CompTIA XK0-005 CompTIA Linux+ Exam Exam Practice Test

The docker image tag test test:v1 command can be used to assign the v1 version to the image called test. This command creates a new tag for the existing image, without changing the original image. The docker image save test test:v1 command would save the image to a file, not assign a version. The docker image build test:vl command is invalid, as vl is not a valid version number. The docker image version test:v1 command does not exist. References: [CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide], Chapter 16: Virtualization and Cloud Technologies, page 500.

The file /etc/ssh/sshd_config contains the configuration settings for the SSH daemon, which handles the secure remote login. To change the port number, the engineer should edit this file and modify the line that says Port 22 to Port 49000. The other files are not related to the SSH service. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 13: Managing Network Services, page 411.

The command that will accomplish the goal of avoiding the deletion or modification of files from non-owners is chmod +t /project/access2all. This command will set the sticky bit on the directory /project/access2all, which is a special permission that restricts file deletion or renaming to only the file owner, directory owner, or root user. This way, even if multiple users have write permission to the directory, they cannot delete or modify each other’s files.

The other options are not correct commands for accomplishing the goal. The chmod +rws /project/access2all command will set both the SUID and SGID bits on the directory, which are special permissions that allow a program or a directory to run or be accessed with the permissions of its owner or group, respectively. However, this does not prevent file deletion or modification from non-owners. The chmod 2770 /project/access2all command will set only the SGID bit on the directory, which means that any new files or subdirectories created in it will inherit its group ownership. However, this does not prevent file deletion or modification from non-owners. The chmod ugo+rwx /project/access2all command will grant read, write, and execute permissions to all users (user, group, and others) on the directory, which means that anyone can delete or modify any file in it. References: chmod(1) - Linux manual page; How to Use SUID, SGID, and Sticky Bits on Linux

The renice command changes the scheduling priority of a running process. By using renice -n 15, the administrator lowers the priority of the backup process, making it less CPU-intensive and reducing its impact on other system services. A positive niceness value (e.g., 15) lowers the priority, allowing other processes to receive more CPU time.

The server’s firewall is preventing connections from being made, which is causing the connectivity issue. The output of iptables -L -n shows that the firewall is blocking all incoming traffic on port 22, which is the default port for SSH. The output of ssh -v user@104.21.75.76 shows that the connection is refused by the server. To resolve the issue, the administrator needs to allow port 22 on the firewall. The other options are incorrect because they are not supported by the outputs. The workstation has the correct IP settings, as shown by the output of ip addr show. The sshd service is enabled and running, as shown by the output of systemct1 status sshd. The server has the correct default gateway configuration, as shown by the output of ip route show. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 13: Managing Network Services, pages 406-407.

The output shows that the system has a total of 3736MB of memory, of which 3598MB is free. This indicates that the system has enough free memory space12.

References:1 2

The reason that the administrator is unable to perform the assigned duties is because the administrator is not a part of the correct group. This is option B.

Based on the image that you sent, I can see that the user comptia has a user ID and a group ID of 1000, and belongs to only one group, which is also comptia. However, the sudoers file, which defines the permissions for users to run commands as root or other users, does not include the comptia group in any of the entries. Therefore, the user comptia cannot use sudo to perform privileged functions on the system.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. The administrator needs a password reset.

This is not true, because the password aging information for the user comptia shows that the password was last changed on Oct 24, 2023, and it does not expire until Jan 22, 2024. There is no indication that the password is locked or expired.

C. The administrator did not update the sudo database.

This is not necessary, because the sudo database is automatically updated whenever the sudoers file is modified. There is no separate command to update the sudo database.

D. The administrator’s credentials need to be more complex.

This is not relevant, because the complexity of the credentials does not affect the ability to use sudo. The sudoers file does not specify any password policy for the users or groups that are allowed to use sudo.

The remediation step that will prevent the web service from running as a privileged user is adding the User=webservice to the [Service] section of the service file. The service file is a configuration file that defines the properties and behavior of a systemd service. The systemd is a system and service manager that controls the startup and operation of Linux systems. The service file contains various sections and options that specify how the service should be started, stopped, and managed. The [Service] section defines how the service should be executed and what commands should be run. The User option specifies the user name or ID that the service should run as. The webservice is the name of the user that the administrator wants to run the web service as. The administrator should add the User=webservice to the [Service] section of the service file, which will prevent the web service from running as a privileged user, such as root, and improve the security of the system. This is the correct remediation step to use to prevent the web service from running as a privileged user. The other options are incorrect because they either do not change the user that the service runs as (removing the ExecStart=/usr/sbin/webserver -D OPTIONS from the service file or updating the EnvironmentFile line in the [Service] section to /home/webservice/config) or do not affect the user that the service runs as (changing the multi-user.target in the [Install] section to basic.target). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 15: Managing System Services, page 458.

The ~/.ssh/config file can be used to set various options for SSH connections, including the port number, for specific hosts or groups of hosts. This file is located in the user’s home directory and affects only the current user. The /etc/ssh/sshd_config file is used to configure the SSH server daemon, not the client. The /etc/ssh/moduli file contains parameters for Diffie-Hellman key exchange, not port settings. The ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file contains public keys for authentication, not port settings. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 12: Secure Shell (SSH), page 414.

The command that will permanently resolve the issue of high CPU load and average is kill -9 6295. This command will send a SIGKILL signal to the process with the PID 6295, which is the process that is consuming 99.7% of the CPU according to the top output. The SIGKILL signal will terminate the process immediately and free up the CPU resources. The kill command is used to send signals to processes by PID or name.

The other options are not correct commands for resolving this issue. The renice -n -20 6295 command will change the priority (niceness) of the process with PID 6295 to -20, which is the highest priority possible. This will make the process more CPU-intensive, not less. The renice command is used to change the priority of running processes. The pstree -p 6295 command will show a tree of processes with PID 6295 as the root. This will not affect the CPU load or average, but only display information. The pstree command is used to display a tree of processes. The iostat -cy 1 5 command will show CPU and disk I/O statistics for 5 iterations with an interval of 1 second. This will also not affect the CPU load or average, but only display information. The iostat command is used to report CPU and I/O statistics. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Troubleshooting Linux Systems; kill(1) - Linux manual page; renice(1) - Linux manual page; pstree(1) - Linux manual page; iostat(1) - Linux manual page

The command that will set the sticky bit on a directory called devops with 755 file permission is chmod 1755 devops. This command will use chmod to change the mode of the directory devops to 1755, which means that the owner has read, write, and execute permissions (7), the group has read and execute permissions (5), and others have read and execute permissions (5). The first digit 1 indicates that the sticky bit is set on the directory, which is a special permission that prevents users from deleting or renaming files in the directory that they do not own.

The other options are not correct commands for setting the sticky bit on a directory. The chown -s 755 devops command is invalid because chown is used to change the owner and group of files or directories, not their permissions. The -s option for chown is used to remove a symbolic link, not to set the sticky bit. The chown 1755 devops command is also invalid because chown does not accept numeric arguments for changing permissions. The chmod -s 755 devops command will remove the sticky bit from the directory devops, not set it. References: chmod(1) - Linux manual page; How to Use SUID, SGID, and Sticky Bits on Linux

The user1 password is expired. This can be inferred from the output of the chage -l user1 command, which shows the password expiration information for user1. The output shows that the password expired on 2020-10-01, and the account expired on 2020-10-08. This means that user1 cannot log in to the server unless the password and account are reactivated by the system administrator.

The other options are not correct based on the outputs above. User1 does not need to set a long password, because the output of the passwd -S user1 command shows that the password has a minimum length of 5 characters, which is met by user1’s password. User1 is not in the incorrect group, because the output of the groups user1 command shows that user1 belongs to the app group, which is presumably the correct group for accessing the server. The user1 shell assignment is not incorrect, because the output of the grep user1 /etc/passwd command shows that user1 has /bin/bash as the default shell, which is a valid and common shell for Linux users.

The best tool to use when uploading the public key to the remote servers is B. ssh-copy-id. This tool will copy the public key from the local computer to the remote server and append it to the authorized_keys file, which is used for public key authentication. This tool will also create the necessary directories and files on the remote server if they do not exist. The other tools are either not suitable or not relevant for this task. For example:

A. scp is a tool for securely copying files between hosts, but it does not automatically add the public key to the authorized_keys file.

