CompTIA CAS-004 CompTIA SecurityX Certification Exam Exam Practice Test

Comprehensive and Detailed in-Depth Explanation:

Understanding Path Traversal:

Path Traversalvulnerabilities occur when an applicationimproperly handles user input, allowing an attacker totraverse directorieson the server andaccess restricted files.

Attackers typically use sequences like../to move up directory levels, allowing access to critical files such as:

/etc/passwd(on Linux)

C:\Windows\system32(on Windows)

Example of Vulnerable Code:

python

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import os

def read_file(filename):

with open("/var/www/app/" + filename, "r") as f:

return f.read()

If the inputfilenameis../../etc/passwd, the file/etc/passwdmight be exposed.

Why the Correct Answer is A (Develop a secure library for file handling that normalizes and validates the input path):

Themost effective defense against path traversalis tosanitize and normalizefile paths before processing.

Techniques include:

Input Validation:Restricting input toexpected patterns, such as specific filenames or directories.

Path Normalization:Using functions likeos.path.normpath()to collapse redundant separators and up-level references.

Absolute Path Verification:Ensuring that theresolved pathis within anexpected directory.

Using asecure library for file handlingcentralizes these practices, reducing the risk of inconsistent or incomplete implementations.

Example of Secure Implementation:

python

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import os

def secure_read_file(filename):

# Normalize and validate the input path

safe_base = "/var/www/app/"

safe_path = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(safe_base, filename))

# Check if the path starts with the base directory

if os.path.commonprefix([safe_base, safe_path]) == safe_base:

with open(safe_path, "r") as f:

return f.read()

else:

raise ValueError("Invalid file path")

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

B. Create a sandbox for the application that disallows filesystem access:

Sandboxing is useful forlimiting damagebut does notdirectly address the root causeof path traversal.

Path traversal can still occurwithin the sandbox, compromising other files.

C. Ensure that output encoding is appropriately implemented on all data fields:

Encoding addressesinjection attacks(like XSS), not path traversal.

Encoding does notmitigate directory traversalvulnerabilities.

D. Implement a blocklist for a specific set of meta characters:

Blocklists are prone tobypass techniques(e.g., using alternative encodings or unexpected separators).

Ablocklist approachisless reliablecompared towhitelisting and path normalization.

E. Deploy a code sandbox solution that reduces the application's permissions:

Reducing permissionslimits damagebut does notprevent traversal attacks.

Attackers can still exploitpath traversalto access unintended data within permitted areas.

Real-World Scenario:

A path traversal vulnerability in a popular CMS allowed attackers to readconfiguration filesanddatabase credentials.

Thefix involved using safe librariesfor file handling andnormalizing pathsto ensure they were withinpermitted directories.

Extract from CompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 Study Guide:

TheCompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 Official Study Guiderecommends the use ofsecure coding practicesfor file operations, particularly to prevent path traversal attacks. It emphasizes usingpath normalization and validationas theprimary defense mechanism. By centralizing file handling through asecure library, developers canconsistently enforce security measuresacross the application.

Email signatures provide non-repudiation, which ensures that the sender of an email cannot deny having sent it. A digital signature, when attached to an email, uses cryptographic techniques toverify the sender's identity and confirm the authenticity of the message. This feature helps establish trust by preventing tampering and ensuring the integrity of the communication. CASP+ emphasizes the role of digital signatures in ensuring non-repudiation in secure communication protocols.

To meet the mobile platform security requirements, the manufacturer should implement the following technologies:

eFuse: This hardware feature helps track and prevent unauthorized firmware by physically "blowing" fuses to record events, such as firmware tampering, making it impossible to revert to older, unapproved firmware.

Secure boot: This ensures that only trusted and authorized firmware can be loaded during the boot process, preventing malicious or unauthorized software from running.

Secure enclave: A secure enclave is used to store sensitive information like biometric data in a hardware-isolated environment, protecting it from tampering or unauthorized access.

These three solutions provide the tamper resistance, secure firmware validation, and protection of sensitive data required for the platform. CASP+ emphasizes the use of hardware-based security features for protecting sensitive information and enforcing secure boot processes in embedded and mobile systems.

The observation that the load balancer has only a single server assigned suggests an issue with scalability. Scalability refers to the ability of the system to handle increasing loads by addingresources. In this case, having a single server assigned to a load balancer may not be adequate to handle increased traffic or load, which could lead to performance issues.

Comprehensive and Detailed Step by Step Explanation:

The issue stems from Web Server C's new IP (10.2.0.92) not being included in thefirewall rules.

To resolve the issue,modify the firewall rules to include the new IP range(e.g., 10.2.0.0/26) rather than adding a specific host rule, ensuring scalability and simplicity.

Changing inbound or outbound security group rules would still miss the underlying issue of omitted IPs.

Reconfiguring the IP is unnecessary when updating firewall rules is sufficient.

The incident response cycle's preparation phase includes establishing policies and procedures for reporting lost or stolen devices promptly. If an employee's device was missing for 96 hours before being reported, this indicates a lack of awareness or clear procedures on the employee's part, pointing to inadequacies in the preparation phase of the incident response.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is the document used to specify due dates for the remediation of high- and critical-priority findings. SLAs outline the responsibilities of the service provider, including time frames for addressing issues or vulnerabilities, based on their severity. By setting clear timelines for remediation, SLAs ensure that critical security vulnerabilities are addressed in a timely manner. CASP+ emphasizes the importance of SLAs in maintaining accountability for security operations and ensuring compliance with organizational security policies.

Step by Step Explanation:

Replication ensures data consistency by synchronizing copies of data across clusters. This would prevent data loss during power outages.

Caching provides faster data retrieval but does not ensure data persistence.

Containerization improves deployment consistency but does not address resilience or data integrity.

Redundancy relates to additional hardware or systems but does not guarantee up-to-date data.

High availability addresses system uptime but does not prevent data loss.

Federation is the best strategy for unifying application access between two companies without merging their internal authentication stores. Federation allows users from different organizations to authenticate and access resources using their existing credentials through trusted third-party identity providers. This enables seamless access without the need to merge or consolidate internal authentication systems. CASP+ emphasizes federation as a key technology for enabling cross-organizational authentication while maintaining the integrity of separate identity stores.

A virtual next-generation firewall (vNGFW) is a software version of a NGFW that can be deployed on cloud servers to provide advanced network security features. A vNGFW can help secure the cloud environment similarly to the infrastructure on premises by providing functions such as URL filtering, SSL/TLS inspection, deep packet inspection, antivirus, IPS, application control, and sandboxing. A web application firewall (WAF) is a device or software that filters and blocks malicious web traffic from reaching an application. A WAF can help secure the web servers in the cloud environment by protecting them from common attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and cross-site request forgery (CSRF). Microsegmentation is a technique that divides a network into smaller segments or zones based on criteria such as identity, role, or function. Microsegmentation can help secure the cloud environment by isolating different types of servers and applying granular security policies to each segment.

A content delivery network (CDN) is a distributed system of servers that delivers web content to users based on their geographic location, the origin of the content, and the performance of the network. A CDN can help improve the availability and performance of web applications by caching content closer to the users, reducing latency and bandwidth consumption. However, a CDN does not provide the samelevel of security as a vNGFW or a WAF. Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) is a technology that uses software to manage the connectivity and routing of wide area network (WAN) traffic across multiple links or carriers. SD-WAN can help improve the reliability and efficiency of WAN connections by dynamically selecting the best path for each application based on factors such as bandwidth, latency, cost, and quality of service (QoS). However, SD-WAN does not provide the same level of security as a vNGFW or a WAF. External vulnerability scans are assessments that identify and report on the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of an IT system from an external perspective. External vulnerability scans can help improve the security posture of an IT system by providing visibility into its exposure to potential threats. However, external vulnerability scans do not provide the same level of protection as a vNGFW or a WAF. Containers are units of software that package an application and its dependencies into a standardized format that can run on any platform or environment. Containers can help improve the portability and scalability of applications by allowing them to run independently from the underlying infrastructure. However, containers do not provide the same level of security as microsegmentation. References: [CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner(CASP+) Certification Exam Objectives], Domain 2: Enterprise Security Architecture, Objective 2.3: Implement solutions for the secure use of cloud services

Embedded facility automation systems are often difficult to upgrade because they are constrained by available compute. These systems typically have limited processing power, memory, and storage, which restricts the ability to implement modern security measures, such as encryption, software updates, or advanced security controls. Security engineers may be unable to apply patches or updates without exceeding the system’s capacity. CASP+ discusses the challenges posed by resource-constrained devices, particularly in embedded systems and IoT environments, where upgrading security can be difficult due to hardware limitations.

•ChaCha20: A stream cipher suited for real-time bitstream authentication and encryption.

•RIPEMD: A hashing algorithm useful for file integrity checks during large file transfers.

This aligns with CASP+ objective 3.2, focusing on selecting appropriate cryptographic methods for secure data handling and transmission.

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Rescanning ensures all identified vulnerabilities have been resolved and no additional changes introduced new issues. This step is critical for verifying remediation effectiveness before moving systems back into production, aligning with CASP+ objective 5.1, which involves verifying security measures during testing and evaluation phases.

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Overloading a machine learning system with incorrect information is an example of poisoning the data set, which can compromise the integrity of decision-making processes. This aligns with CASP+ objective 2.3, which involves threat modeling and mitigating risks associated with AI and ML systems.

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Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) with a tagging strategy allows flexible and granular access control based on resource classification and user attributes. This minimizes system impact and ensures compliance with data classification policies. This aligns with CASP+ objective 3.4, focusing on advanced access control mechanisms.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is designed to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. By implementing a CDN, the company can distribute the content across multiple geographically dispersed servers, thereby reducing latency for users far from the West Coast data centers, including those on the East Coast of the United States and in Europe.

The source code in this scenario uses insecure functions like strcpy which are known for not checking buffer sizes, leading to buffer overflow vulnerabilities. The most effective solution is to update the company’s secure coding policy to prohibit the use of insecure functions and replace them with safer alternatives, such as strncpy, which enforces buffer length checks. Integrating this change into the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) ensures that future code adheres to secure practices, thereby reducing the risk of vulnerabilities being introduced into production systems. This approach aligns with CASP+ guidelines that emphasize secure coding practices and policies to prevent common security flaws in software development.

