test but also the most disruptive. The checklist review is the least disruptive type of disaster recovery test. During a checklist review, team members each review the contents of their disaster recovery checklists on their own and suggest any necessary changes. During a tabletop exercise, team members come together and walk through a scenario without making any changes to information systems.
Which one of the following is not a principle of the Agile approach to software development?
a. The best architecture, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
b. Deliver working software infrequently, with an emphasis on creating accurate code over longer timelines.
c. Welcome changing requirements, even late in the development process.
d. Simplicity is essential.
B. The Agile approach to software development embraces 12 core principles, found in the Agile Manifesto. One of these principles is that the best architecture, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. Another is that teams should welcome changing requirements at any step in the process. A third is that simplicity is essential. The Agile approach emphasizes delivering software frequently, not infrequently.
During a security audit, Susan discovers that the organization is using hand geometry scanners as the access control mechanism for their secure data center. What recommendation should Susan make about the use of hand geometry scanners?
a. They have a high FRR, and should be replaced.
b. A second factor should be added because they are not a good way to reliably distinguish individuals.
c. The hand geometry scanners provide appropriate security for the data center and should be considered for other high-security areas.
d. They may create accessibility concerns and an alternate biometric system should be considered.
B. Hand geometry scanners assess the physical dimensions of an individual’s hand, but do not verify other unique factors about the individual, or even verify if they are alive. This means that hand geometry scanners should not be implemented as the sole authentication factor for secure environments. Hand geometry scanners do not have an abnormally high FRR, and do not stand out as a particular issue from an accessibility standpoint compared to other biometric systems.
Colleen is conducting a business impact assessment for her organization. What metric provides important information about the amount of time that the organization may be without a service before causing irreparable harm?
a. MTD
b. ALE
c. RPO
d. RTO
A. The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) is the amount of time that a business may be without a service before irreparable harm occurs. This measure is sometimes also called maximum tolerable outage (MTO).
An attack that changes a symlink on a Linux system between the time that an account’s rights to the file are verified and the file is accessed is an example of what type of attack?
a. Unlinking
b. Tick/tock
c. setuid
d. TOC/TOU
D. Attacks that change a symlink between the time that rights are checked and the file is accessed, in order to access a file that the account does not have rights to, are time of check/time of use (TOC/TOU) attacks, a form of race condition. Unlinking removes names from a Linux filesystem, setuid allows a user to run an executable with the permissions of its owner, and tick/tock is not a type of attack or Linux command.
An authentication factor that is “something you have,” and that typically includes a microprocessor and one or more certificates, is what type of authenticator?
a. A smart card
b. A token
c. A Type I validator
d. A Type III authenticator
A. Smart cards are a Type II authentication factor, and include both a microprocessor and at least one certificate. Since they are something you have, they’re not a Type I or III authentication factor. Tokens do not necessarily contain certificates.
What term best describes an attack that relies on stolen or falsified authentication credentials to bypass an authentication mechanism?
a. Spoofing
b. Replay
c. Masquerading
d. Modification
C. Masquerading (or impersonation) attacks use stolen or falsified credentials to bypass authentication mechanisms. Spoofing attacks rely on falsifying an identity like an IP address or hostname without credentials. Replay attacks are a more specific type of masquerading attack that relies on captured network traffic to reestablish authorized connections. Modification attacks occur when captured packets are modified and replayed to a system to attempt to perform an action.
What speed is a T1 line?
a. 64 Kbps
b. 128 Kbps
c. 1.544 Mbps
d. 44.736 Mbps
C. A T1 (DS1) line is rated at 1.544 Mbps. ISDN is often 64 or 128 Kbps, and T3 lines are 44.736 Mbps.
Owen recently designed a security access control structure that prevents a single user from simultaneously holding the role required to create a new vendor and the role required to issue a check. What principle is Owen enforcing?
a. Two-person control
b. Least privilege
c. Separation of duties
d. Job rotation
C. This scenario describes separation of duties—not allowing the same person to hold two roles that, when combined, are sensitive. While two-person control is a similar concept, it does not apply in this case because the scenario does not say that either action requires the concurrence of two users.