C. ssh-agent is a tool for managing private keys and passphrases, but it does not upload the public key to the remote server.

D. ssh-keyscan is a tool for collecting public keys from remote hosts, but it does not upload the public key to the remote server.

A zombie process is a process that has completed execution but still has an entry in the process table because its parent process has not read its exit status. The best signal to send to the parent process is SIGTERM, which politely asks it to terminate and release the resources held by the zombie child processes.

The command docker rm $(docker ps -aq) will allow the administrator to clean up the containers in an exited state. The docker command is a tool for managing Docker containers on Linux systems. Docker containers are isolated and lightweight environments that can run applications and services without affecting the host system. Docker uses images to create containers, which are files that contain the code, libraries, dependencies, and configuration of the applications and services. The rm option removes one or more containers. The $(docker ps -aq) is a command substitution that executes the command inside the parentheses and replaces it with the output. The docker ps -aq command lists all the containers, including the ones in an exited state, and shows only their IDs. The docker rm $(docker ps -aq) command will remove all the containers, including the ones in an exited state, by passing their IDs to the rm option. This will allow the administrator to clean up the containers in an exited state. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not exist (docker rm --all or docker rm --state exited) or do not remove the containers (docker images prune *). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Cloud and Virtualization Technologies, page 571.

To launch an Nginx image container, name it Web001, and expose port 8080 externally while mapping to port 80 inside the container, the administrator can use the command docker run -it -p 8080:80 --name Web001 nginx ©. This will create and start a new container from the Nginx image, assign it a name of Web001, and map port 8080 on the host to port 80 on the container. The other commands are not valid or do not meet the requirements. References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 11: Working with Containers, Section: Running Containers with Docker

[How to Run Docker Containers]

The filesystem that system logs are commonly stored in is /var. The /var filesystem is a directory that contains variable data files on Linux systems. Variable data files are files that are expected to grow in size over time, such as logs, caches, spools, and temporary files. The /var filesystem is separate from the / filesystem, which contains the essential system files, to prevent the / filesystem from being filled up by the variable data files. The system logs are files that record the events and activities of the system and its components, such as the kernel, the services, the applications, and the users. The system logs are useful for monitoring, troubleshooting, and auditing the system. The system logs are commonly stored in the /var/log directory, which is a subdirectory of the /var filesystem. The /var/log directory contains various log files, such as syslog, messages, dmesg, auth.log, and kern.log. The filesystem that system logs are commonly stored in is /var. This is the correct answer to the question. The other options are incorrect because they are not the filesystems that system logs are commonly stored in (/tmp, /etc, or /opt). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 16: Managing Logging and Monitoring, page 487.

The cause of the issue is that the CIDR value /33 is invalid for an IPv4 address. The CIDR value represents the number of bits in the network prefix of an IP address, and it can range from 0 to 32 for IPv4 addresses. A CIDR value of /33 would imply a network prefix of more than 32 bits, which is impossible for an IPv4 address. To assign a temporary IP address/netmask of 192.168.168.1/255.255.255.255 to eth0, the CIDR value should be /32 instead, which means a network prefix of 32 bits and a host prefix of 0 bits. There is no route to 192.168.168.1/33 is not the cause of the issue, as the ip address add command does not check the routing table. The interface eth0 does not exist is not the cause of the issue, as the ip address add command would display a different error message if the interface does not exist. The IP address 192.168.168.1 is already in use is not the cause of the issue, as the ip address add command would display a different error message if the IP address is already in use. References: [CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide], Chapter 13: Networking Fundamentals, page 435.

To safely reduce the size of journald logs, journalctl --rotate forces log rotation, and journalctl --vacuum-time=1s removes entries older than the specified time. This approach efficiently manages log files without directly deleting files, which could risk corruption. CompTIA Linux+ advises controlled log management for journald to avoid unintended data loss. Reference: CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide.

The filesystem is in read-only mode, likely due to corruption or errors detected. Running fsck -y will check and repair the filesystem, and mount -o rw,remount will remount it as read-write, making it usable again. This is a common troubleshooting step for filesystems with errors.

The %iowait value represents the percentage of time the CPU is waiting for I/O operations to complete. A high %iowait value suggests the system is bottlenecked by disk I/O, which could lead to slow response times. Addressing disk I/O bottlenecks would improve performance.

"modify the /etc/fstab text file to automatically mount the new partition by opening it in an editor and adding the following line:

/dev/ xxx 1 /data ext4 defaults 1 2

where xxx is the device name of the storage device"

To configure a new filesystem that needs the capability to be mounted persistently across reboots, two commands are needed: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 and echo “/dev/sdc1 /data ext4 defaults 0 0” >> /etc/fstab. The first command creates an ext4 filesystem on the device /dev/sdc1, which is the partition that will be used for the new filesystem. The second command appends a line to the /etc/fstab file, which is the configuration file that controls persistent mount points of filesystems. The line specifies the device name, the mount point (/data), the filesystem type (ext4), the mount options (defaults), and the dump and pass values (0 0). The other commands are incorrect because they either do not create or configure a filesystem, or they have wrong syntax or arguments. References: CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide, Fourth Edition, page 409-410, 414-415.

The best command sequence to rebuild a kernel module from source code is A. ./configure make make install. This is the standard way to compile and install a Linux kernel module, as explained in the web search result 5. The other commands are either not relevant, not valid, or not sufficient for this task. For example:

B. wget gcc cp will try to download, compile, and copy a file, but it does not specify the source code, the module name, or the destination directory.

C. tar xvzf build cp will try to extract, build, and copy a compressed file, but it does not specify the file name, the module name, or the destination directory.

D. build install configure will try to run three commands that are not defined or recognized by the Linux shell.

The mv /home/tmp/tempa /home/tmp/temp command will fix the issue of the misnamed directory. This command will rename the directory /home/tmp/tempa to /home/tmp/temp, which is the expected path for users to save their documents. The cp /home/tmp/tempa /home/tmp/temp command will not fix the issue, as it will copy the contents of /home/tmp/tempa to a new file named /home/tmp/temp, not a directory. The cd /temp/tmp/tempa command will not fix the issue, as it will change the current working directory to /temp/tmp/tempa, which does not exist. The ls /home/tmp/tempa command will not fix the issue, as it will list the contents of /home/tmp/tempa, not rename it. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 12: Managing Files and Directories, page 413.

The command dig @10.10.10.20 example.com mx will query the DNS server to get mail server information. The dig command is a tool for querying DNS servers and displaying the results. The @ option specifies the DNS server to query, in this case 10.10.10.20. The mx option specifies the type of record to query, in this case mail exchange (MX) records, which identify the mail servers for a domain. The domain name to query is example.com. This command will show the MX records for example.com from the DNS server 10.10.10.20. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either use the wrong syntax (@example.com 10.10.10.20 instead of @10.10.10.20 example.com), the wrong type of record (a or ptr instead of mx), or the wrong domain name (example.com ns instead of example.com mx). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 13: Managing Network Services, page 415.

The command that would allow this to happen is docker pull nginx. Docker is a software platform that allows the administrator to create, run, and manage containers on Linux systems. Containers are isolated and lightweight environments that can run applications and services without affecting the host system. Docker uses images to create containers, which are files that contain the code, libraries, dependencies, and configuration of the applications and services. Docker uses a registry to store and distribute images, which is a service that hosts and serves images. Docker Hub is the default public registry that provides a large number of official and community images. Nginx is a popular web server and reverse proxy that can run as a container. The command docker pull nginx will download the latest version of the Nginx image from the Docker Hub registry to the local cache, which is the storage location for the images on the host system. This will allow the administrator to provide a new Nginx image from the registry to the local cache. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not download an image from the registry (docker attach nginx or docker commit nginx) or do not exist (docker import nginx). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Cloud and Virtualization Technologies, page 571.