Based on the output in the image, which shows weak cipher suites and vulnerabilities related to encryption padding, the padding oracle attack is the most likely. This type of attack exploits the way padding errors are handled during decryption, potentially allowing an attacker to decrypt sensitive information. The weak cipher suites and lack of forward secrecy further increase the likelihood of such an attack succeeding. CASP+ highlights padding oracle attacks as critical vulnerabilities, particularly in environments where weak encryption protocols are used.

A digital signature is a cryptographic technique that allows the sender of a file to sign it with their private key and the receiver to verify it with the sender’s public key. This ensures the integrity and authenticity of the file, as well as the non-repudiation of the sender. A message hash or a message digest is a one-way function that produces a fixed-length output from an input, but it does not provide any information about the sender. A message authentication code (MAC) is a symmetric-key technique that allows both the sender and the receiver to generate and verify a code using a shared secret key, but it does not provide non-repudiation. References: [CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) Certification Exam Objectives], Domain 2: Enterprise Security Architecture, Objective 2.1: Apply cryptographic techniques

Even though the company uses a cloud service provider (CSP) that is PCI compliant, the customer must still ensure that in-scope systems related to their new payment system offering are also PCI compliant. PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) applies to any system that processes, stores, or transmits credit card data, and this includes customer-owned systems, services, or applications integrated into the solution. The responsibility is shared between the CSP and the customer, and compliance is not automatically inherited just because the CSP is compliant. CASP+ emphasizes that organizations must ensure all components within their control are also PCI compliant.

The first step in mitigating the risk associated with delayed patching is to conduct a vulnerability analysis. This process involves identifying, categorizing, and assessing the vulnerabilities within the hospital's IT infrastructure. By understanding the specific vulnerabilities and their potential impact on patient care and data availability, the hospital can prioritize patching efforts effectively and develop a strategy that minimizes disruptions while ensuring critical systems remain secure.

NetFlow logs provide visibility into network traffic patterns and volume, which can be analyzed to detect anomalies, including potential security incidents. They can be invaluable in correlating the timing and nature of network events with security incidents to better understand if there is an association.

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) should highlight social engineering as an area of increased vulnerability due to the lack of completion of security awareness training by employees. Social engineering attacks exploit human behavior, and employees who are not adequately trained are more likely to fall victim to phishing, pretexting, and other types of social engineering tactics. Increasing awareness and training helps employees recognize and respond appropriately to these threats.

Static application security testing (SAST) is a method of analyzing the source code of an application for vulnerabilities and weaknesses before it is deployed. SAST can help identify security issues earlier in the development process, reducing the time and cost of remediation. Dynamic application security testing (DAST) is a method of testing the functionality and behavior of an application at runtime for vulnerabilities and weaknesses. DAST can cover public-facing application components, but it cannot detect issues in the source code or in serverless applications. Runtime application self-protection (RASP) is a technology that monitors and protects an application from attacks in real time by embedding security features into the application code or runtime environment. RASP can help prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities, but it cannot identify or fix them. A web application firewall (WAF) is a device or software that filters and blocks malicious web traffic from reaching an application. A WAF can help protect an application from common attacks, but it cannot detect or fix vulnerabilities in the application code or in serverless applications. References: [CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) Certification Exam Objectives], Domain 3: Enterprise Security Operations, Objective 3.4: Conduct security assessments using appropriate tools

A lack of Mobile Device Management (MDM) controls can lead to successful attacks because MDM solutions provide the ability to enforce security policies, remotely wipe sensitive data, and managesoftware updates, which can prevent unauthorized access and protect corporate data. Without MDM, personal devices are more vulnerable to security risks.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is the most appropriate governance framework when collecting and processing credit card data, including international user data. PCI DSS establishes security standards for organizations that handle payment card transactions and ensures theprotection of cardholder data globally. The other options, such as ISO 27001 and NIST 800-53, provide general security frameworks, but PCI DSS is specifically designed for payment card security, which is critical when handling credit card information. CASP+ emphasizes the role of PCI DSS in ensuring the secure handling of payment data.

Digitally signed third-party certificates provide greater security assurance because they are verified by trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs) and offer protection against on-path (man-in-the-middle) interception. Private-key Certificate Signing Request (CSR) signage helps ensure that communication cannot be intercepted or modified by malicious actors. Self-signed certificates, on the other hand, are not trusted outside the local environment and do not provide the same level of protection against on-path attacks. CASP+ emphasizes the security benefits of using third-party-signed certificates for securing communications over public networks.

The log messages in the image display detailed error messages, indicating improper error handling, which can expose sensitive information to potential attackers. Proper error handling ensures that error messages do not reveal underlying application details (such as file paths or configuration information) that could be exploited. This aligns with the best practices in secure coding and is a core concept in CASP+. Rather than exposing the inner workings of the application, the system should return generic error messages to users while logging detailed information securely for internal troubleshooting.

Step by Step Explanation:

User entity controls are responsibilities that must be implemented by the organization, so determining how to implement and monitor them is critical.

Monitoring the CSP or auditing their implementation pertains to the CSP’s responsibilities, not complementary user entity controls.

Steganography is the practice of hiding a secret message within another object, in such a way that others cannot discern the presence or contents of the hidden message. It is often used for watermarkingto embed a covert sign of ownership in a proprietary document without adding any visible identifying attributes.

Implementing an automated quarterly attestation process ensures that access is reviewed and approved regularly. This prevents unauthorized or unnecessary access from persisting over time, aligning with CASP+ objective 1.6, which emphasizes continuous access control monitoring.

An API gateway is a management tool that sits between a client and a collection of backend services. It acts as a reverse proxy to accept all application programming interface (API) calls, aggregate the various services required to fulfill them, and return the appropriate result. APIgateways can enforce policies such as rate limiting and authentication to prevent unauthorized access, making it an effective solution to prevent unauthorized API key sharing. By managing APIs at the gateway level, organizations can ensure that API keys are used as intended and are not shared or misused, addressing the need for secure management of API keys​​.

Caching is the most appropriate solution to improve response time for static content, such as sponsor-related data on the entry pages. Caching stores frequently accessed data closer to users, reducing the need to retrieve it from the database repeatedly. This results in faster load times, especially during high-traffic events. While scalability (horizontal or vertical) might address overall system performance, caching specifically targets improving the speed of accessing static content. CASP+ emphasizes caching as a performance optimization technique for handling high-demand, static web content.

The SAN (Subject Alternative Name) field in a certificate can include multiple types of entries, including DNS names and email addresses. These are explicit options within the SAN extension, allowing a single certificate to be valid for multiple domain names and email addresses. This is often used in multi-domain SSL certificates, where a single certificate needs to be valid for multiple subdomains or different domain names.

A Hardware Security Module (HSM) provides the best solution for securely backing up MFA seeds in a central, offline location with minimal management overhead. HSMs are specialized hardware devices designed for cryptographic key management, including storing sensitive data like MFA seeds securely. HSMs offer high levels of protection against tampering and provide offline security, making them an ideal choice for backing up cryptographic materials. CASP+ recognizes HSMs as critical components for managing and securing cryptographic keys in centralized, secure environments.

Subject Alternative Name (SAN) is a part of the X.509 specification for SSL certificates that allows multiple domain names to be protected under a single SSL certificate. Using SAN is the most suitable option when a single Certificate Signing Request (CSR) needs to cover multiple hostnames. It enables the security engineer to list all the required hostnames in one certificate, ensuring secure communications for each listed entity without the need for separate certificates.

Option C (Continuously monitor key risk indicators):Continuously monitoring key risk indicators (KRIs) ensures real-time visibility of changes in the attack surface, allowing for prompt identification of unexpected systems and minimizing risk.

Option A (Update the risk profile):Updating the risk profile reflects current risks but does not actively prevent the reoccurrence of unexpected systems.

Option B (Minimize errors in metrics):Reducing errors in metrics is useful for accuracy but does not directly address attack surface management.

Option D (Reduce assessment costs):Reducing costs does not mitigate or prevent the reoccurrence of external-facing systems.

Based on the given certificate properties:

SuperTrust RSA 2018 is an intermediate certificate authority (CA) because it is issued by BudgetCert Global Root CA, which is the top-level certificate authority.

BudgetCert is the top-level CA (root CA) in this public key infrastructure (PKI) hierarchy, as it issues certificates to SuperTrust RSA 2018 and has no issuer of its own.

Therefore, SuperTrust RSA 2018 is the intermediate CA, and BudgetCert is the top-level (root) CA in this PKI chain of trust. The certificate is the leaf or end-entity certificate, which is used for the website itself.

Before conducting a penetration test in a cloud environment, it is critical to first obtain permission from the cloud service provider. Cloud providers often have strict rules about penetration testing to avoid unintended service disruptions or violations of service agreements. Without this agreement, the company could face legal or operational consequences. This aligns with CASP+ best practices, which emphasize the importance of securing approval and understanding shared responsibility models in cloud environments before engaging in security testing.

Software composition analysis (SCA) is the most effective method to mitigate third-party risks in a software supply chain. SCA tools analyze the open-source and third-party components used in software development to identify known vulnerabilities, outdated dependencies, or licensing issues. By integrating SCA into the development environment, the company can proactively address risks related to external libraries or codebases that may introduce vulnerabilities into the software supply chain. CASP+ emphasizes the importance of securing the supply chain, particularly by identifying and addressing risks introduced by third-party software components.

An EDR and whitelist should protect from this attack.

Data loss prevention (DLP) is the best option to resolve the board’s concerns for this email migration. DLP is a set of tools and policies that aim to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, or exfiltration of sensitive data. DLP can monitor, filter, encrypt, or block email messages based on predefined rules and criteria, such as content, sender, recipient, attachment, etc. DLP can help protect transactions, customer data, and company information from being compromised by malicious actors or accidental leaks. Verified References: ,

The Statement of Work is a document that outlines the scope of the penetration test and defines the objectives, tools, methodology, and targets of the test. It also outlines the security controls that will be impacted by the test and what the expected outcomes are. Additionally, the Statement of Work should include any legal requirements and other considerations that should be taken into account during the penetration test.

The concern is users operating in a spit tunnel config which is what is being described. Using a Full Tunnel would route traffic from all applications through a single tunnel.