Denise is preparing for a trial relating to a contract dispute between her company and a software vendor. The vendor is claiming that Denise made a verbal agreement that amended their written contract. What rule of evidence should Denise raise in her defense?
a. Real evidence rule
b. Best evidence rule
c. Parol evidence rule
d. Testimonial evidence rule
C. The parol evidence rule states that when an agreement between two parties is put into written form, it is assumed to be the entire agreement unless amended in writing. The best evidence rule says that a copy of a document is not admissible if the original document is available. Real evidence and testimonial evidence are evidence types, not rules of evidence.
While Lauren is monitoring traffic on two ends of a network connection, she sees traffic that is inbound to a public IP address show up inside of the production network bound for an internal host that uses an RFC 1918 reserved address. What technology should she expect is in use at the network border?
a. NAT
b. VLANs
c. S/NAT
d. BGP
A. Network Address Translation (NAT) translates an internal address to an external address. VLANs are used to logically divide networks, BGP is a routing protocol, and S/NAT is a made-up term.
Which of the following statements about SSAE-16 is not true?
a. It mandates a specific control set.
b. It is an attestation standard.
c. It is used for external audits.
d. It uses a framework, including SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 reports.
A. SSAE-16 does not assert specific controls. Instead it reviews the use and application of controls in an audited organization. It is an attestation standard, used for external audits, and forms part of the underlying framework for SOC 1, 2, and 3 reports.
What does a constrained user interface do?
a. It prevents unauthorized users from logging in.
b. It limits the data visible in an interface based on the content.
c. It limits the access a user is provided based on what activity they are performing.
d. It limits what users can do or see based on privileges.
D. A constrained user interface restricts what users can see or do based on their privileges. This can result in grayed-out or missing menu items, or other interface changes. Activity-based controls are called context-dependent controls, whereas controls based on the content of an object are content-dependent controls. Preventing unauthorized users from logging in is a basic authentication function.
Greg is building a disaster recovery plan for his organization and would like to determine the amount of time that it should take to restore a particular IT service after an outage. What variable is Greg calculating?
a. MTO
b. RTO
c. RPO
d. SLA
B. The recovery time objective (RTO) is the amount of time expected to return an IT service or component to operation after a failure. The maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) is the longest amount of time that an IT service or component may be unavailable without causing serious damage to the organization. The recovery point objective (RPO) identifies the maximum amount of data, measured in time, that may be lost during a recovery effort. Service-level agreements (SLAs) are written contracts that document service expectations.
In object-oriented programming, what type of variable exists only once and shares the same value across all instances of an object?
a. Instance variable
b. Member variable
c. Class variable
d. Global variable
C. Class variables exist only once and share their value across all instances of that object class. Instance variables have different values for each instance. Member variables are the combination of class and instance variables associated with a particular class. Global variables do not exist in an object-oriented programming language.
What type of fire extinguisher is useful against liquid-based fires?
a. Class A
b. Class B
c. Class C
d. Class D
B. Class B fire extinguishers use carbon dioxide, halon, or soda acid as their suppression material and are useful against liquid-based fires. Water may not be used against liquid-based fires because it may cause the burning liquid to splash, and many burning liquids, such as oil, will float on water.
The company Chris works for has notifications posted at each door reminding employees to be careful to not allow people to enter when they do. Which type of controls best describes this?
a. Detective
b. Physical
c. Preventive
d. Directive
D. Notifications and procedures like the signs posted at the company Chris works for are examples of directive access controls. Detective controls are designed to operate after the fact. The doors and the locks on them are examples of physical controls. Preventive controls are designed to stop an event, and could also include the locks that are present on the doors.
Which one of the following principles is not included in the International Safe Harbor Provisions?
a. Access
b. Security
c. Enforcement
d. Nonrepudiation
D. The seven principles that the International Safe Harbor Provisions spell out for handling personal information are notice, choice, onward transfer, access, security, data integrity, and enforcement.