To troubleshoot a storage capacity issue on a server without a specific mount point or directory, two commands that would be most helpful are df and du. The df command displays information about disk space usage on all mounted filesystems, including their size, used space, available space, and percentage of usage. The du command displays disk space usage by files and directories in a given path, which can help identify large files or directories that may be taking up too much space. The other commands are incorrect because they either do not show disk space usage, or they are used for other purposes such as partitioning, formatting, checking, mounting, copying, or listing files. References: CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide, Fourth Edition, page 417-419.

The best tool to use to verify the integrity of a file is A. sha256sum. This tool will compute and display the SHA-256 hash of a file, which is a 64-digit hexadecimal number that uniquely identifies the file’s content. By comparing the hash of a downloaded file with the hash provided by the file owner or source, you can confirm that the file has not been altered or corrupted during the transfer. The other tools are either not relevant or not suitable for this task. For example:

B. fsck is a tool for checking and repairing the file system, but it does not verify the integrity of individual files.

C. gpg -d is a tool for decrypting files that have been encrypted with GnuPG, but it does not verify the integrity of unencrypted files.

D. hashcat is a tool for cracking passwords or hashes, but it does not verify the integrity of files.

The Linux administrator should configure /etc/yum.repos.d/db.repo so that the requested packages can be installed. This file defines a custom repository for yum, which is a package manager for RPM-based systems. The file should contain information such as the name, baseurl, gpgcheck, and enabled options for the repository. By creating this file and enabling the repository, the administrator can use yum to install packages from the custom repository. The /etc/yum.conf file is the main configuration file for yum, but it does not define repositories. The /etc/ssh/sshd.conf file is the configuration file for sshd, which is a daemon that provides secure shell access to remote systems. The /etc/resolv.conf file is the configuration file for DNS resolution, which maps domain names to IP addresses. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Packages and Software, page 559.

The PAM module pam_nologin.so will prevent logins from accounts other than root, while the file /etc/nologin exists. This module checks for the existence of the file /etc/nologin and displays its contents to the user before denying access. The root user is exempt from this check and can still log in. This is the correct module to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they are either non-existent modules (pam_login.so or pam_logindef.so) or do not perform the required function (pam_access.so controls access based on host, user, or time). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 15: Managing Users and Groups, page 471.

The command that would resolve the issue is chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys. This command will change the permissions of the .ssh/authorized_keys file to 600, which means that only the owner of the file can read and write it. This is necessary for SSH key authentication to work properly, as SSH will refuse to use a key file that is accessible by other users or groups for security reasons. The output of ls -l shows that currently the .ssh/authorized_keys file has permissions of 664, which means that both the owner and group can read and write it, and others can read it.

The other options are not correct commands for resolving the issue. The restorecon .ssh/authorized_keys command will restore the default SELinux security context for the .ssh/authorized_keys file, but this will not change its permissions or ownership. The ssh_keygen -t rsa -o .ssh/authorized_keys command is invalid because ssh_keygen is not a valid command (the correct command is ssh-keygen), and the -o option is used to specify a new output format for the key file, not the output file name. The chown root:root .ssh/authorized_keys command will change the owner and group of the .ssh/authorized_keys file to root, but this will not change its permissions or make it accessible by the user who wants to log in with SSH key authentication. References: How to Use Public Key Authentication with SSH; chmod(1) - Linux manual page

The mechanism that enables administrators to configure and enforce MFA on a Linux system is PAM. PAM stands for Pluggable Authentication Modules, which is a framework for managing authentication and authorization on Linux systems. PAM allows the administrator to define the rules and policies for accessing various system resources and services, such as login, sudo, ssh, or cron. PAM also supports different types of authentication methods, such as passwords, tokens, biometrics, or smart cards. PAM can be used to implement MFA, which stands for Multi-Factor Authentication, which is a security technique that requires the user to provide more than one piece of evidence to prove their identity. MFA can enhance the security of the system and prevent unauthorized access. PAM enables administrators to configure and enforce MFA on a Linux system. This is the correct answer to the question. The other options are incorrect because they either do not manage authentication and authorization on Linux systems (Kerberos or PKI) or do not support MFA (SELinux). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 17: Implementing Basic Security, page 517.

The most likely issue is that the service does not have permissions to read or write the startupfile. The output of systemct1 status startup.service shows that the service has failed to start and the error message is “Permission denied”. The output of ls -l /etc/startupfile shows that the file has the permissions -rw-r--r--, which means that only the owner (root) can read and write the file, while the group (root) and others can only read the file. The service may not run as root and may need write access to the file. The administrator should change the permissions of the file by using the chmod command and grant write access to the group or others, or change the owner or group of the file by using the chown command and assign it to the user or group that runs the service. The other options are incorrect because they are not supported by the outputs. The file size, owner, and group are not the causes of the issue. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing Files and Directories, pages 345-346.

The command that would address the memory-related issue is kill -9 8321. This command will send a SIGKILL signal to the process with the PID 8321, which is the mysqld process that is using 99.7% of the available memory according to the top output. The SIGKILL signal will terminate the process immediately and free up the memory it was using. However, this command should be used with caution as it may cause data loss or corruption if the process was performing some critical operations.

The other options are not correct commands for addressing the memory-related issue. The top -p 8321 command will only display information about the process with the PID 8321, but will not kill it or reduce its memory usage. The renice -10 8321 command will change the priority (niceness) of the process with the PID 8321 to -10, which means it will have a higher scheduling priority, but this will not affect its memory consumption. The free 8321 command is invalid because free does not take a PID as an argument; free only displays information about the total, used, and free memory in the system. References: How to troubleshoot Linux server memory issues; kill(1) - Linux manual page

The REJECT target sends back an error packet to the source IP address, indicating that the connection is refused by the firewall. This is different from the DROP target, which silently discards the packet without any response. The RETURN target returns to the previous chain, which may or may not accept the connection. The QUEUE target passes the packet to a userspace application for further processing, which is not the desired outcome in this case.

References

CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, page 316

iptables - ssh - access from specific ip only - Server Fault, answer by Eugene Ionichev

Using AD Query, the security gateway connects to the Active Directory Domain Controllers using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). LDAP is a protocol that provides access to directory services over a network. AD Query uses LDAP queries to retrieve information about users and groups from Active Directory Domain Controllers without installing any software on them. AD Query does not use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to Active Directory Domain Controllers. References: Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) R80.x Study Guide, Chapter 5: User Management and Authentication, page 69.

The rsync and scp commands can be used to copy files and directories from Server A to Server B. Both commands can use SSH as a secure protocol to transfer data over the network. The rsync command can synchronize files and directories between two locations, using various options to control the copying behavior. The scp command can copy files and directories between two hosts, using similar syntax as cp. The rsyslog command is used to manage system logging, not file copying. The cp command is used to copy files and directories within a single host, not between two hosts. The reposync command is used to synchronize a remote yum repository to a local directory, not copy files and directories between two hosts. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 13: Networking Fundamentals, pages 440-441.

The command ls | cpio -ov > cloud.cpio can help to create a new cloud.cpio archive containing all the files from the current directory. The ls command lists the files in the current directory and outputs them to the standard output. The | operator pipes the output to the next command. The cpio command is a tool for creating and extracting compressed archives. The -o option creates a new archive and the -v option shows the verbose output. The > operator redirects the output to the cloud.cpio file. This command will create a new cloud.cpio archive with all the files from the current directory. The other options are incorrect because they either use the wrong options (-i instead of -o), the wrong arguments (cloud.epio instead of cloud.cpio), or the wrong syntax (< instead of > or missing |). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing Files and Directories, page 351.

The script in option B performs the task by SSH-ing into each server listed in serverslist and then adding each user listed in userslist. This is an effective way to remotely create user accounts without manually logging into each server. The ssh command allows the execution of the useradd commands on the remote machines.

The issue occurs because the home directory /home/userA is owned by root, not by userA, as seen from the ls -lth /home output. In Linux, the user must have ownership of their home directory to log in and access their files properly. To fix this, the administrator must change ownership using chown userA:userA /home/userA.