XSS stands for cross-site scripting, which is a type of attack that injects malicious code into a web page that is then executed by the browser of a victim. The URL in the question contains a script tag that tries to execute a JavaScript code from an external source, which is a sign of XSS. Verified References: ,

Data loss prevention (DLP) is the best option to resolve the board’s concerns for this email migration. DLP is a set of tools and policies that aim to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, or exfiltration of sensitive data. DLP can monitor, filter, encrypt, or block email messages based on predefined rules and criteria, such as content, sender, recipient, attachment, etc. DLP can help protect transactions, customer data, and company information from being compromised by malicious actors or accidental leaks. Verified References: ,

OCSP stapling and HSTS are the best options to meet the requirements of reducing the risk of on-path attacks and implementing stronger digital trust. OCSP stapling allows the social media servers to improve TLS performance by sending a signed certificate status along with the certificate, eliminating the need for the client to contact the CA separately. HSTS allows the social media servers to inform the client to only use HTTPS and prevent downgrade attacks. The other options are either irrelevant or less effective for the given scenario. 

TPMs provide the ability to store measurements of code and data that can be used to ensure that code and data remain unchanged over time. This is done through Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs), which are structures used to store measurements of code and data. The measurements are taken during the boot process and can be used to compare the state of the system at different times, which can be used to detect any changes to the system and verify that the system has not been tampered with.

Detonating the malware in a sandbox is the best way to analyze its behavior and determine whether the existing endpoint controls are effective. A sandbox is an isolated environment that mimics a real system but prevents any malicious actions from affecting the actual system. By detonating the malware in a sandbox, the analyst can observe how it interacts with the system, what files it creates or modifies, what network connections it establishes, and what indicators of compromise it exhibits. This can helpthe analyst identify the malware’s capabilities, objectives, and weaknesses. A sandbox can also help the analyst compare different malware samples and determine if they are related or part of the same campaign.

A. Updating the incident response plan is not a risk mitigation technique, but rather a proactive measure to prepare for potential incidents. It does not help the analyst identify whether existing endpoint controls are effective against the malware.

B. Blocklisting the executable is a risk mitigation technique that can prevent the malware from running on the system, but it does not help the analyst analyze its behavior or determine whether existing endpoint controls are effective. Moreover, blocklisting may not be feasible if each malware sample has a unique hash tied to the user.

C. Deploying a honeypot onto the laptops is a risk mitigation technique that can lure attackers away from the real systems and collect information about their activities, but it does not help the analyst analyze the malware’s behavior or determine whether existing endpoint controls are effective. A honeypot is also more suitable for detecting network-based attacks rather than endpoint-based attacks.

A Service Level Agreement is a contract between a service provider and a customer that outlines the level of services to be provided, the metrics by which those services will be measured, and how the agreement will be managed by both parties. SLAs also include provisions for dispute resolution and for the termination of the agreement.

A governance program that rates suppliers based on their access to data, the type of data, and how they access the data is the best way to manage the risk of handling and security of customer data by third parties. This allows the company to assign key controls that are reviewed and managed based on thesupplier’s rating and report findings to the relevant units and risk teams. Verified References: ,

The clients may not trust idapt by default because it is a self-signed certificate authority that is not in the trusted root store of the clients. Secure LDAP does not support wildcard certificates because they do not match the fully qualified domain name of the server. Verified References: ,

Stopping the Print Spooler service and setting the startup type to disabled is the best configuration change to harden a domain controller against lateral movement attacks. The Print Spooler service has been known to be vulnerable to remote code execution exploits that can allow attackers to gain access to domain controllers and other sensitive machines. Disabling this service can reduce the attack surface and prevent exploitation attempts.

Code Snippet 1

Vulnerability 1: SQL injection

SQL injection is a type of attack that exploits a vulnerability in the code that interacts with a database. An attacker can inject malicious SQL commands into the input fields, such asusername or password, and execute them on the database server. This can result in data theft, data corruption, or unauthorized access.

Fix 1: Perform input sanitization of the userid field.

Input sanitization is a technique that prevents SQL injection by validating and filtering the user input values before passing them to the database. The input sanitization should remove any special characters, such as quotes, semicolons, or dashes, that can alter the intended SQL query. Alternatively, the input sanitization can use a whitelist of allowed values and reject any other values.

Code Snippet 2

Vulnerability 2: Cross-site request forgery

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a type of attack that exploits a vulnerability in the code that handles web requests. An attacker can trick a user into sending a malicious web request to a server that performs an action on behalf of the user, such as changing their password, transferring funds, or deleting data. This can result in unauthorized actions, data loss, or account compromise.

Fix 2: Implement anti-forgery tokens.

Anti-forgery tokens are techniques that prevent CSRF by adding a unique and secret value to each web request that is generated by the server and verified by the server before performing the action. The anti-forgery token should be different for each user and each session, and should not be predictable or reusable by an attacker. This way, only legitimate web requests from the user’s browser can be accepted by the server.

Problem Statement:

The CIO needs a solution that:

Supportsenterprise mobility(employees accessing resources from various devices).

Allowsenforcement of configuration settings.

Enablesdata managementanddevice managementfor bothcompany-owned and personal devices.

Why the Correct Answer is D (MDM - Mobile Device Management):

MDM (Mobile Device Management)is a comprehensive solution that:

Manages both corporate and personal devicesby enrolling them into a centralized system.

Enforcesconfiguration policies, such aspassword policies, encryption settings, and app restrictions.

Providesremote management capabilitieslikewipe, lock, or locatein case of theft or loss.

Supportsdata separationon personal devices throughcontainerization.

MDM tools can integrate withBYOD, CYOD, and COPE policiesto providegranular controlregardless of device ownership.

Popular MDM solutions include:

Microsoft Intune

VMware Workspace ONE

MobileIron

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device):

BYOD policies allow employees touse personal devicesfor work.

However, BYOD alone does not providemanagement or enforcement capabilities.

MDM is requiredto manage BYOD effectively.

B. CYOD (Choose Your Own Device):

Employees select a device from apre-approved list, but theorganization retains ownership.

CYOD addressesdevice choicebut not thecomprehensive managementrequired.

MDMis still needed forenforcement and data control.

C. COPE (Corporate-Owned, Personally Enabled):

Devices arecompany-ownedbut allowpersonal use.

While it allowsmore controlthan BYOD, it still lacks thedevice management and data protectioncapabilities needed without MDM.

Why MDM is the Best Choice:

MDM integrates seamlessly withBYOD, CYOD, and COPEpolicies.

It provides theCIO with centralized management, allowing control over:

Application installations

Security configurations

Data access and protection

Device compliance

Additionally, MDM supportsmulti-platform environments(Android, iOS, Windows), making it versatile forenterprise mobility.

Real-World Example:

A company with aremote workforceallows employees to use bothcorporate and personal devicesfor accessing internal applications.

They implementMicrosoft Intune (an MDM solution)to:

Enforce encryption and passcodeson both device types.

Monitor app usageandbrowser activityfor compliance.

Remotely wipecompany data frompersonal devicesif an employee leaves.

Visual Representation:

pgsql

CopyEdit

+-------------------+ +-------------------+

| Company-Owned | | Personal Device |

| Device | | (BYOD) |

+-------------------+ +-------------------+

| |

| |

+-------------------+ +-------------------+

| MDM Server | <---------> | Policy Engine |

+-------------------+ +-------------------+

| |

Centralized Management Configuration Enforcement

The MDM server acts as acentral pointto enforce policies on bothcorporate and personal devices.

Extract from CompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 Study Guide:

TheCompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 Official Study GuidehighlightsMDMas a key component for managingenterprise mobility, especially in environments where bothcorporate and personal devicesare used. MDM enablespolicy enforcement,data management, anddevice control, fulfilling the requirements of modernmobile-first organizations.

Software composition analysis (SCA) is the best solution to help prevent this type of attack from being successful in the future. SCA is a process of identifying the third-party and open source components in the applications of an organization. This analysis leads to the discovery of security risks, quality of code, and license compliance of the components. SCA can help thesecurity engineer to detect and remediate any vulnerabilities in a third-party library that was exploited by the hacker, such as updating to a newer and more secure version of the library. SCA can also help to enforce secure coding practicesand standards, such as following the principle of least privilege and avoiding excessive privileges for local accounts. By using SCA, the security engineer can improve the security posture and resilience of the web application assets against future attacks. Verified References:

Dual control is a security principle that requires two or more authorized individuals to perform a task concurrently. This reduces the risk of fraud, error, or misuse of sensitive assets or information. Verified References: ,

Delivering an updated threat signature throughout the endpoint detection and response (EDR) system is the best way to take advantage of the security solution that uses a sandbox environment to execute zero-day software and collect indicators of compromise. An EDR system is a solution that monitors and analyzes the activities and behaviors of endpoints, such as computers, mobile devices, or servers, and detects and responds to potential threats. An EDR system can use threat signatures, which are patterns or characteristics of known malicious software or attacks, to identify and block malicious activities on endpoints. By delivering an updated threat signature based on the indicators ofcompromise collected from the sandbox environment, the organization can enhance its EDR system’s ability to detect and prevent zero-day attacks that exploit unknown vulnerabilities. Verified References:

The developer would most likely implement a Root CA in the autonomous vehicle’s software. A Root CA is the top-level authority in a PKI that issues and validates certificates for subordinate CAs or end entities. A Root CA can be self-signed and embedded in the vehicle’s software, which would reduce the need for external communication and verification. A Root CA would also enable the vehicle to use digital signatures and encryption for secure communication with other vehicles or infrastructure. Verified References:

The company should implement an EV certificate and HSTS on its new website. An EV certificate provides the highest level of web identity validation by requiring extensive verification of the organization’s identity and domain ownership. HSTS enforces encryption of all web transactions by redirecting HTTP requests to HTTPS and preventing users from accepting invalid certificates. These solutions would enhance the security and trustworthiness of the website without increasing complexity or expenditure significantly. Verified References:

Reviewing video from IP cameras within the facility would be the most likely process to expose an attacker who has compromised an air-gapped system. Since air-gapped systems are isolated from external networks, an attacker would need physical access to the system or use some covert channel to communicate with it. Video surveillance could reveal any unauthorized or suspicious activity within the facility that could be related to the attack. Verified References:

Load balancer and autoscaling are the solutions that should be implemented to address the requirements of optimizing system capacity and reducing cost for an e-commerce site in the cloud. A load balancer is a device or service that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers or instances based on various criteria, such as availability, performance, or location. A load balancer can improve system capacity by balancing the workload and preventing overloading or underutilization of resources. Autoscaling is a feature that allows cloud services to automatically adjust the number of servers orinstances based on the demand or predefined rules. Autoscaling can reduce cost by scaling up or down the resources as needed, avoiding unnecessary expenses or wastage.