What group is eligible to receive safe harbor protection under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)?
a. Music producers
b. Book publishers
c. Internet service providers
d. Banks
C. The DMCA provides safe harbor protection for the operators of Internet service providers who only handle information as a common carrier for transitory purposes.
Alex is the system owner for the HR system at a major university. According to NIST SP 800-18, what action should he take when a significant change occurs in the system?
a. He should develop a data confidentiality plan.
b. He should update the system security plan.
c. He should classify the data the system contains.
d. He should select custodians to handle day-to-day operational tasks.
B. According to NIST SP 800-18, a system owner should update the system security plan when the system they are responsible for undergoes a significant change. Classification, selection of custodians, and designing ways to protect data confidentiality might occur if new data was added, but should have already been done otherwise.
Questions 82–84 refer to the following scenario:
Alex has been with the university he works at for over 10 years. During that time, he has been a system administrator and a database administrator, and he has worked in the university’s help desk. He is now a manager for the team that runs the university’s web applications. Using the provisioning diagram shown here, answer the following questions.
If Alex hires a new employee and the employee’s account is provisioned after HR manually inputs information into the provisioning system based on data Alex provides via a series of forms, what type of provisioning has occurred?
a. Discretionary account provisioning
b. Workflow-based account provisioning
c. Automated account provisioning
d. Self-service account provisioning
B. Provisioning that occurs through an established workflow, such as through an HR process, is workflow-based account provisioning. If Alex had set up accounts for his new hire on the systems he manages, he would have been using discretionary account provisioning. If the provisioning system allowed the new hire to sign up for an account on their own, they would have used self-service account provisioning, and if there was a central, software-driven process, rather than HR forms, it would have been automated account provisioning.
Questions 82–84 refer to the following scenario:
Alex has been with the university he works at for over 10 years. During that time, he has been a system administrator and a database administrator, and he has worked in the university’s help desk. He is now a manager for the team that runs the university’s web applications. Using the provisioning diagram shown here, answer the following questions.
Alex has access to B, C, and D. What concern should he raise to the university’s identity management team?
a. The provisioning process did not give him the rights he needs.
b. He has excessive privileges.
c. Privilege creep may be taking place.
d. Logging is not properly enabled.
C. As Alex has changed roles, he retained access to systems that he no longer administers. The provisioning system has provided rights to workstations and the application servers he manages, but he should not have access to the databases he no longer administers. Privilege levels are not specified, so we can’t determine if he has excessive rights. Logging may or may not be enabled, but it isn’t possible to tell from the diagram or problem.
Questions 82–84 refer to the following scenario:
Alex has been with the university he works at for over 10 years. During that time, he has been a system administrator and a database administrator, and he has worked in the university’s help desk. He is now a manager for the team that runs the university’s web applications. Using the provisioning diagram shown here, answer the following questions.
When Alex changes roles, what should occur?
a. He should be de-provisioned and a new account should be created.
b. He should have his new rights added to his existing account.
c. He should be provisioned for only the rights that match his role.
d. He should have his rights set to match those of the person he is replacing.
C. When a user’s role changes, they should be provisioned based on their role and other access entitlements. De-provisioning and re-provisioning is time consuming and can lead to problems with changed IDs and how existing credentials work. Simply adding new rights leads to privilege creep, and matching another user’s rights can lead to excessive privileges due to privilege creep for that other user.
Robert is reviewing a system that has been assigned the EAL2 evaluation assurance level under the Common Criteria. What is the highest level of assurance that he may have about the system?
a. It has been functionally tested.
b. It has been structurally tested.
c. It has been formally verified, designed, and tested.
d. It has been semiformally designed and tested.
B. EAL2 assurance applies when the system has been structurally tested. It is the second-to-lowest level of assurance under the Common Criteria.
Adam is processing an access request for an end user. What two items should he verify before granting the access?
a. Separation and need to know
b. Clearance and endorsement
c. Clearance and need to know
d. Second factor and clearance
C. Before granting any user access to information, Adam should verify that the user has an appropriate security clearance as well as a business need to know the information in question.