The command setfacl -m g:finance:rw file will permanently fix the access issue while limiting access to IT and finance department employees. The setfacl command is a tool for modifying the access control lists (ACLs) of files and directories on Linux systems. The ACLs are a mechanism that allows more fine-grained control over the permissions of files and directories than the traditional owner-group-others model. The -m option specifies the modification to the ACL. The g:finance:rw means that the group named finance will have read and write permissions on the file. The file is the name of the file to modify, in this case /opt/work/file. The command setfacl -m g:finance:rw file will add an entry to the ACL of the file that will grant read and write access to the finance group. This will fix the access issue and allow the finance employees to access the file. The command will also preserve the existing permissions of the file, which means that the IT employees will still have read and write access to the file. This will limit the access to IT and finance department employees and prevent unauthorized access from other users. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not fix the access issue (chattr +i file or chown it:finance file) or do not limit the access to IT and finance department employees (chmod 666 file). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing File Permissions and Ownership, page 352.

The /boot/efi directory is the mount point in a UEFI system. This directory contains the EFI System Partition (ESP), which stores boot loaders and other files required by UEFI firmware. The /sys/efi directory does not exist by default in Linux systems. The /efi directory does not exist by default in Linux systems. The /etc/efi directory does not exist by default in Linux systems. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing the Linux Boot Process, page 398.

The command ssh-copy-id user@server will allow the user to upload the public key to a remote server and enable passwordless login. The ssh-copy-id command is a tool for copying the public key to a remote server and appending it to the authorized_keys file, which is used for public key authentication. The command will also set the appropriate permissions on the remote server to ensure the security of the key. The command ssh-copy-id user@server will copy the public key of the user to the server and allow the user to log in without a password. This is the correct command to use for this task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not copy the public key (scp, rsync, or ssh-add) or do not use the correct syntax (scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@server:~/ instead of scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@server:~/ or rsync ~ /.ssh/ user@server:~/ instead of rsync ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@server:~/). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 13: Managing Network Services, page 410.

The command dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=/dev/sdd1 copies the data from the input file (if) /dev/sdc1 to the output file (of) /dev/sdd1, byte by byte. This is the correct way to clone a partition. The other options are incorrect because they either compress the data (tar -cvzf), synchronize the files (rsync), or copy the files over a network (scp), which are not the same as cloning a partition. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 10: Managing Storage, page 321.

The command gzip can extract files that are compressed with the gzip format, which has the extension .gz. This is the correct command to use for the software package. The other options are incorrect because they either compress files (bzip2 -z), unzip files that are compressed with the zip format (unzip -v or funzip), or have the wrong options (-v or -z instead of -d). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing Files and Directories, page 353.

The correct answer is D. The administrator should run “echo .DS STORE >> .gitignore” from the root of the local repository before the next commit to ensure the file is not uploaded again in future commits.

This command will append the file name .DS STORE to the end of the .gitignore file, which is a special file that tells Git to ignore certain files or directories that should not be tracked or uploaded to the repository. By adding .DS STORE to the .gitignore file, the administrator will prevent Git from staging, committing, or pushing this file in the future.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. rm -f .DS STORE && git push

This command will delete the file .DS STORE from the local repository and then push the changes to the remote repository. However, this does not prevent the file from being uploaded again in future commits, if it is recreated or copied to the local repository.

B. git fetch && git checkout .DS STORE

This command will fetch the latest changes from the remote repository and then restore the file .DS STORE from the remote repository to the local repository. This is not what the administrator wants to do, as this will undo the deletion of the file from the online repository.

C. rm -f .DS STORE && git rebase origin main

This command will delete the file .DS STORE from the local repository and then rebase the local branch onto the main branch of the remote repository. This will rewrite the commit history of the local branch and may cause conflicts or errors. This is not what the administrator wants to do, as this is a risky and unnecessary operation.

The git fetch command downloads commits, files, and refs from a remote repository into the local one. It also updates the remote-tracking branches, which are references to the state of the remote branches. By running git fetch, the administrator can see the new branch created by the development team and then use git checkout to switch to it12.

References: 1: Git - git-fetch Documentation 2: Git Fetch | Atlassian Git Tutorial

The gzip command with the -c flag outputs the compressed data to standard output, which can then be redirected to create a .gz file. This approach maintains the original file while creating a compressed version.

The custom.conf file grants sudo privileges to user1 and webadmin for managing the Apache web service, but it uses different commands for each of them. User1 is allowed to use systemctl to start and stop the httpd service, while webadmin is allowed to use init.d, service, or apache2ctl to restart the httpd service. However, the user1 is unable to restart the service, only start and stop it. To fix this, user1 should be able to use the same commands as webadmin, which can be achieved by listing webadmin as a group in the custom.conf file, using the syntax %groupname. This way, user1 will inherit the sudo privileges of the webadmin group, and be able to restart the Apache web service without compromising the least privilege security model.

References

Sudo and Sudoers Configuration | Servers for Hackers, section “Groups”

Chapter 12. Managing sudo access - Red Hat Customer Portal, section “12.1. Configuring sudo access for users and groups”

The initial troubleshooting step when experiencing slow performance and potential memory or CPU issues is to analyze the current resource usage. Running tools like top or htop allows the administrator to observe real-time data on CPU, memory, and processes, providing insights into high resource usage. This is a non-invasive first step, helping to identify whether issues are due to overuse, application memory leaks, or specific processes. CompTIA Linux+ recommends understanding system resource behavior before taking further action. Reference: CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide.

The /sbin/nologin shell is used to prevent a user from logging in. To allow Joe to log in, the administrator should change his shell to /bin/sh, which is a standard login shell in Linux. This change will allow Joe to access the system normally.

The file that will need to be modified for the server to be able to boot again is /etc/fstab. The /etc/fstab file is a file that contains the information about the file systems that are mounted at boot time on Linux systems. The file specifies the device name, mount point, file system type, mount options, dump frequency, and pass number for each file system. The error message indicates that the dependency failed for /data, which is a mount point for a file system. This means that the system could not mount the /data file system at boot time, which caused the system to enter the emergency mode. The emergency mode is a mode that allows the administrator to log in as the root user and perform basic tasks such as repairing the system. The administrator should modify the /etc/fstab file and check the entry for the /data file system. The administrator should look for any errors or inconsistencies in the device name, file system type, or mount options, and correct them. The administrator should also verify that the device and the file system are intact and functional by using commands such as blkid, fdisk, fsck, or mount. The administrator should then reboot the system and see if the issue is resolved. The file that will need to be modified for the server to be able to boot again is /etc/fstab. This is the correct answer to the question. The other options are incorrect because they are not related to the file systems that are mounted at boot time (/etc/mtab, /dev/sda, or /etc/grub.conf). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 10: Managing Storage, page 321.

The error is related to XFS filesystem corruption on /dev/sdb1, where the website’s images are stored. By stopping the Apache service, unmounting the filesystem, running xfs_repair, and remounting, the filesystem can be repaired, and the service can be restarted safely.

The correct answer is A. chmod g+s /home/test

This command will set the setgid bit on the /home/test directory, which means that any file or subdirectory created in the directory will inherit the group ownership of the directory. This way, the group permissions on files created in the directory will be preserved. The chmod command is used to change the permissions of files and directories. The g+s option is used to set the setgid bit for the group.

The other options are incorrect because:

B. chgrp test /home/test

This command will change the group ownership of the /home/test directory to test, but it will not affect the group ownership of files created in the directory. The chgrp command is used to change the group of files and directories. The test /home/test arguments are used to specify the new group and the target directory.

C. chmod 777 /home/test

This command will give read, write, and execute permissions to everyone (owner, group, and others) on the /home/test directory, but it will not affect the group ownership or permissions of files created in the directory. The chmod command is used to change the permissions of files and directories. The 777 argument is an octal number that represents the permissions in binary form.

D. chown -hR test /home/test

This command will change the owner and group of the /home/test directory and all its contents recursively to test, but it will not preserve the original group permissions on files created in the directory. The chown command is used to change the owner and group of files and directories. The -hR option is used to affect symbolic links and operate on all files and directories recursively. The test /home/test arguments are used to specify the new owner and group and the target directory.