Least privilege, policy automation, and continuous validation are some of the key elements that need to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. Zero trust architecture is a security model that assumes no implicit trust for any entity or resource, regardless of their location or ownership. Zero trust architecture requires verifying every request and transaction before granting access or allowing data transfer. Zero trust architecture also requires minimizing the attack surface and reducing the risk of lateral movement by attackers.

A. Least privilege is a principle that states that every entity or resource should only have the minimum level of access or permissions necessary to perform its function. Least privilege can help enforce granular and dynamic policies that limit the exposure and impact of potential breaches. Least privilege can also help prevent privilege escalation and abuse by malicious insiders or compromised accounts.

C. Policy automation is a process that enables the creation, enforcement, and management of security policies using automated tools and workflows. Policy automation can help simplify and streamline the implementation of zero trust architecture by reducing human errors, inconsistencies, and delays. Policy automation can also help adapt to changing conditions and requirements by updating and applying policies in real time.

F. Continuous validation is a process that involves verifying the identity, context, and risk level of every request and transaction throughout its lifecycle. Continuous validation can help ensure that only authorized and legitimate requests and transactions are allowed to access or transfer data. Continuous validation can also help detect and respond to anomalies or threats by revoking access or terminating sessions if the risk level changes.

B. VPN is not an element that needs to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which is a technology that creates a secure tunnel between a device and a network over the internet. VPN can provide confidentiality, integrity, and authentication for network communications, but it does not providezero trust security by itself. VPN still relies on network-based perimeters and does not verify every request or transaction at a granular level.

D. PKI is not an element that needs to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure, which is a system that manages the creation, distribution, and verification of certificates. Certificates are digital documents that contain public keys and identity information of their owners. Certificates can be used to prove the identity and authenticity of the certificate holders, as well as to encrypt and sign data. PKI can provide encryption and authentication for data communications, but it does not provide zero trust security by itself. PKI still relies on trusted authorities and does not verify every request or transaction at a granular level.

E. Firewall is not an element that needs to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. Firewall is a device or software that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predefined rules. Firewall can provide protection against unauthorized or malicious network access, but it does not provide zero trust security by itself. Firewall still relies on network-based perimeters and does not verify every request or transaction at a granular level.

G. Continuous integration is not an element that needs to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. Continuous integration is a software development practice that involves merging code changes from multiple developers into a shared repository frequently and automatically. Continuous integration can help improve the quality, reliability, and performance of software products, but it does not provide zero trust security by itself. Continuous integration still relies on code-based quality assurance and does not verify every request or transaction at a granular level.

H. IaaS is not an element that needs to be implemented to achieve the objective of transitioning to a zero trust architecture. IaaS stands for Infrastructure as a Service, which is a cloud computing model that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. IaaS can provide scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency for IT infrastructure, but it does not provide zero trust security by itself. IaaS still relies on cloud-based security controls and does not verify every request or transaction at a granular level.

The organization’s new email system should provide e-discovery functionality. E-discovery stands for electronic discovery, which is the process of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, and producing electronically stored information (ESI) that is relevant to a legal matter. E-discovery can help the organization comply with legal holds, which are orders or notices to preserve relevant ESI when litigation is anticipated or ongoing. E-discovery can also help the organization reduce the costs and risks of litigation, as well as improve the efficiency and accuracy of the discovery process. Verified References:

A SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) solution is a software platform that can automate the detection and response of known threats, such as ransomware, phishing, ordenial-of-service attacks. A SOAR solution can also integrate with other security tools, such as IPS, NGFW, SIEM, and threat feeds, to provide a comprehensive and dynamic security posture. A SOAR solution would best satisfy the requirements of the online file hosting service, because it would:

Remediate threats to customer data integrity and availability first, by automatically applying predefined actions or workflows based on the severity and type of the threat.

Allow the environment to be dynamic to match increasing customer demands, by scaling up or down the security resources and processes as needed.

Not interfere with customers’ ability to access their data at anytime, by minimizing the human intervention and downtime required for threat response.

Enable security analysts to focus on high-risk items, by reducing the manual tasks and alert fatigue associated with threat detection and response.

Purchasing one wildcard certificate is the best solution to protect multiple websites hosted by an organization in a cloud-hosted WAF. A wildcard certificate is a type of SSL/TLS certificate thatcan secure a domain name and any number of its subdomains with a single certificate. For example, a wildcard certificate for *.mycompany.com can secure campus.mycompany.com, and any other subdomain under mycompany.com. A wildcard certificate can save costs and simplify management compared to purchasing individual certificates for each website.

Netstat is a command-line tool that can be used to find the malicious process that is using a specific port on a Windows workstation. Netstat displays active TCP connections, ports on which the computer is listening, Ethernet statistics, the IP routing table, IPv4 statistics (for the IP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP protocols), and IPv6 statistics (for the IPv6, ICMPv6, TCP over IPv6, and UDP over IPv6 protocols). To find the process that is using a specific port, such as TCP 40322, the security engineer can use the following command:

netstat -ano | findstr :40322

This command will filter the netstat output by the port number and show the process identifier (PID) of the process that is using that port. The security engineer can then use the task manager or another tool to identify and terminate the malicious process by its PID. Verified References:

 Disabling file exchange can help to minimize data leakage by preventing users from sharing sensitive documents or data through the videoconferencing platform. Enabling watermarking can help to maintain customer trust and ensure non-repudiation by adding a visible or invisible mark to the video stream that identifies the source or owner of the content. Enabling the user authentication requirement can help to secure the videoconferencing sessions by verifying the identity of the participants and preventing unauthorized access. Verified References:

A tabletop exercise is a type of testing plan that is used to discuss disaster recovery scenarios with representatives from multiple departments within an incident response team but without taking any invasive actions. A tabletop exercise is a simulation of a potential disaster or incident that involves a verbal or written discussion of how each department would respond to it. The purpose of a tabletop exercise is to identify gaps, weaknesses, or conflicts in the disaster recovery plan, and to improve communication and coordination among the team members.

The consultant should use the customer-provided VDI solution to perform work on the customer’s environment. VDI stands for virtual desktop infrastructure, which is a technology that allows users to access a virtual desktop hosted on a remote server. VDI can help meet the customer’s requirements by ensuring that all customer data remains under the customer’s control at all times, that third-party access to the customer environment is controlled by the customer, and that authentication credentials and access control are under the customer’s control. Verified References:

A regular expression (regex) is a sequence of characters that defines a search pattern for matching text. A regex can be used to detect the presence of a malicious piece of software communicating with its command-and-control server by matching the indicators of compromise (IOC) in the network traffic.

In this case, the systems administrator should use the regex Host: [a-z]*.malicious.com to determine if any of the company hosts are compromised, while reducing false positives, because this regex would:

Match the Host header in the HTTP request, which specifies the domain name of the command-and-control server.

Allow any subdomain under the malicious.com domain, by using the character class [a-z]*, which matches zero or more lowercase letters.

Escape the dot character in the domain name, by using the backslash , which prevents it from being interpreted as a wildcard that matches any character.

Not match any other parts of the IOC that could change, such as the URL path, the User-Agent header, or the HTTP method.

A downgrade attack is a type of man-in-the-middle attack that forces two hosts to use an older or weaker version of the TLS protocol or its parameters. The attacker does this by replacing or deleting the STARTTLS command or exploiting the compatibility features of the protocol. The purpose of the attack is to create a pathway for enabling a cryptographic attack that would not be possible in case of a connection that is encrypted over the latest version of TLS protocol. The IOC shows that most client connections are renegotiated after establishing the connections, which could indicate that an entity is performing downgrade attacks on path by interfering with the initial handshake and making the client and server agree on a lower version of TLS or a weaker cipher suite. Verified References:

Law enforcement officials informed an organization that an investigation has begun. Which of the following is the FIRST step the organization should take?

Initiate a legal hold.

Refer to the retention policy

Perform e-discovery.

Review the subpoena

Answer: A

A legal hold is a process by which an organization instructs its employees or other relevant parties to preserve specific data for potential litigation. A legal hold is triggered when litigation is reasonablyanticipated, such as when law enforcement officials inform an organization that an investigation has begun. The first step the organization should take is to initiate a legal hold to ensure that relevant evidence is not deleted, destroyed, or altered. A legal hold also demonstrates the organization’s good faith and compliance with its duty to preserve evidence. Verified References:

The organization is implementing homomorphic encryption. Homomorphic encryption is a type of encryption that allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without decrypting it first. This means that the organization can analyze the customers’ data and deliver analysis results without being able to see the raw data, preserving the privacy and confidentiality of the customers. Homomorphic encryption can enable various applications, such as cloud computing, machine learning, and data analytics, that require processing sensitive data without compromising security. Verified References:

Order of volatility is a procedure that a computer forensics examiner must follow during evidence collection. It refers to the order in which digital evidence is collected, starting with the most volatile and moving to the least volatile. Volatile data is data that is not permanent and is easily lost, such as data in memory when you turn off a computer. The security analyst should have followed the order of volatility to preserve the most fragile evidence first, such as the malicious script running as a background process, before turning off the infected machine. Verified References:

The company should use CASB for OAuth application permission control to help prevent this type of attack in the future. CASB stands for cloud access security broker, which is a software tool that monitors and enforces security policies for cloud applications. CASB can help control which third-party applications can access the company’s cloud file storage service and what permissions they have. CASB can also detect and block any unauthorized or malicious applications that try to access the company’s data. Verified References:

Cipher feedback (CFB) is a mode of operation for block ciphers that allows them to encrypt streaming data. CFB uses an initialization vector (IV) and a block cipher to generate a keystream that is XORed with the plaintext to produce the ciphertext. CFB has low latency because it can encrypt each byte or bit of plaintext as soon as it arrives, without waiting for a full block. CFB is suitable for streaming data because it does not require padding or block synchronization.

B. Cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) is a mode of operation for block ciphers that provides both encryption and authentication. CBC-MAC uses an IV and a block cipher toencrypt the plaintext and generate a MAC value that is appended to the ciphertext. CBC-MAC has high latency because it requires the entire message to be processed before generating the MAC value. CBC-MAC is not suitable for streaming data because it requires padding and block synchronization.