During what phase of the electronic discovery reference model does an organization ensure that potentially discoverable information is protected against alteration or deletion?
a. Identification
b. Preservation
c. Collection
d. Production
B. During the preservation phase, the organization ensures that information related to the matter at hand is protected against intentional or unintentional alteration or deletion. The identification phase locates relevant information but does not preserve it. The collection phase occurs after preservation and gathers responsive information. The processing phase performs a rough cut of the collected information for relevance.
Nessus, OpenVAS, and SAINT are all examples of what type of tool?
a. Port scanners
b. Patch management suites
c. Port mappers
d. Vulnerability scanners
D. Nessus, OpenVAS, the Open Vulnerability Assessment scanner and manager, and SAINT are all vulnerability scanning tools. All provide port scanning capabilities as well but are more than simple port scanning tools.
Harry would like to access a document owned by Sally stored on a file server. Applying the subject/object model to this scenario, who or what is the object of the resource request?
a. Harry
b. Sally
c. File server
d. Document
D. In the subject/object model, the object is the resource being requested by a subject. In this example, Harry would like access to the document, making the document the object of the request.
What is the process that occurs when the session layer removes the header from data sent by the transport layer?
a. Encapsulation
b. Packet unwrapping
c. De-encapsulation
d. Payloading
C. The process of removing a header (and possibly a footer) from the data received from a previous layer in the OSI model is known as de-encapsulation. Encapsulation occurs when the header and/or footer are added. Payloads are part of a virus or malware package that are delivered to a target, and packet unwrapping is a made-up term.
Which of the following tools is best suited to testing known exploits against a system?
a. Nikto
b. Ettercap
c. Metasploit
d. THC Hydra
C. Metasploit is a tool used to exploit known vulnerabilities. Nikto is a web application and server vulnerability scanning tool, Ettercap is a man-in-the-middle attack tool, and THC Hydra is a password brute-force tool.
What markup language uses the concepts of a Requesting Authority, a Provisioning Service Point, and a Provisioning Service Target to handle its core functionality?
a. SAML
b. SAMPL
c. SPML
d. XACML
C. Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) uses Requesting Authorities to issue SPML requests to a Provisioning Service Point. Provisioning Service Targets are often user accounts, and are required to be allowed unique identification of the data in its implementation. SAML is used for security assertions, SAMPL is an algebraic modeling language, and XACML is an access control markup language used to describe and process access control policies in an XML format.
What type of risk assessment uses tools such as the one shown here?
a. Quantitative
b. Loss expectancy
c. Financial
d. Qualitative
D. The use of a probability/impact matrix is the hallmark of a qualitative risk assessment It uses subjective measures of probability and impact, such as “high” and “low,” in place of quantitative measures.
MAC models use three types of environments. Which of the following is not a mandatory access control design?
a. Hierarchical
b. Bracketed
c. Compartmentalized
d. Hybrid
B. Mandatory access control systems can be hierarchical, where each domain is ordered and related to other domains above and below it; compartmentalized, where there is no relationship between each domain; or hybrid, where both hierarchy and compartments are used. There is no concept of bracketing in mandatory access control design.
What level of RAID is also called disk striping with parity?
a. RAID 0
b. RAID 1
c. RAID 5
d. RAID 10
C. RAID level 5 is also known as disk striping with parity. RAID 0 is called disk striping. RAID 1 is called disk mirroring. RAID 10 is known as a stripe of mirrors.
Sally is wiring a gigabit Ethernet network. What cabling choices should she make to ensure she can use her network at the full 1000 Mbps she wants to provide to her users?
a. Cat 5 and Cat 6
b. Cat 5e and Cat 6
c. Cat 4e and Cat 5e
d. Cat 6 and Cat 7
B. Category 5e and Category 6 UTP cable are both rated to 1000 Mbps. Cat 5 (not Cat 5e) is only rated to 100 Mbps, whereas Cat 7 is rated to 10 Gbps. There is no Cat 4e.