References:

How to Set File Permissions Using chmod

How to Use Chmod Command in Linux with Examples

How to Use Chown Command in Linux with Examples

[How to Use Chgrp Command in Linux with Examples]

The command iptables -F will remediate and help resolve the issue. The issue is caused by the firewall rules that block the access to the organization’s web page and other services. The output of dmesg | grep firewall shows that the kernel has dropped packets from the source IP address 192.168.1.100 to the destination port 80, which is the default port for HTTP. The command iptables -F will flush all the firewall rules and allow the traffic to pass through. This command will resolve the issue and restore the access to the web page and other services. The other options are incorrect because they either do not affect the firewall rules (ip route flush or ip addr flush) or do not exist (iptables -R). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 18: Securing Linux Systems, page 543.

The dd command is the most efficient method to clone a partition, as it operates at the block level. The command dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdc1 copies the entire content of /dev/sda1 (input file) to /dev/sdc1 (output file), making an exact clone of the partition. The other options are either not applicable or less efficient for partition cloning.

The command vmstat will most likely be run next by the administrator to troubleshoot the system performance. The vmstat command is a tool for reporting virtual memory statistics on Linux systems. The command shows information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, interrupts, and CPU activity. The command can help the administrator identify the source of the performance issue, such as high CPU usage, low free memory, excessive swapping, or disk IO bottlenecks. The command can also be used with an interval and a count to display the statistics repeatedly over time and observe the changes. The command vmstat will provide useful information for diagnosing the system performance and finding the root cause of the issue. This is the most likely command to run next after the top command. The other options are incorrect because they either do not show the virtual memory statistics (strace or lsof) or do not provide more information than the top command (htop). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 14: Managing Processes and Scheduling Tasks, page 425.

The command that would ensure the server is set to runlevel 5 is systemct1 isolate graphical.target. This command will change the current target (or runlevel) of systemd to graphical.target, which is equivalent to runlevel 5 in SysV init systems. Graphical.target means that the system will start with a graphical user interface (GUI) and all services required for it.

The other options are not correct commands for setting the server to runlevel 5. The systemct1 isolate multi-user.target command will change the current target to multi-user.target, which is equivalent to runlevel 3 in SysV init systems. Multi-user.target means that the system will start with multiple user logins and networking, but without a GUI. The systemct1 isolate network.target command will change the current target to network.target, which is not a real runlevel but a synchronization point for network-related services. Network.target means that network functionality should be available, but does not specify whether it should be started before or after it. The systemct1 isolate basic.target command will change the current target to basic.target, which is also not a real runlevel but a synchronization point for basic system services. Basic.target means that all essential services should be started, but does not specify whether it should be started before or after it. References: systemd System and Service Manager; systemd.special(7) - Linux manual page

The command that will allow the systems administrator to check whether the system supports virtualization is lscpu. This command will display information about the CPU architecture, such as the number of CPUs, cores, sockets, threads, model name, frequency, cache size, and flags. One of the flags is vmx (for Intel processors) or svm (for AMD processors), which indicates that the CPU supports hardware virtualization. If the flag is present, it means that the system supports virtualization. If the flag is absent, it means that the system does not support virtualization or that it is disabled in the BIOS settings.

The other options are not correct commands for checking whether the system supports virtualization. The dmidecode -s system-version command will display the version of the system, such as the product name or serial number, but not the CPU information. The sysctl -a command will display all the kernel parameters, but not the CPU flags. The cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/possible command will display the range of possible CPUs that can be online or offline, but not the CPU features. References: lscpu(1) - Linux manual page; How To Check If Virtualization is Enabled in Windows 10 / 11

This command will remove all containers, regardless of their state, by passing the IDs of all containers to the docker rm command. The docker ps -aq command will list the IDs of all containers, including the ones in an exited state, and the $ ( ) syntax will substitute the output of the command as an argument for the docker rm command. This is a quick and easy way to clean up all containers, but it may also remove containers that are still needed or running.

References

docker rm | Docker Docs - Docker Documentation, section “Remove all containers”

Docker Remove Exited Containers | Easy methods. - Bobcares, section “For removing all exited containers”

The command that will satisfy the requirement of having all files that are created by the user named web have read-only permissions by the owner is echo “umask 377” >> /home/web/.bashrc. This command will append the umask 377 command to the end of the .bashrc file in the web user’s home directory. The .bashrc file is a shell script that is executed whenever a new interactive shell session is started by the user. The umask command sets the file mode creation mask, which determines the default permissions for newly created files or directories by subtracting from the maximum permissions (666 for files and 777 for directories). The umask 377 command means that the user does not want to give any permissions to the group or others (3 = 000 in binary), and only wants to give read permission to the owner (7 - 3 = 4 = 100 in binary). Therefore, any new file created by the web user will have read-only permission by the owner (400) and no permission for anyone else. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 8: Managing Users and Groups; Umask Command in Linux | Linuxize

The command iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.0.2.25:3128 adds a rule to the nat table that redirects all incoming TCP packets with destination port 80 (HTTP) to the proxy server 192.0.2.25 on port 3128. This is the correct way to achieve the task. The other options are incorrect because they either delete a rule (-D), use the wrong protocol (top instead of tcp), or use the wrong port (81 instead of 80). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 12: Managing Network Connections, page 381.

The docker run -d --name web-01 httpd command will launch a container named web-01 in background mode. This command will create and start a new container from the httpd image, assign it the name web-01, and run it in detached mode (-d), which means the container will run in the background without attaching to the current terminal. The docker builder -f --name web-01 httpd command is invalid, as builder is not a valid docker command, and -f and --name are not valid options for docker build. The docker load --name web-01 httpd command is invalid, as load does not accept a --name option, and httpd is not a valid file name for load. The docker ps -a --name web-01 httpd command is invalid, as ps does not accept a --name option, and httpd is not a valid filter for ps. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 16: Virtualization and Cloud Technologies, page 499.

The firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=ssh command will resolve the issue by allowing SSH connections on port 22 in the public zone of the firewalld service. This command will add the ssh service to the permanent configuration of the public zone, which means it will persist after a reboot or a reload of the firewalld service. The firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=22 command is invalid, as 22 is not a valid service name. The systemct1 enable firewalld; systemct1 restart firewalld command will enable and restart the firewalld service, but it will not change the firewall rules. The firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=22/udp command will allow UDP traffic on port 22 in the public zone, but SSH uses TCP, not UDP. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 18: Securing Linux Systems, page 543.

The ssh-copy-id command is used to copy a public SSH key from a local machine to a remote server and add it to the authorized_keys file, which allows passwordless authentication between the machines. The administrator can use this command to copy the root user’s public key from nodea to nodeb, and vice versa, to enable SSH access between the nodes without entering a password every time. For example: [root@nodea ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa root@nodeb]. The ssh command is used to initiate an SSH connection to a remote server, but it does not copy any keys. The scp command is used to copy files securely between machines using SSH, but it does not add any keys to the authorized_keys file. The ssh-add command is used to add private keys to the SSH agent, which manages them for SSH authentication, but it does not copy any keys to a remote server.

The main objective when using Application Control is to ensure the security and privacy of information. Application Control is a security practice that blocks or restricts unauthorized applications from executing in ways that put data at risk. The control functions vary based on the business purpose of the specific application, but the main objective is to help ensure the privacy and security of data used by and transmitted between applications1. Application Control can also prevent malware, untrusted, or unwanted applications from running on the network, reducing the risks and costs associated with data breaches1. Application Control can also improve the overall network stability and performance by eliminating unnecessary or harmful applications1.

Application Control is not mainly used to filter out specific content, although it can be combined with other technologies such as URL filtering or content filtering to achieve that goal. Application Control is not mainly used to assist the firewall blade with handling traffic, although it can be integrated with firewall policies to enforce granular access rules based on applications. Application Control is not mainly used to see what users are doing, although it can provide visibility and reporting on application usage and activity.

This will prevent the file app.conf from being tracked by Git and uploaded to the repository. The .gitignore file is a special file that contains patterns of files and directories that Git should ignore. Any file that matches a pattern in the .gitignore file will not be staged, committed, or pushed to the remote repository. The .gitignore file should be placed in the root directory of the repository and committed along with the other files.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Run git exclude app.conf

This is not a valid Git command. There is no such thing as git exclude. The closest thing is git update-index --assume-unchanged, which tells Git to temporarily ignore changes to a file, but it does not prevent the file from being uploaded to the repository.