C. Cipher block chaining (CBC) is a mode of operation for block ciphers that provides encryption only. CBC uses an IV and a block cipher to encrypt each block of plaintext by XORing it with the previous ciphertext block. CBC has high latency because it requires a full block of plaintext before encryption. CBC is not suitable for streaming data because it requires padding and block synchronization.

D. Electronic codebook (ECB) is a mode of operation for block ciphers that provides encryption only. ECB uses a block cipher to encrypt each block of plaintext independently. ECB has low latency because it can encrypt each block of plaintext as soon as it arrives. However, ECB is not suitable for streaming data because it requires padding and block synchronization. Moreover, ECB is insecure because it does not use an IV and produces identical ciphertext blocks for identical plaintext blocks.

The company should use an additional layer of encryption to secure the data from theft when moving to a CSP. Encryption is a process of transforming data into an unreadable format using a secret key. Encryption can protect the data from unauthorized access or modification during transit and at rest. Encryption can be applied at different levels, such as disk, file, or application. An additional layer of encryption can provide an extra security measure on top of the encryption provided by the CSP. Verified References:

The company should implement OCSP stapling and HSTS to improve TLS performance and enforce HTTPS. OCSP stapling is a technique that allows a server to provide a signed proof of the validity of its certificate along with the TLS handshake, instead of relying on the client to contact the certificate authority (CA) for verification. This can reduce the latency and bandwidth of the TLS handshake, as well as improve the privacy and security of the certificate status. HSTS stands for HTTP Strict Transport Security, which is a mechanism that instructs browsers to only use HTTPS when connecting to a website, and to reject any unencrypted or invalid connections. This can prevent downgrade attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and mixed content errors, as well as improve the performance of HTTPS connections by avoiding unnecessary redirects. Verified References:

Homomorphic encryption is a type of encryption method that allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without first decrypting it with a secret key. The results of the computations also remain encrypted and can only be decrypted by the owner of the private key. Homomorphic encryption can be used for privacy-preserving outsourced storage and computation. This means that data can be encrypted and sent to a cloud service provider (CSP) for processing, without revealing any information to the CSP or anyone else who might intercept the data. Homomorphic encryption can enable new services and applications that require processing confidential data on a large number of resources, such as machine learning, data analytics, health care, finance, and voting.

A. Processing data on a server after decrypting in order to prevent unauthorized access in transit is not a common use case for homomorphic encryption, because it does not take advantage of the main feature of homomorphic encryption, which is computing over encrypted data. This use casecan be achieved by using any standard encryption method that provides confidentiality for data in transit.

B. Maintaining the confidentiality of data both at rest and in transit to and from a CSP for processing is not a common use case for homomorphic encryption, because it does not take advantage of the main feature of homomorphic encryption, which is computing over encrypted data. This use case can be achieved by using any standard encryption method that provides confidentiality for data at rest and in transit.

D. Storing proprietary data across multiple nodes in a private cloud to prevent access by unauthenticated users is not a common use case for homomorphic encryption, because it does not involve any computation over encrypted data. This use case can be achieved by using any standard encryption method that provides confidentiality for data at rest.

Threat emulation is the method that should be used to test an incident response playbook for insider attacks. Threat emulation is a technique that simulates real-world attacks using realistic scenarios, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of threat actors. Threat emulation can help evaluate the effectiveness of an incident response plan by testing how well it can detect, respond to, contain, eradicate, recover from, and learn from an attack.

Containerization is a technology that allows applications to run in isolated and portable environments called containers. Containers are lightweight and self-contained units that include all the dependencies, libraries, and configuration files needed for an application to run. Containers can be deployed on any platform that supports the container runtime engine, such as Docker or Kubernetes.

Containerization would allow the company to refactor a monolithic application to take advantage of cloud native services and service microsegmentation to secure sensitive application components, because containerization would:

Enable the application to be split into smaller and independent components (microservices) that can communicate with each other through APIs or message queues.

Allow the application to leverage cloud native services, such as load balancers, databases, or serverless functions, that can be integrated with containers through configuration files or environment variables.

Enhance the security of the application by isolating each container from other containers and the host system, and applying fine-grained access control policies and network rules to each container or group of containers.

Ensure the portability of the application by enabling it to run on any cloud provider or platform that supports containers, without requiring any changes to the application code or configuration.

The most likely cause of the error is the failure of TPM authentication. TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module, which is a hardware component that stores encryption keys and other security information. TPM can be used by BitLocker to protect the encryption keys and verify the integrity of the boot process. If TPM fails to authenticate the laptop, BitLocker will enter recovery mode and ask for a recovery PIN, which is a 48-digit numerical password that can be used to unlock the system. The administrator should check the TPM status and configuration and make sure it is working properly. Verified References:

Field masking is a technique that hides or obscures part of the information in a data field, such as a password, credit card number, or social security number. Field masking can be used to protect sensitive or confidential data from unauthorized access or disclosure, while still allowing authorized users to view or verify the data.

Field masking should be implemented to authenticate employees who call in remotely by allowing the help desk staff to view partial information about employees, because field masking would:

Enable the help desk staff to verify the identity of the employees by asking them to provide some characters or digits from their data fields, such as their employee ID or email address.

Prevent the help desk staff from viewing the full information about employees, which may be considered sensitive and subject to privacy regulations or policies.

Reduce the risk of data leakage, theft, or misuse by limiting the exposure of sensitive data to only those who need it.

OCSP stapling is a solution that allows the web server to provide a time-stamped OCSP response signed by the CA along with the certificate during the TLS handshake, eliminating the need for the client to contact the CA separately to validate the certificate. OCSP stapling can reduce thedelay caused by the certificate validation process by saving a round-trip between the client and the CA. It can also improve the security and privacy of the certificate validation by preventing potential attacks or tracking by malicious third parties. Verified References:

The browser is the application that the security analyst should patch first, given that all the applications have equally high CVSS scores. CVSS stands for Common Vulnerability Scoring System, which is a method for measuring the severity of vulnerabilities based on various factors,such as access conditions, impact, and exploitability. CVSS scores range from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating higher severity. However, CVSS scores alone are not sufficient to determine the patching priority, asthey do not account for other factors, such as the likelihood of exploitation, the exposure of the system, or the criticality of the data. Therefore, the security analyst should also consider the context and the risk of each application when deciding which one to patch first. In this case, the browser is likely to be the most exposed and frequently used application by the network administrator, and also the most likely entry point for an attacker to compromise the system or access the SSO web portal. Therefore, patching the browser first can reduce the risk of a successful attack and protect the system and the data from further damage. Verified References:

Public keys on both endpoints are required for implementing PKI-based mutual authentication. PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure, which is a system that manages the creation, distribution, and verification of certificates. Certificates are digital documents that contain public keys and identity information of their owners. Certificates are issued by trusted authorities called Certificate Authorities (CAs), and can be used to prove the identity and authenticity of the certificate holders. Mutual authentication is a process in which two parties authenticate each other at the same time using certificates. Mutual authentication can provide stronger security and privacy than one-way authentication, where only one party is authenticated. In PKI-based mutual authentication, each party has a certificate that contains its public key and identity information, and a private key that corresponds to its public key. The private key is kept secret and nevershared with anyone, while the public key is shared and used to verify the identity and signature of the certificate holder. The basic steps of PKI-based mutual authentication are as follows:

Party A sends its certificate to Party B.

Party B verifies Party A’s certificate by checking its validity, signature, and trust chain. If the certificate is valid and trusted, Party B extracts Party A’s public key from the certificate.

Party B generates a random challenge (such as a nonce or a timestamp) and encrypts it with Party A’s public key. Party B sends the encrypted challenge to Party A.

Party A decrypts the challenge with its private key and sends it back to Party B.

Party B compares the received challenge with the original one. If they match, Party B confirms that Party A is the legitimate owner of the certificate and has possession of the private key.

The same steps are repeated in reverse, with Party A verifying Party B’s certificate and sending a challenge encrypted with Party B’s public key.

A. Perfect forward secrecy on both endpoints is not required for implementing PKI-based mutual authentication. Perfect forward secrecy (PFS) is a property of encryption protocols that ensures that the compromise of a long-term secret key (such as a private key) does not affect the security of past or future session keys (such as symmetric keys). PFS can enhance the security and privacy of encrypted communications, but it does not provide authentication by itself.

B. Shared secret for both endpoints is not required for implementing PKI-based mutual authentication. Shared secret is a method of authentication that relies on a pre-shared piece of information (such as a password or a passphrase) that is known only to both parties. Shared secret can provide simple and fast authentication, but it does not provide non-repudiation or identity verification.

D. A common public key on each endpoint is not required for implementing PKI-based mutual authentication. A common public key on each endpoint would imply that both parties share the same certificate and private key, which would defeat the purpose of PKI-based mutual authentication. Each party should have its own unique certificate and private key that proves its identity and authenticity.

E. A common private key on each endpoint is not required for implementing PKI-based mutual authentication. A common private key on each endpoint would imply that both parties share the same certificate and public key, which would defeat the purpose of PKI-based mutual authentication. Each party should have its own unique certificate and private key that proves its identity and authenticity.

Configuring user settings in Group Policy is the best way for an administrator to implement the decision to restrict PowerShell access to only administrators. Group Policy is a feature of Windows that allows administrators to manage and enforce settings for users and computers in a domain. By using Group Policy, an administrator can create a policy that blocks or disables PowerShell for all users except for a particular group, such as administrators. This policy can be applied to all computers in the domain or to specific organizational units. This method is more effective and manageable than uninstalling PowerShell, monitoring event logs, providing user education, or blocking PowerShell via HIDS. Verified References:

The EDR output shows the process tree of the ransomware infection. The root node is NO-AV.exe, which is a malicious executable that disables antivirus software and downloads the DearCry ransomware. The NO-AV.exe process was launched on cpt-ws026 by a user named John. The DearCry.exe process was then launched on cpt-ws026 by NO-AV.exe and propagated to other devices via SMB. Therefore, the ransomware originated from cpt-ws026 and NO-AV.exe. Verified References:

The analyst should implement every solution one at a time in a virtual lab, running an attack simulation each time while collecting metrics. Roll back each solution and then implement the next. Choose the best solution based on the best metrics. This approach would allow the analyst to test each solution individually and measure its effectiveness against the attack, without affecting the other solutions or the production environment. This would also minimize the downtime required to implement the best solution, as only one change would be needed. The other options would either involve implementing multiple solutions at once, which could cause conflicts or errors, or collecting metrics before running the attack simulation, which would not reflect the actual impact of the solutions.