Which one of the following is typically considered a business continuity task?
a. Business impact assessment
b. Alternate facility selection
c. Activation of cold sites
d. Restoration of data from backup
A. Developing a business impact assessment is an integral part of the business continuity planning effort. The selection of alternate facilities, activation of those facilities, and restoration of data from backup are all disaster recovery tasks.
Robert is the network administrator for a small business and recently installed a new firewall. After seeing signs of unusually heavy network traffic, he checked his intrusion detection system, which reported that a Smurf attack was under way. What firewall configuration change can Robert make to most effectively prevent this attack.
a. Block the source IP address of the attack.
b. Block inbound UDP traffic.
c. Block the destination IP address of the attack.
d. Block inbound ICMP traffic.
D. Smurf attacks use a distributed attack approach to send ICMP echo replies at a targeted system from many different source addresses. The most effective way to block this attack would be to block inbound ICMP traffic. Blocking the source addresses is not feasible because the attacker would likely simply change the source addresses. Blocking destination addresses would likely disrupt normal activity. The Smurf attack does not use UDP, so blocking that traffic would have no effect.
Which one of the following types of firewalls does not have the ability to track connection status between different packets?
a. Stateful inspection
b. Application proxy
c. Packet filter
d. Next generation
C. Static packet filtering firewalls are known as first-generation firewalls and do not track connection state. Stateful inspection, application proxying, and next-generation firewalls all add connection state tracking capability.
Which of the following is used only to encrypt data in transit over a network and cannot be used to encrypt data at rest?
a. TKIP
b. AES
c. 3DES
d. RSA
A. TKIP is only used as a means to encrypt transmissions and is not used for data at rest. RSA, AES, and 3DES are all used on data at rest as well as data in transit.
In the figure shown here, Harry’s request to read the data file is blocked. Harry has a Secret security clearance and the data file has a Top Secret classification. What principle of the Bell-LaPadula model blocked this request?
a. Simple Security Property
b. Simple Integrity Property
c. *-Security Property
d. Discretionary Security Property
A. The Simple Security Property prevents an individual from reading information at a higher security level than his or her clearance allows. This is also known as the “no read up” rule. The Simple Integrity Property says that a user can’t write data to a higher integrity level than their own. The *-Security Property says that users can’t write data to a lower security level than their own. The Discretionary Security Property allows the use of a matrix to determine access permissions.
Norm is starting a new software project with a vendor that uses an SDLC approach to development. When he arrives on the job, he receives a document that has the sections shown here. What type of planning document is this?
a. Functional requirements
b. Work breakdown structure
c. Test analysis report
d. Project plan
B. The work breakdown structure (WBS) is an important project management tool that divides the work done for a large project into smaller components. It is not a project plan because it does not describe timing or resources. Test analyses are used during later phases of the development effort to report test results. Functional requirements may be included in a work breakdown structure, but they are not the full WBS.
Questions 116–118 refer to the following scenario:
During a web application vulnerability scanning test, Steve runs Nikto against a web server he believes may be vulnerable to attacks. Using the Nikto output shown here, answer the following questions.
Why does Nikto flag the /test directory?
a. . The /test directory allows administrative access to PHP.
b. It is used to store sensitive data.
c. Test directories often contain scripts that can be misused.
d. It indicates a potential compromise.
C. Test directories often include scripts that may have poor protections or may have other data that can be misused. There is not a default test directory that allows administrative access to PHP. Test directories are not commonly used to store sensitive data, nor is the existence of a test directory a common indicator of compromise.
Questions 116–118 refer to the following scenario:
During a web application vulnerability scanning test, Steve runs Nikto against a web server he believes may be vulnerable to attacks. Using the Nikto output shown here, answer the following questions.
Why does Nikto identify directory indexing as an issue?
a. It lists files in a directory.
b. It may allow for XDRF.
c. Directory indexing can result in a denial-of-service attack.
d. Directory indexing is off by default, potentially indicating compromise.