B. Run git stash app.conf

This will temporarily save the changes to the file app.conf in a stash, which is a hidden storage area for uncommitted changes. However, this does not prevent the file from being tracked by Git or uploaded to the repository. The file will still be part of the working tree and the index, and it will be restored when the stash is popped or applied.

C. Add app.conf to .exclude

This will have no effect, because Git does not recognize a file named .exclude. The only files that Git uses to ignore files are .gitignore, $GIT_DIR/info/exclude, and core.excludesFile.

References:

Git - gitignore Documentation

.gitignore file - ignoring files in Git | Atlassian Git Tutorial

Ignoring files - GitHub Docs

[CompTIA Linux+ Certification Exam Objectives]

The systemct1 reboot command will restore the server to its usual target by rebooting it. This will cause the server to load the default target specified in /etc/systemd/system.conf or /etc/systemd/system/default.target files. The telinit 0 command would shut down the server, not restore it to its usual target. The systemct1 get-default command would display the default target, not change it. The systemct1 emergency command would switch the server to emergency.target mode, which is even more restrictive than rescue.target mode. References: [CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide], Chapter 17: System Maintenance and Operation, page 516.

The required changes need to be made to the /etc/login.defs configuration file. The /etc/login.defs file defines the default values for user and group IDs, passwords, shells, and other parameters for user and group creation. The file contains the directives UID_MIN, UID_MAX, GID_MIN, and GID_MAX, which set the minimum and maximum values for automatic user and group ID selection. The administrator can edit this file and change the values to match the organization’s new cybersecurity policies. This is the correct file to modify to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not affect the user and group IDs (/etc/security/limits.conf or /etc/profile) or do not set the default values (/etc/default/useradd). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 15: Managing Users and Groups, page 463.

The administrator should use the following three commands to resolve the issue of the root filesystem being full:

df -h /. This command will show the disk usage of the root filesystem in a human-readable format. The df command is a tool for reporting file system disk space usage. The -h option displays the sizes in powers of 1024 (e.g., 1K, 234M, 2G). The / specifies the root filesystem. The command df -h / will show the total size, used space, available space, and percentage of the root filesystem. This command will help the administrator identify the problem and plan the solution.

growpart /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv. This command will grow the partition that contains the root filesystem to the maximum size available. The growpart command is a tool for resizing partitions on Linux systems. The /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv is the device name of the partition, which is a logical volume managed by the Logical Volume Manager (LVM). The command growpart /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv will extend the partition to fill the disk space and increase the size of the root filesystem. This command will help the administrator solve the problem and free up space.

lvresize –L +10G -r /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv. This command will resize the logical volume that contains the root filesystem and add 10 GB of space. The lvresize command is a tool for resizing logical volumes on Linux systems. The -L option specifies the new size of the logical volume, in this case +10G, which means 10 GB more than the current size. The -r option resizes the underlying file system as well. The /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv is the device name of the logical volume, which is the same as the partition name. The command lvresize –L +10G -r /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv will increase the size of the logical volume and the root filesystem by 10 GB and free up space. This command will help the administrator solve the problem and free up space.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not affect the root filesystem (fdisk -1 /dev/sdb, pvcreate /dev/sdb, lsblk /dev/sda, or vgextend /dev/rootvg /dev/sdb) or do not use the correct syntax (fdisk -1 /dev/sdb instead of fdisk -l /dev/sdb or parted -l /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv instead of parted /dev/mapper/rootvg-rootlv print). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 10: Managing Storage, pages 318-319, 331-332.

The git pull command fetches changes from the remote repository and merges them into the current branch. This is the correct command for obtaining the updated configuration that was pushed to the remote repository.

systemctl status httpd is the correct option to check if the Apache web server (httpd) is running. The systemctl status command provides detailed information about the service, including whether it is active and running.

The correct answer is D. git checkout -b staging

This command will create a new branch named staging and switch to it. The git checkout command is used to switch between branches or restore files from a specific branch. The -b option is used to create a new branch if it does not exist. For example, git checkout -b staging will create and switch to the staging branch.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. git branch -m staging

This command will rename the current branch to staging, not switch to it. The git branch command is used to list, create, or delete branches. The -m option is used to rename a branch. For example, git branch -m staging will rename the current branch to staging.

B. git commit -m staging

This command will commit the changes in the working tree to the current branch with a message of staging, not switch to it. The git commit command is used to record changes to the repository. The -m option is used to specify a commit message. For example, git commit -m staging will commit the changes with a message of staging.

C. git status -b staging

This command will show the status of the working tree and the current branch, not switch to it. The git status command is used to show the state of the working tree and the staged changes. The -b option is used to show the name of the current branch. However, this option does not take an argument, so specifying staging after it will cause an error.

References:

Git - git-checkout Documentation

Git Tutorial: Create a New Branch With Git Checkout

Git Branching - Basic Branching and Merging

The command that can be used to check if a partition table is on a disk is fdisk. The fdisk command can display, create, delete, and modify partitions on a disk. To show the partition table of a disk, the administrator can use fdisk -l /dev/sdd (B). References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 5: Managing Filesystems and Logical Volumes, Section: Partitioning Disks

[How to Use Fdisk Command in Linux]

The cloud engineer should use cloud-init to install packages during VM provisioning. Cloud-init is a tool that allows the customization of cloud instances at boot time. Cloud-init can perform various tasks, such as setting the hostname, creating users, installing packages, configuring network, and running scripts. Cloud-init can work with different cloud platforms and Linux distributions. This is the correct tool to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they are either not suitable for cloud provisioning (Bash or Docker) or not a tool but a design pattern (Sidecar). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Cloud and Virtualization Technologies, page 563.

The commands that will list and remove the corresponding packages are dnf history and dnf history undo last. The dnf history command will display a list of all transactions performed by dnf, such as installing, updating, or removing packages. Each transaction has a unique ID, a date and time, an action, and a number of altered packages. The dnf history undo last command will undo the last transaction performed by dnf, meaning that it will reverse all package changes made by that transaction. For example, if the last transaction installed some packages, dnf history undo last will remove them.

The other options are not correct commands for listing and removing corresponding packages. The dnf list command will display a list of available packages in enabled repositories, but not the packages installed by dnf transactions. The dnf remove command will remove specified packages from the system, but not all packages from a specific transaction. The dnf info command will display detailed information about specified packages, but not about dnf transactions. The dnf upgrade command will upgrade all installed packages to their latest versions, but not undo any package changes. References: Handling package management history; dnf(8) - Linux manual page

The command firewall-cmd --query-service http will accomplish the task of checking whether web traffic has already been allowed through the firewall. The firewall-cmd command is a tool for managing firewalld, which is a firewall service that provides dynamic and persistent network security on Linux systems. The firewalld uses zones and services to define the rules and policies for the network traffic. The zones are logical groups of network interfaces and sources that have the same level of trust and security. The services are predefined sets of ports and protocols that are associated with certain applications or functions. The --query-service http option queries whether a service is enabled in a zone. The http is the name of the service that the command should check. The http service represents the web traffic that uses the port 80 and the TCP protocol. The command firewall-cmd --query-service http will check whether the http service is enabled in the default zone, which is usually the public zone. The command will return yes if the web traffic has already been allowed through the firewall, or no if the web traffic has not been allowed through the firewall. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either do not exist (firewalld query-service-http or firewalld --check-service http) or do not query the service (firewall-cmd --check-service http instead of firewall-cmd --query-service http). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 12: Managing Network Connections, page 392.

The command git clone  will achieve the goal of downloading a Git repository from the given URL. The git command is a tool for managing version control systems. The clone option creates a copy of an existing repository. The URL specifies the location of the repository to clone, in this case The command  git clone  will download the repository and create a directory named project in the current working directory. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the goal. The other options are incorrect because they either do not download the repository (git checkout, git pull, or git branch) or do not use the correct syntax (git checkout  instead of git checkout -b project  or git branch  instead of git branch project ). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Cloud and Virtualization Technologies, page 571.