In a PaaS implementation, the provider offers relief to the organization’s teams by sharing in many of the operational duties related to the application/platform software. The provider is responsible for securing and maintaining the underlying infrastructure, operating systems, middleware, runtime environments, and other software components that support the platform and the applications running on it. The provider also handles tasks such as patching, updating, scaling, and backing up the platform software.

A. Application-specific data assets are the responsibility of the organization in a PaaS implementation. The organization owns and controls its own data and must ensure its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The organization must also comply with any applicable data protection laws and regulations.

B. Application user access management is the responsibility of the organization in a PaaS implementation. The organization must define and enforce its own policies and procedures for granting, revoking, and monitoring access to its applications and data. The organization must alsoensure that its users follow security best practices such as strong passwords and multifactor authentication.

C. Application-specific logic and code are the responsibility of the organization in a PaaS implementation. The organization must develop, test, deploy, and manage its own applications using the tools and services provided by the platform. The organization must also ensure that its applications are secure, reliable, and performant.

Deploying a web application firewall (WAF) signature is a way to detect and block attempts to exploit the Heartbleed vulnerability on the web server. A WAF signature is a pattern that matches a known attack vector, such as a malicious heartbeat request. By deploying a WAF signature, the company can protect its web application from Heartbleed attacks until the underlying vulnerability is fixed.

Updating the OpenSSL library is the ultimate way to fix and mitigate the Heartbleed vulnerability. The OpenSSL project released version 1.0.1g on April 7, 2014, which patched the bug by adding a bounds check to the heartbeat function. By updating the OpenSSL library on the web server, the company can eliminate the vulnerability and prevent any future exploitation.

B. Fixing the PHP code is not a way to resolve or mitigate the Heartbleed vulnerability, because the vulnerability is not in the PHP code, but in the OpenSSL library that handles the SSL/TLS encryption for the web server.

C. Changing the web server from HTTPS to HTTP is not a way to resolve or mitigate the Heartbleed vulnerability, because it would expose all the web traffic to eavesdropping and tampering by attackers. HTTPS provides confidentiality, integrity, and authentication for web communications, and should not be disabled for security reasons.

D. Using SSLv3 is not a way to resolve or mitigate the Heartbleed vulnerability, because SSLv3 is an outdated and insecure protocol that has been deprecated and replaced by TLS. SSLv3 does not support modern cipher suites, encryption algorithms, or security features, and is vulnerable to various attacks, such as POODLE.

E. Changing the code from PHP to ColdFusion is not a way to resolve or mitigate the Heartbleed vulnerability, because the vulnerability is not related to the programming language of the web application, but to the OpenSSL library that handles the SSL/TLS encryption for the web server.

Rules of engagement are legal documents that should be signed by all parties involved in an assessment to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities. Rules of engagement define the scope, objectives, methods, deliverables, limitations, and expectations of an assessment project. They also specify the legal and ethical boundaries, communication channels, escalation procedures, and reporting formats for the assessment. Rules of engagement help to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or liabilities during or after an assessment.

MITRE ATT&CK is a threat management framework that provides a comprehensive and detailed knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations. It can help security analysts to identify, understand, and prioritize potential threats, as well as to develop effective detection and response strategies. MITRE ATT&CK covers the entire lifecycle of a cyberattack, from initial access to impact, and provides information on how to mitigate, detect, and hunt for each technique. It also includes threat actor profiles, software descriptions, and data sources that can be used for threat intelligence and analysis. MITRE ATT&CK is the most likely resource that a security analyst would adopt to implement the most up-to-date and effective security methodologies for their clients. Verified References:

Executing the files in the sandbox on the web proxy is the best solution to reduce the risk of employees downloading and opening malicious files from the internet. A sandbox is a secure and isolated environment that can run untrusted or potentially harmful code without affecting the rest of the system. By executing the files in the sandbox, the web proxy can analyze their behavior and detect any malicious activity before allowing them to reach the corporate workstations.

The indicator that shows when a company might not be viable after a disaster is the maximum tolerable downtime (MTD). MTD is the maximum amount of time that a business process or function can be disrupted without causing unacceptable consequences for the organization. MTD is a key metric for business continuity planning and disaster recovery, as it helps determine the recovery time objective (RTO) and the recovery point objective (RPO) for each process or function. If the actual downtime exceeds the MTD, the organization may face severe losses, reputational damage, regulatory penalties, or even bankruptcy. Verified References:

WAP A: No issue found. The WAP A is configured correctly and meets the requirements.

PC A = Enable host-based firewall to block all traffic

This option will turn off the host-based firewall and allow all traffic to pass through. This will comply with the requirement and also improve the connectivity of PC A to other devices on the network. However, this option will also reduce the security of PC A and make it more vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, it is recommended to use other security measures, such as antivirus, encryption, and password complexity, to protect PC A from potential threats.

Laptop A: Patch management

This option will install the updates that are available for Laptop A and ensure that it has the most recent security patches and bug fixes. This will comply with the requirement and also improve the performance and stability of Laptop A. However, this option may also require a reboot of Laptop A and some downtime during the update process. Therefore, it is recommended to backup any important data and close any open applications before applying the updates.

Switch A: No issue found. The Switch A is configured correctly and meets the requirements.

Switch B: No issue found. The Switch B is configured correctly and meets the requirements.

Laptop B: Disable unneeded services

This option will stop and disable the telnet service that is using port 23 on Laptop B. Telnet is a cleartext service that transmits data in plain text over the network, which exposes it to eavesdropping, interception, and modification by attackers. By disabling the telnet service, you will comply with the requirement and also improve the security of Laptop B. However, this option may also affect the functionality of Laptop B if it needs to use telnet for remote administration or other purposes. Therefore, it is recommended to use a secure alternative to telnet, such as SSH or HTTPS, that encrypts the data in transit.

PC B: Enable disk encryption

This option will encrypt the HDD of PC B using a tool such as BitLocker or VeraCrypt. Disk encryption is a technique that protects data at rest by converting it into an unreadable format that can only be decrypted with a valid key or password. By enabling disk encryption, you will comply with the requirement and also improve the confidentiality and integrity of PC B’s data. However, this option may also affect the performance and usability of PC B, as it requires additional processing time and user authentication to access the encrypted data. Therefore, it is recommended to backup any important data and choose a strong key or password before encrypting the disk.

PC C: Disable unneeded services

This option will stop and disable the SSH daemon that is using port 22 on PC C. SSH is a secure service that allows remote access and command execution over an encrypted channel. However, port 22 is the default and well-known port for SSH, which makes it a common target for brute-force attacks and port scanning. By disabling the SSH daemon on port 22, you will comply with the requirement and also improve the security of PC C. However, this option may also affect the functionality of PC C if it needs to use SSH for remote administration or other purposes. Therefore, it is recommended to enable the SSH daemon on a different port, such as 4022, by editing the configuration file using the following command:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Server A. Need to select the following:

Defining ACLs in a CSP relies on software-defined networking. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a network architecture that decouples the control plane from the data plane, allowing for centralized and programmable network management. SDN can enable dynamic and flexible network configuration and optimization, as well as improved security and performance. In a CSP, SDN can be used to define ACLs that can apply to virtual networks, subnets, or interfaces, regardless of the physical infrastructure. SDN can also allow for granular and consistent ACL enforcement across different cloud services and regions. Verified References:

WPA3-Personal is a simple, secure solution for a small business with a single access point. It uses a new security protocol called Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), which replaces the Pre-Shared Key (PSK) exchange with a more secure way to do initial key exchange. SAE also provides forward secrecy, which means that even if the password is compromised, the attacker cannot decrypt past or future data. WPA3-Personal also uses AES-128 in CCM mode as the minimum encryption algorithm, which is resistant to offline password attacks. WPA3-Personal requires low administrative overhead and supports a single SSID with no guest access. Verified References:

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework) are two mechanisms that can help detect and prevent email spoofing, which is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. DMARC allows a domain owner to publish a policy that specifies how receivers should handle messages that fail authentication tests, such as SPF or DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). SPF allows a domain owner to specify which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of their domain. By checking the DMARC and SPF records of the sender’s domain, a receiver can verify if the email is from a legitimate source or not. Verified References:

VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure), proxy, CASB (cloud access security broker), and DRM (digital rights management) are technologies that can mitigate the concerns of processing sensitive information using SaaS (software as a service) collaboration tools. VDI is a technology that provides virtualized desktop environments for users that are hosted and managed by a central server, allowing users to access applications or data from any device or location. VDI can prevent data leakage to the media via printing of documents, as it can restrict or monitor the printing capabilities or permissions of users or devices. Proxy is a technology that acts as an intermediary between clients and servers, filtering or modifying web traffic based on predefined rules or policies. Proxy can prevent data leakage to a personal email address, as it can block or redirect web requests to unauthorized or untrusted email domains or services. CASB is a technology that provides visibility and control over cloud services or applications, enforcing security policies or compliance requirements based on predefined rules or criteria. CASB can prevent data access and viewing by systems administrators, as it can encrypt or mask sensitive data before it reaches the cloud provider or application, making it unreadable or inaccessible by unauthorized parties. DRM is a technology that restricts the access, use, modification, or distribution of digital content or devices, enforcing the rights and permissions granted by the content owner or provider to authorized users or devices. DRM can prevent data upload to a file storage site, as it can limit or disable the copying, sharing, or transferring capabilities or permissions of users or devices. Verified References:

 An information-sharing community is a group or network of organizations that share threat intelligence, best practices, and mitigation strategies related to cybersecurity. An information-sharing community can help the company proactively manage the threats of potential theft of its newly developed, proprietary information by providing timely and actionable insights, alerts, and recommendations. An information-sharing community can also enable collaboration and coordination among its members to enhance their collective defense and resilience. References:

A VPN (virtual private network) can provide secure connectivity for remote users to access servers hosted by the cloud provider. A CASB (cloud access security broker) can enforce policies and controls for accessing SaaS applications. A secure web gateway can monitor and filter user browser activity to prevent malicious or unauthorized traffic. Verified