A. Directory indexing may not initially seem like an issue during a penetration test, but simply knowing the name and location of files can provide an attacker with quite a bit of information about an organization, as well as a list of potentially accessible files. XDRF is not a type of attack, and indexing is not a denial-of-service attack vector. Directory indexing being turned on is typically either due to misconfiguration or design, or because the server was not properly configured at setup, rather than being a sign of attack.
Questions 116–118 refer to the following scenario:
During a web application vulnerability scanning test, Steve runs Nikto against a web server he believes may be vulnerable to attacks. Using the Nikto output shown here, answer the following questions.
Nikto lists OSVDB-877, noting that the system may be vulnerable to XST. What would this type of attack allow an attacker to do?
a. Use cross-site targeting.
b. Steal a user’s cookies.
c. Counter SQL tracing.
d. Modify a user’s TRACE information.
B. Cross-site tracing (XST) leverages the HTTP TRACE or TRACK methods, and could be used to steal a user’s cookies via cross-site scripting (XSS). The other options are not industry terms for web application or web server attacks or vulnerabilities.
What network topology is shown here?
a. A ring
b. A bus
c. A star
d. A mesh
C. A star topology uses a central connection device. Ethernet networks may look like a star, but they are actually a logical bus topology that is sometimes deployed in a physical star.
In the image shown here, what does system B send to system A at step 2 of the three-way TCP handshake?
a. SYN
b. ACK
c. FIN/ACK
d. SYN/ACK
D. The three-way handshake is SYN, SYN/ACK, ACK. System B should respond with “Synchronize and Acknowledge” to System A after it receives a SYN.
Cameron is responsible for backing up his company’s primary file server. He configured a backup schedule that performs full backups every Monday evening at 9:00 and incremental backups on other days of the week at that same time. How many files will be copied in Wednesday’s backup?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 5
d. 6
B. In this scenario, all of the files on the server will be backed up on Monday evening during the full backup. Tuesday’s incremental backup will include all files changed since Monday’s full backup: files 1, 2, and 5. Wednesday’s incremental backup will then include all files modified since Tuesday’s incremental backup: files 3 and 6.
Ed’s Windows system can’t connect to the network and ipconfig shows the following:
What has occurred on the system?
a. The system has been assigned in invalid IP address by its DHCP server.
b. The system has a manually assigned IP address.
c. The system has failed to get a DHCP address and has assigned itself an address.
d. The subnet mask is set incorrectly and the system cannot communicate with the gateway.
C. Windows systems will assign themselves an APIPA address between 169.254.0.1 and 169.254.255.254 if they cannot contact a DHCP server.
In the ring protection model shown here, what ring contains user programs and applications?
a. Ring 0
b. Ring 1
c. Ring 2
d. Ring 3
D. The kernel lies within the central ring, Ring 0. Ring 1 contains other operating system components. Ring 2 is used for drivers and protocols. User-level programs and applications run at Ring 3. Rings 0–2 run in privileged mode whereas Ring 3 runs in user mode.
What code review process is shown here?
a. Static inspection
b. Fagan inspection
c. Dynamic inspectiom
d. Interface testing
B. Fagan inspection is a highly formalized review and testing process that uses planning, overview, preparation, inspection, rework, and follow-up steps. Static inspection looks at code without running it, dynamic inspection uses live programs, and interface testing tests where code modules interact.
During a log review, Karen discovers that the system she needs to gather logs from has the log setting shown here. What problem is Karen likely to encounter?
a. Too much log data will be stored on the system.
b. The system is automatically purging archived logs.
c. The logs will not contain the information needed.
d. The logs will only contain the most recent 20 MB of log data.
D. The system is set to overwrite the logs and will replace the oldest log entries with new log entries when the file reaches 20 MB. The system is not purging archived logs because it is not archiving logs. Since there can only be 20 MB of logs, this system will not have stored too much log data, and the question does not provide enough information to know if there will be an issue with not having the information needed.
In the diagram shown here of security boundaries within a computer system, what component’s name has been replaced with XXX?
a. Reference monitor
b. Privileged core
c. Security perimeter
d. User kernel
A. The reference monitor is a component of the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) that validates access to resources.