The command systemct1 status systemd-resolved.service will show the information about the service systemd-resolved.service. The systemct1 command is a tool for managing system services and units. The status option displays the current status of a unit, such as active, inactive, or failed. The output also shows the unit description, loaded configuration, process ID, memory usage, and recent log messages. This command will show if the service systemd-resolved.service is running without any errors. This is the correct command to use to accomplish the task. The other options are incorrect because they either perform different actions (enable, mask, or show) or do not show the status of the service (systemct1 show systemd-resolved.service only shows the properties of the service, not the status). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 14: Managing Processes and Scheduling Tasks, page 427.

The setfacl -m u:Oliver:rwx /cloud_users command modifies the ACL (Access Control List) for the directory cloud_users, granting the user Oliver read, write, and execute permissions. This is the correct syntax for assigning specific permissions to a user.

To retrieve the scripts from a repository and make them available on a local workstation, the junior Linux administrator can use the command git clone ©. This will create a copy of the repository on the local machine, including all the scripts and history. The other commands will not clone the repository, but either fetch, checkout, or branch from an existing repository. References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 10: Working with Git, Section: Cloning Repositories with Git

[How to Clone a Git Repository]

The following commands can help the user to authenticate and show the ticket grants using Kerberos SSO on a Linux server:

kinit: This command obtains and caches an initial ticket-granting ticket (TGT) for the user from the Kerberos key distribution center (KDC). The user needs to enter their password or use a keytab file to authenticate1.

klist: This command lists the cached tickets, including the TGT and any service tickets, for the user. It also shows the expiration time and flags for each ticket2.

For example, the user can run the following commands to log in and view their tickets:

$ kinit username@REALM

Password for username@REALM:

$ klist

Ticket cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_1000

Default principal: username@REALM

Valid starting Expires Service principal

04/06/2023 16:06:59 04/07/2023 02:06:59 krbtgt/REALM@REALM

renew until 04/13/2023 16:06:59

References:

kinit(1) - Linux man page, section “Description”.

klist(1) - Linux man page, section “Description”.

Podman exec -ti app /bin/sh allows the Linux administrator to enter the running container and analyze the logs that are stored inside. This command uses the podman tool, which is a daemonless container engine that can run and manage containers on Linux systems. The exec option executes a command inside an existing container, in this case app, which is the name of the container that runs the failing application. The -ti option allocates a pseudo-TTY and keeps STDIN open, allowing for interactive shell access to the container. The /bin/sh argument specifies the shell command to run inside the container, which can be used to view and manipulate the log files.

The other options are not correct commands for entering a running container and analyzing the logs. Docker run -ti app /bin/sh creates a new container from the app image and runs the /bin/sh command inside it, but does not enter the existing container that runs the failing application. Podman run -d app /bin/bash also creates a new container from the app image and runs the /bin/bash command inside it, but does so in detached mode, meaning that it runs in the background without interactive shell access. Docker exec -d app /bin/bash executes the /bin/bash command inside the existing app container, but also does so in detached mode, without interactive shell access.

References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 18: Automating Tasks; View container logs | Docker Docs; How to see the logs of a docker container - Stack Overflow

Running a command with & at the end sends it to the background, allowing the administrator to continue using the terminal for other tasks while the script runs. This is useful for long-running scripts that do not require immediate attention but need to keep running.

The high number of errors and dropped packets in the output of the network interface counters indicate a connection problem on the network interface.

References:

CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 10: Managing Networking, Section: Troubleshooting Network Issues, Page 359.

Linux+ (Plus) Certification, Exam Objectives: 4.3 Given a scenario, troubleshoot and resolve basic network configuration and connectivity issues.

The parameter net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 will accomplish the goal of setting up a new Linux server as a router. This parameter enables the IP forwarding feature, which allows the server to forward packets between different network interfaces. This is necessary for a router to route traffic between different networks. The parameter can be set in the /etc/sysctl.conf file or by using the sysctl command. This is the correct parameter to use to accomplish the goal. The other options are incorrect because they either do not exist (net.ipv4.ip_forwarding or net.ipv4.ip_route) or do not enable IP forwarding (net.ipv4.ip_forward=0). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 12: Managing Network Connections, page 382.

Adding User=comptia in the [Service] section ensures that the web server runs as a non-root user, which enhances security by reducing the risk of elevated privileges being exploited. This follows the principle of least privilege, a best practice for system services.

On RPM-based systems like Red Hat or CentOS, repository configuration is handled via yum or dnf. The main configuration file is /etc/yum.conf, while individual repository files are stored in /etc/yum.repos.d/. These files dictate where packages are fetched from.

To change the swappiness parameter to 0 and make it persistent across reboots and applied immediately, the administrator can perform the following steps:

Append the line vm.swappiness=0 to the file /etc/sysctl.conf using echo "vm.swappiness=0" >> /etc/sysctl.conf (A). This will set the swappiness parameter to 0 for future boots.

Reload the sysctl configuration using sysctl -p (A). This will apply the changes to the current system without rebooting. The other commands will not achieve this task, but either write to a wrong file, use a wrong option, or have a syntax error. References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 8: Optimizing Linux Performance, Section: Tuning Kernel Parameters with sysctl

[How to Change Swappiness in Linux]

The file that holds the system configuration for journal when running systemd is /etc/systemd/journald.conf. This file contains various settings that control the behavior of the journald daemon, which is responsible for collecting and storing log messages from various sources. The journald.conf file can be edited to change the default values of these settings, such as the storage location, size limits, compression, and forwarding options of the journal files. The file also supports a drop-in directory /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/ where additional configuration files can be placed to override or extend the main file. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 18: Automating Tasks; journald.conf(5) - Linux manual page

The output shows that the system is running low on available memory and has heavily utilized swap space (1824 MB out of 2047 MB). This indicates that both RAM and swap are being exhausted, which can lead to performance degradation. The system is likely experiencing memory pressure and may require additional RAM or optimizations to reduce memory consumption.

As the sudo tool is not installed on the system, administrative tasks must be performed either via direct physical console access or by switching to the root user using the su command. Both methods require knowledge of the root password. Installing Telnet is not a good option due to its lack of security, and installing sudo using an unprivileged user is not possible without root privileges.

The system has reached its maximum permitted throughput, therefore iowait is increasing. The output of iostat -x shows that the device sda has an average throughput of 44.01 MB/s, which is equal to the disk maximum throughput of 44 Mbps. The output also shows that the device sda has an average iowait of 99.99%, which means that the CPU is waiting for the disk to complete the I/O requests. This indicates that the disk is the bottleneck and the system is slow due to the high iowait. The other options are incorrect because they are not supported by the outputs. The system has not reached its maximum IOPS, as the device sda has an average IOPS of 563.50, which is lower than the disk maximum IOPS of 690. The system is not mostly idle, as the output of top shows that the CPU is 100% busy. The system does not have a partitioned disk, as the output of lsblk shows that the device sda has only one partition sda1. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 17: Optimizing Linux Systems, pages 513-514.

The free -h command can be used to check the amount of free and used memory in the system in a human-readable format. This can help to troubleshoot the issue of mysqld being killed due to out of memory. The vmstat -a 1 4 command can be used to monitor the system’s virtual memory statistics, such as swap usage, paging activity, and memory faults, every one second for four times. This can help to identify any memory pressure or performance issues that may cause out of memory errors. The nc -v 127.0.0.1 3306 command would attempt to connect to the MySQL server on port 3306 and display any diagnostic messages, but this would not help to troubleshoot the memory issue. The renice -15 $( pidof mysql ) command would change the priority of the mysql process to -15, but this would not prevent it from being killed due to out of memory. The lsblk command would display information about block devices, not memory usage. The killall -15 command would send a SIGTERM signal to all processes with a matching name, but this would not help to troubleshoot the memory issue. References: [CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide], Chapter 15: Managing Memory and Process Execution, pages 468-469.

rpm -qa lists all installed packages and filtering with perl will show if Perl is installed or not. This command is useful for verifying prerequisites like the presence of certain software on the system.