Cgroups (control groups) is a core Linux concept that reflects the ability to limit resource allocation to containers, such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, or network bandwidth. Cgroups can help prevent resource exhaustion scenarios on the Docker host due to a single application that is overconsuming available resources, as it can enforce quotas or priorities for each container or group of containers. Union filesystem overlay is not a core Linux concept that reflects the ability to limit resource allocation to containers, but a technique that allows multiple filesystems to be mounted on the same mount point, creating a layered representation of files and directories. Linux namespaces is not a core Linux concept that reflects the ability to limit resource allocation to containers, but a feature that isolates and virtualizes system resources for each process or group of processes, creating independent instances of global resources. Device mapper is not a core Linux concept that reflects the ability to limit resource allocation to containers, but a framework that provides logical volume management, encryption, or snapshotting capabilities for block devices. Verified References:

IMAPS (Internet Message Access Protocol Secure) is a protocol that allows users to access and manipulate email messages on a remote mail server over a secure connection. IMAPS uses SSL/TLS encryption to protect the communication between the client and the server. IMAPS uses port 993 by default. To ensure IMAPS functions properly on the corporate user network, the security engineer should create an IMAPS firewall rule on the UTM (Unified Threat Management) device that allows traffic from VLAN 10 (Corporate Users) to VLAN 20 (Email Server) over port 993. The existing firewall rules do not allow this traffic, as they only allow HTTP (port 80), HTTPS (port 443), and SMTP (port 25). References:

This is because a risk assessment requires identifying the assets that are valuable to the organization and could be targeted by attackers. A full inventory of information and data assets can help the analyst prioritize the most critical assets and determine their potential exposure to threats. Without knowing what assets are at stake, the analyst cannot effectively assess the risk level or the impact of an attack. Creating an inventory of assets is also a prerequisite for performing other actions, such as following compliance standards, measuring availability, or conducting penetration tests.

A WAF protects your web apps by filtering, monitoring, and blocking any malicious HTTP/S traffic traveling to the web application, and prevents any unauthorized data from leaving the app. It does this by adhering to a set of policies that help determine what traffic is malicious and what traffic is safe.

According to OWASP, LDAP injection is an attack that exploits web applications that construct LDAP statements based on user input without proper validation or sanitization. LDAP injection can result in unauthorized access, data modification, or denial of service. To prevent LDAP injection, OWASP recommends conducting input sanitization by escaping special characters in user input and deploying a web application firewall (WAF) that can detect and block malicious LDAP queries.45

SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) vertical heterogeneity is a technique that can help preserve network bandwidth and increase speed to both internal and external resources while not sacrificing threat visibility. SD-WAN vertical heterogeneity involves using different types of network links (such as broadband, cellular, or satellite) for different types of traffic (such as voice, video, or data) based on their performance and security requirements. This can optimize the network efficiency and reliability, as well as provide granular visibility and control over traffic flows. Distributed connection allocation is not a technique for preserving network bandwidth and increasing speed, but a method for distributing network connections among multiple servers or devices. Local caching is not a technique for preserving network bandwidth and increasing speed, but a method for storing frequently accessed data locally to reduce latency or load times. Content delivery network is not a technique for preserving network bandwidth and increasing speed, but a system of distributed servers that deliver web content to users based on their geographic location. Verified References:

Deploying SOAR (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) utilities and runbooks is the best technique for automating the process of restoring nominal performance on a legacy satellite link due to degraded modes of operation caused by deprecated hardware and software.

Utilizing code signing by a trusted third party and making the DACL (discretionary access control list) read-only are actions that the developer can perform to maintain integrity to each module of a program and ensure the code cannot be altered by malicious users. Code signing is a technique that uses digital signatures to verify the authenticity and integrity of code, preventing unauthorized modifications or tampering. A trusted third party, such as a certificate authority, can issue and validate digital certificates for code signing. A DACL is an attribute of an object that defines the permissions granted or denied to users or groups for accessing or modifying the object. Making the DACL read-only can prevent unauthorized users or groups from changing the permissions or accessing the code. Implementing certificate-based authentication is not an action that the developer can perform to maintain integrity to each module of a program and ensure the code cannot be altered by malicious users, but a method for verifying the identity of users or devices based on digital certificates, preventing unauthorized access or impersonation. Verifying MD5 hashes is not an action that the developer can perform to maintain integrity to each module of a program and ensure the code cannot be altered by malicious users, but a method for checking the integrity of files based on cryptographic hash functions, detecting accidental or intentional changes or corruption. Compressing the program with a password is not an action that the developer can perform to maintain integrity to each module of a program and ensure the code cannot be altered by malicious users, but a method for reducing the size of files and protecting them with a password, preventing unauthorized access or extraction. Encrypting with 3DES is not an action that the developer can perform to maintain integrity to each module of a program and ensure the code cannot be altered by malicious users, but a method for protecting the confidentiality of data based on symmetric-key encryption algorithms, preventing unauthorized disclosure or interception. Verified References:

A multicloud provider solution is the best option for proceeding with the digital transformation while ensuring SLA (service level agreement) requirements in the event of a CSP (cloud service provider) incident. A multicloud provider solution is a strategy that involves using multiple CSPs for different cloud services or applications, such as infrastructure, platform, or software as a service. A multicloud provider solution can provide resiliency, redundancy, and availability for cloud services or applications, as it can distribute the workload and risk across different CSPs and avoid single points of failure or vendor lock-in. An on-premises solution as a backup is not a good option for proceeding with the digital transformation, as it could involve high costs, complexity, or maintenance for maintaining both cloud and on-premises resources, as well as affect the scalability or flexibility of cloud services or applications. A load balancer with a round-robin configuration is not a good option for proceeding with the digital transformation, as it could introduce latency or performance issues for cloud services or applications, as well as not provide sufficient resiliency or redundancy in case of a CSP incident. An active-active solution within the same tenant is not a good option for proceeding with the digital transformation, as it could still be affected by a CSP incident that impacts the entire tenant or region, as well as increase the costs or complexity of managing multiple instances of cloud services or applications. Verified References:

DLP (data loss prevention) is a solution that can meet the following requirements: identify sensitive data in the provider’s network, maintain compliance with company and regulatory guidelines, detect and respond to insider threats, privileged user threats, and compromised accounts, and enforce data-centric security, such as encryption, tokenization, and access control. DLP can monitor, classify, and protect data in motion, at rest, or in use, and prevent unauthorized disclosure or exfiltration. WAF (web application firewall) is a solution that can protect web applications from common attacks, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, but it does not address the requirements listed. CASB (cloud access security broker) is a solution that can enforce policies and controls for accessing cloud services and applications, but it does not address the requirements listed. SWG (secure web gateway) is a solution that can monitor and filter web traffic to prevent malicious or unauthorized access, but it does not address the requirements listed. Verified References:

Defenses against BGP hijacks include IP prefix filtering, meaning IP address announcements are sent and accepted only from a small set of well-defined autonomous systems, and monitoring Internet traffic to identify signs of abnormal traffic flows.

Modeling user behavior and monitoring for deviations from normal and continuously monitoring code commits to repositories and generating summary logs are actions that will enable the data feeds needed to detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments and authorized insiders making unauthorized changes to environment configurations. Modeling user behavior and monitoring for deviations from normal is a technique that uses baselines, analytics, machine learning, or other methods to establish normal patterns of user activity and identify anomalies or outliers that could indicate malicious or suspicious behavior. Modeling user behavior and monitoring for deviations from normal can help detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments, as it can alert on unusual or unauthorized access attempts, commands, actions, or transactions by users. Continuously monitoring code commits to repositories and generating summary logs is a technique that uses tools, scripts, automation, or other methods to track and record changes made to code repositories by developers, testers, reviewers, or other parties involved in the software development process. Continuously monitoring code commits to repositories and generating summary logs can help detect authorized insiders making unauthorized changes to environment configurations, as it can audit and verify the source, time, reason, and impact of code changes made by authorized users. Performing static code analysis of committed code and generate summary reports is not an action that will enable the data feeds needed to detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments and authorized insiders making unauthorized changes to environment configurations, but an action that will enable the data feeds needed to detect vulnerabilities, errors, bugs, or quality issues in committed code. Implementing an XML gateway and monitor for policy violations is not an action that will enable the data feeds needed to detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments and authorized insiders makingunauthorized changes to environment configurations, but an action that will enable the data feeds needed to protect XML-based web services from threats or attacks by validating XML messages against predefined policies. Monitoring dependency management tools and report on susceptible third-party libraries is not an action that will enable the data feeds needed to detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments and authorized insiders making unauthorized changes to environment configurations, but an action that will enable the data feeds needed to identify outdated or vulnerable third-party libraries used in software development projects. Installing an IDS (intrusion detection system) on the development subnet and passively monitor for vulnerable services is not an action that will enable the data feeds needed to detect unauthorized insertions into application development environments and authorized insiders making unauthorized changes

MITRE ATT&CK is a threat management framework that provides a comprehensive and detailed knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations. It can help threat hunting teams to identify, understand, and prioritize potential threats, as well as to develop effective detection and response strategies. MITRE ATT&CK covers the entire lifecycle of a cyberattack, from initial access to impact, and provides information on how to mitigate, detect, and hunt for each technique. It also includes threat actor profiles, software descriptions, and data sources that can be used for threat intelligence and analysis. Verified References:

A wildcard certificate is a certificate that can be used for multiple subdomains of a domain, such as *.example.com. This would allow the inspection of the data without multiple certificate deployments, as one wildcard certificate can cover all the subdomains that will be separated out with subdomains. Including all available cipher suites may not help with inspecting the data without multiple certificate deployments, as cipher suites are used for negotiating encryption and authentication algorithms, not for verifying certificates. Using a third-party CA (certificate authority) may not help with inspecting the data without multiple certificate deployments, as a third-party CA is an entity that issues and validates certificates, not a type of certificate. Implementing certificate pinning may not help with inspecting the data without multiple certificate deployments, as certificate pinning is a technique that hardcodes the expected certificate or public key in the application code, not a type of certificate. Verified

OVAL (Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language) is a standard that would be best suited for creating checks for a zero-day vulnerability in an organization’s internally developed software. OVAL is a standard for expressing system configuration information and vulnerabilities in an XML format, allowing interoperability and automation among different security tools and platforms. An engineer can use OVAL to create definitions or tests for specific vulnerabilities or states in the software, and then use OVAL-compatible tools to scan or evaluate the software against those definitions or tests. ARF (Asset Reporting Format) is not a standard for creating checks for vulnerabilities, but a standard forexpressing information about assets and their characteristics in an XML format, allowing interoperability and automation among different security tools and platforms. ISACs (Information Sharing and Analysis Centers) are not standards for creating checks for vulnerabilities, but organizations that collect, analyze, and disseminate information about threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, or best practices among different sectors or communities. Node.js is not a standard for creating checks for vulnerabilities, but a runtime environment that allows executing JavaScript code outside of a web browser, enabling the development of scalable web applications or services. Verified References:

Utilizing a source code escrow will reduce the operational risk to the company if the third party stops supporting the application, as it will provide access to the latest version of the source code to continue development. A source code escrow is an agreement between a software developer and a client that involves depositing the source code of a software product with a third-party escrow agent. The escrow agent can release the source code to the client under certain conditions specified in the agreement, such as bankruptcy, termination, or breach of contract by thedeveloper. The company will not be able to force the third-party developer to continue support, manage their development process, or pay them to hire a new development team by utilizing a source code escrow. Verified References:

OWASP is a resource used to identify attack vectors and their mitigations, OVAL is a vulnerability assessment standard

OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) is a source that the security architect could consult to address the security concern of XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks on a web application that uses a database back end. OWASP is a non-profit organization that provides resources and guidance for improving the security of web applications and services. OWASP publishes the OWASP Top 10 list of common web application vulnerabilities and risks, which includes XSS attacks, as well as recommendations and best practices for preventing or mitigating them. SDLC (software development life cycle) is not a source for addressing XSS attacks, but a framework for developing software in an organized and efficient manner. OVAL (Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language) is not a source for addressing XSS attacks, but a standard for expressing system configuration information and vulnerabilities. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is not a source for addressing XSS attacks, but an organization that develops standards for various fields of engineering and technology. Verified References:

A TPM (trusted platform module) is a hardware device that can provide boot loader protection by storing cryptographic keys and verifying the integrity of the boot process. An HSM (hardware security module) is similar to a TPM, but it is used for storing keys for applications, not for booting. A PKI (public key infrastructure) is a system of certificates and keys that can provide encryption and authentication, but not boot loader protection. UEFI/BIOS are firmware interfaces that control the boot process, but they do not provide protection by themselves. Verified References:

The SIEM events show that powershell.exe was executed on multiple endpoints with an outbound connection to 40.90.23.154, which is an IP address associated with malicious activity. This could indicate a malware infection or a command-and-control channel. The best response action is to configure the forward proxy to block 40.90.23.154, which would prevent further communication with the malicious IP address. Disabling powershell.exe on all endpoints may not be feasible or effective, as it could affect legitimate operations and not remove the malware. Restarting Microsoft Windows Defender may not detect or stop the malware, as it could have bypassed or disabled it. Disabling local administrator privileges on the endpoints may not prevent the malware from running or communicating, as it could have escalated privileges or used other methods. Verified References:

Preparation is the process that can be used to identify potential prevention recommendations after a security incident, such as a ransomware attack. Preparation involves planning and implementing security measures to prevent or mitigate future incidents, such as by updating policies, procedures, or controls, conducting training or awareness campaigns, or acquiring new tools or resources. Detection is the process of discovering or identifying security incidents, not preventing them. Remediation is the process of containing or resolving security incidents, not preventing them. Recovery is the process of restoring normal operations after security incidents, not preventing them. Verified References:

Increasing the frequency of backups and creating SIEM (security information and event management) alerts for IOCs (indicators of compromise) are the best recommendations that the management team can make based on RPO (recovery point objective) requirements. RPO is a metric that defines the maximum acceptable amount of data loss that can occur during a disaster recovery event. Increasing the frequency of backups can reduce the amount of data loss that can occur, as it can create more recent copies or snapshots of the data. Creating SIEM alerts for IOCs can help detect and respond to ransomware attacks, as it can collect, correlate, and analyze security events and data from various sources and generate alerts based on predefined rules or thresholds. Leaving the current backup schedule intact and paying the ransom to decrypt the data are not good recommendations, as they could result in more data loss than the RPO allows, as well as encourage more ransomware attacks or expose the company to legal or ethical issues. Leaving the current backup schedule intact and making the human resources fileshare read-only are not good recommendations, as they could result in more data loss than the RPO allows, as well as affect the normal operations or functionality of the fileshare. Decreasing the frequency of backups and paying the ransom to decrypt the data are not good recommendations, as they could result in more data loss than the RPO allows, as well as increase the risk of losing data due to less frequent backups or unreliable decryption. Verified References:

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a standard that provides the best guidance for protecting credit card information while it is at rest and in transit. PCI DSS is a standard that defines the security requirements and best practices for organizations that process, store, or transmit credit card information, such as merchants, service providers, or acquirers. PCIDSS aims to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of credit card information and prevent fraud or identity theft. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is not a standard that provides the best guidance for protecting credit card information, but an agency that develops standards, guidelines, and recommendations for various fields of science and technology, including cybersecurity. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is not a standard that provides the best guidance for protecting credit card information, but a regulation that defines the data protection and privacy rights and obligations for individuals and organizations in the European Union or the European Economic Area. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is not a standard that provides the best guidance for protecting credit card information, but an organization that develops standards for various fields of science and technology, including information security. Verified References:

PAM (Privileged Access Management) is a solution that can increase the security posture of user endpoints by providing more visibility and control over local administrator accounts. By implementing PAM, removing users from the local administrators group, and prompting users for explicit approval when elevated privileges are required, the security engineer can reduce the attack surface, prevent unauthorized access, and enforce the principle of least privilege. Implementing PAM, keeping users in the local administrators group, and enabling local administrator account monitoring may not provide enough control or visibility over local administrator accounts, as users could still abuse or compromise their privileges. Implementing EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) may not provide enough control or visibility over local administrator accounts, as EDR is mainly focused on detecting and responding to threats, not managing privileges. Enabling user behavior analytics may not provide enough control or visibility over local administrator accounts, as user behavior analytics is mainly focused on identifying anomalies or risks in user activity, not managing privileges. Verified References:

Moving the server to a cloud provider is the most cost-effective solution to avoid performance issues caused by too many connections during peak seasons, such as holidays. Moving the server to a cloud provider can provide scalability, elasticity, and availability for the web server, as it can adjust its resources and capacity according to the demand and traffic. Moving the server to a cloud provider can also reduce operational and maintenance costs, as the cloud provider can handle the infrastructure and security aspects. Changing the operating system may not help avoid performance issues, as it could introduce compatibility or functionality problems, and it may not address the resource or capacity limitations. Buying a new server and creating an active-active cluster may help avoid performance issues, but it may not be cost-effective, as it could involve hardware and software expenses, as well as complex configuration and management tasks. Upgrading the server with a new one may help avoid performance issues, but it may not be cost-effective, as it could involve hardware and software expenses, as well as migration and testing efforts. Verified References:

Implementing decoy files on adjacent hosts is a technique that can entice the adversary to uncover malicious activity, as it can lure them into accessing fake or irrelevant data that can trigger an alert or reveal their presence. Decoy files are also known as honeyfiles or honeypots, and they are part of deception technology. Deploying a SOAR (Security Orchestration Automation and Response) tool may not entice the adversary to uncover malicious activity, as SOAR is mainly focused on automating andstreamlining security operations, not deceiving attackers. Modifying user password history and length requirements may not entice the adversary to uncover malicious activity, as it could affect legitimate users and not reveal the attacker’s actions. Applying new isolation and segmentation schemes may not entice the adversary to uncover malicious activity, as it could limit their access and movement, but not expose their presence. Verified References:

The process ID 87 can be the starting point for an investigation of a possible buffer overflow attack, as it shows a high percentage of CPU utilization (99.7%) and a suspicious command name (graphic.linux_randomization.prg). A buffer overflow attack is a type of attack that exploits a vulnerability in an application or system that allows an attacker to write data beyond the allocated buffer size, potentially overwriting memory segments and executing malicious code. A high CPU utilization could indicate that the process is performing intensive or abnormal operations, such as a buffer overflow attack. A suspicious command name could indicate that the process is trying to disguise itself or evade detection, such as by mimicking a legitimate program or using random characters. The other process IDs do not show signs of a buffer overflow attack, as they have low CPU utilization and normal command names. Verified References:

According to NIST SP 800-146, cloud computing introduces new risks that need to be assessed and managed by the cloud consumer. Some of these risks are related to the shared responsibility model ofcloud computing, where some security controls are implemented by the cloud provider and some by the cloud consumer. The cloud consumer cannot transfer all the risks to the cloud provider and needs to understand which risks are retained and which are mitigated by the cloud provider.3

Microsegmentation enabled by software-defined networking is an architectural design that can meet the requirements of allowing users to access only predefined services, having unique allow lists defined for each user, and constructing one-to-one subject/object access paths dynamically. Microsegmentation is a technique that divides a network into smaller segments or zones based on granular criteria, such as applications, services, users, or devices. Microsegmentation can provide fine-grained access controland isolation for network resources, preventing unauthorized or lateral movements within the network. Software-defined networking is a technology that decouples the control plane from the data plane in network devices, allowing centralized and programmable management of network functions and policies. Software-defined networking can enable microsegmentation by dynamically creating and enforcing network segments or zones based on predefined rules or policies. Peer-to-peer secure communications enabled by mobile applications is not an architectural design that can meet the requirements of allowing users to access onlypredefined services, having unique allow lists defined for each user, and constructing one-to-one subject/object access paths dynamically, as peer-to-peer secure communications is a technique that allows direct and encrypted communication between two or more parties without relying on a central server or intermediary. Proxied application data connections enabled by API gateways is not an architectural design that can meet the requirements of allowing users to access only predefined services, having unique allow lists defined for each user, and constructing one-to-one subject/object access paths dynamically, as proxied application data connections is a technique that allows indirect and filtered communication between applications or services through an intermediary device or service that can modify or monitor the traffic. VLANs (virtual local area networks) enabled by network infrastructure devices is not an architectural design that can meet the requirements of allowing users to access only predefined services, having unique allow lists defined for each user, and constructing one-to-one subject/object access paths dynamically, as VLANs are logical segments of a physical network that can group devices or users based on common criteria, such as function, department, or location. Verified References:

 This could be the cause of the lack of visibility from the WAF (Web Application Firewall) for the web application, as the WAF may not be able to inspect or block unencrypted HTTP traffic. To solve this issue, the web server should redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS and use SSL/TLS certificates to encrypt the traffic.