To prevent certain files from being tracked by Git, the administrator can use a .gitignore file (B) in the repository. The .gitignore file can specify patterns of files or directories that Git should ignore. This way, the Terraform state files will not appear in the main branch or any other branch. The other commands are not related to this requirement. References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 10: Working with Git, Section: Ignoring Files with .gitignore

[How to Use .gitignore File]

The command that will accomplish the task of finding and removing all log files that were modified more than 180 days ago is find /var/log -type f -mtime +180 -exec rm {} ;. This command will use find to search for files (-type f) under /var/log directory that have a modification time (-mtime) older than 180 days (+180). For each matching file, it will execute (-exec) the rm command to delete it, passing the file name as an argument ({}). The command will end with a semicolon (;), which is escaped with a backslash to prevent shell interpretation.

The other options are not correct commands for accomplishing the task. The find /var/log -type d -mtime +180 -print -exec rm {} ; command will search for directories (-type d) instead of files, and print their names (-print) before deleting them. This is not what the task requires. The find /var/log -type f -modified +180 -rm command is invalid because there is no such option as -modified or -rm for find. The correct options are -mtime and -delete, respectively. The find /var/log -type c -atime +180 –remove command is also invalid because there is no such option as –remove for find. Moreover, it will search for character special files (-type c) instead of regular files, and use access time (-atime) instead of modification time. References: find(1) - Linux manual page; Find and delete files older than n days in Linux

To run a script file, the user needs to have execute permission on the file. The command chmod u+x /home/user/script.sh (A) will grant execute permission to the owner of the file, which is the user who created it. The other commands will not give execute permission to the user, and therefore will not allow the script to run properly. References:

[CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide], Chapter 3: Working with Files, Section: Changing File Permissions

[How to Make a Bash Script Executable]

The rpm -qf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf command will identify the RPM package that installed the configuration file. This command will query the database of installed packages and display the name of the package that owns the specified file. The rpm -ql /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf command is invalid, as -ql is not a valid option for rpm. The rpm --query /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf command is incorrect, as --query requires a package name, not a file name. The rpm -q /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf command is incorrect, as -q requires a package name, not a file name. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 19: Managing Packages and Software, page 560.

The command rpm -qa | grep kernel lists all the installed kernel packages, and the command uname -a displays the current kernel version. These commands can help the administrator identify the correct version of the /boot/vmlinuz file, which is the kernel image file. The other options are not relevant or helpful for this task. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 8: Managing the Linux Boot Process, page 267.

The command that the administrator should run NEXT to allow the file to be renamed by any user is chmod -t files. This command uses the chmod tool, which is used to change file permissions and access modes. The -t option removes (or sets) the sticky bit on a directory, which restricts deletion or renaming of files within that directory to only their owners or root. In this case, since files is a directory with sticky bit set (indicated by t in drwxrwxrwt), removing it will allow any user to rename or delete files within that directory.

The other options are not correct commands for allowing any user to rename files within files directory. The chgrp reet files command will change the group ownership of files directory to reet, but it will not affect its permissions or access modes. The chacl -R 644 files command is invalid, as chacl is used to change file access control lists (ACLs), not permissions or access modes. The chown users files command will change the user ownership of files directory to users, but it will not affect its permissions or access modes. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 8: Managing Users and Groups; chmod(1) - Linux manual page

The correct command to block the IP address 192.168.10.50 from accessing a Linux server is iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.10.50 -j DROP. This command appends a rule to the INPUT chain that matches the source address 192.168.10.50 and jumps to the DROP target, which discards the packet. The other commands are incorrect because they either have invalid syntax, wrong parameters, or wrong order of arguments. References: CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide, Fourth Edition, page 457-458.

The systemctl reload httpd command reloads the Apache HTTP server configuration without terminating any existing connections. This is ideal for applying configuration changes without disrupting the current web traffic, ensuring seamless operation.

The nice -10 wget command will help to accomplish the task of downloading a ZIP file and setting the nice value to -10 for this new process. The nice command can be used to run a program with a modified scheduling priority, which affects how much CPU time the process receives. The nice value ranges from -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority), and the default value is 0. The -10 option specifies the nice value to be used for the wget command, which will download the ZIP file from the given URL. The nice -v -10 wget command is incorrect, as -v is not a valid option for nice. The renice -v -10 wget command is incorrect, as renice is used to change the priority of an existing process, not a new one. The renice -10 wget command is incorrect for the same reason as above. References:  CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 15: Managing Memory and Process Execution, page 469.

The error indicates that X11 forwarding is not enabled. X11 forwarding allows graphical applications to be displayed on a remote system over an SSH connection. Enabling X11 forwarding in /etc/ssh/ssh_config and restarting the SSH service ensures that the necessary configuration is applied, allowing the administrator to open graphical applications remotely.

According to the getfacl output, the default ACL for the group wheel is set to rwx, meaning members of the wheel group have read, write, and execute permissions. Therefore, they can access and manage files in the /comptia directory. Other users (other::---) have no permissions on this directory.

This file prevents any non-root user from logging in to the system, regardless of the authentication method. The contents of the file are displayed to the user before the login is terminated. This can be useful for system maintenance or security reasons12.

References: 1: Creating the /etc/nologin File - Oracle 2: How to Restrict Log In Capabilities of Users on Ubuntu

The correct order of Git commands to add a new configuration file to a Git repository is pull -> add -> commit -> push. The pull command will fetch and merge the changes from the remote repository to the local repository, ensuring that the local repository is up to date. The add command will stage the new configuration file for the next commit, marking it as a new file to be tracked by Git. The commit command will create a new snapshot of the project state with the new configuration file and a descriptive message. The push command will publish the commit to the remote repository, updating the remote branch with the new configuration file. The pull -> push -> add -> checkout order is incorrect, as it will not create a commit for the new configuration file, and it will switch to a different branch without pushing the changes. The checkout -> push -> add -> pull order is incorrect, as it will switch to a different branch before adding the new configuration file, and it will overwrite the local changes with the remote changes without creating a commit. The pull -> add -> push -> commit order is incorrect, as it will not create a commit before pushing the changes, and it will create a commit that is not synchronized with the remote branch. References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 20: Writing and Executing Bash Shell Scripts, page 579.

The output from free -m shows that a significant portion of the swap space (955 MB) is being used, indicating the server is swapping. Swapping occurs when the system runs low on physical memory, leading to poor performance because the system must offload memory pages to the slower swap space. To resolve this, either more physical memory should be added or the application’s memory usage should be optimized.

The command that is used to configure the default permissions for new files is umask. The umask command is a tool for setting the default permissions for new files and directories on Linux systems. The umask value is a four-digit octal number that represents the permissions that are subtracted from the default permissions. The default permissions for files are 666, which means read and write for owner, group, and others. The default permissions for directories are 777, which means read, write, and execute for owner, group, and others. The umask value consists of four digits: the first digit is for special permissions, such as setuid, setgid, and sticky bit; the second digit is for the owner permissions; the third digit is for the group permissions; and the fourth digit is for the others permissions. The umask value can be calculated by subtracting the desired permissions from the default permissions. For example, if the desired permissions for files are 664, which means read and write for owner and group, and read for others, then the umask value is 002, which is 666 - 664. The command umask 002 will set the umask value to 002, which will ensure that only file owners and group members can modify new files by default. The command that is used to configure the default permissions for new files is umask. This is the correct answer to the question. The other options are incorrect because they either do not set the default permissions for new files (setenforce, sudo, or chmod) or do not exist (kill -HUP or kill -TERM). References: CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-005) Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Managing File Permissions and Ownership, page 349.

The snap list command is used to display the installed snaps on the system1. Snaps are self-contained software packages that can be installed and updated across different Linux distributions2. The snap list command shows the name, version, revision, developer and notes of each snap1.

The snap find command is used to search for snaps in the Snap Store, which is an online repository of snaps2. The snap install command is used to install snaps from the Snap Store or from a local file2. The snap try command is used to test a snap without installing it, by mounting a directory that contains the snap files2. These commands are not useful for verifying if a package was installed using a snap.

The /etc/passwd file contains user account information, where each line includes fields separated by colons. To list all user accounts and their UIDs, use cut -d: -f1,3 /etc/passwd. This cuts the first field (username) and the third field (UID) from each line.