CAS-003 : CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) CAS-003 : Part 02

CAS-003 : CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) CAS-003 : Part 02

1. A security incident responder discovers an attacker has gained access to a network and has overwritten key system files with backdoor software. The server was reimaged and patched offline. Which of the following tools should be implemented to detect similar attacks?

   • Vulnerability scanner
   • TPM
   • Host-based firewall
   • File integrity monitor
   • NIPS

2. An organization is in the process of integrating its operational technology and information technology areas. As part of the integration, some of the cultural aspects it would like to see include more efficient use of resources during change windows, better protection of critical infrastructure, and the ability to respond to incidents. The following observations have been identified:

   1. The ICS supplier has specified that any software installed will result in lack of support.
   2. There is no documented trust boundary defined between the SCADA and corporate networks.
   3. Operational technology staff have to manage the SCADA equipment via the engineering workstation.
   4. There is a lack of understanding of what is within the SCADA network.

   Which of the following capabilities would BEST improve the security position?

   • VNC, router, and HIPS
   • SIEM, VPN, and firewall
   • Proxy, VPN, and WAF
   • IDS, NAC, and log monitoring

3. A company has hired an external security consultant to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of corporate security. The company is particularly concerned about unauthorized access to its physical offices resulting in network compromises. Which of the following should the consultant recommend be performed to evaluate potential risks?

   • The consultant should attempt to gain access to physical offices through social engineering and then attempt data exfiltration
   • The consultant should be granted access to all physical access control systems to review logs and evaluate the likelihood of the threat
   • The company should conduct internal audits of access logs and employee social media feeds to identify potential insider threats
   • The company should install a temporary CCTV system to detect unauthorized access to physical offices

4. A server (10.0.0.2) on the corporate network is experiencing a DoS from a number of marketing desktops that have been compromised and are connected to a separate network segment. The security engineer implements the following configuration on the management router:

   

   Which of the following is the engineer implementing?

   • Remotely triggered black hole
   • Route protection
   • Port security
   • Transport security
   • Address space layout randomization

5. An internal penetration tester was assessing a recruiting page for potential issues before it was pushed to the production website. The penetration tester discovers an issue that must be corrected before the page goes live. The web host administrator collects the log files below and gives them to the development team so improvements can be made to the security design of the website.

   

   Which of the following types of attack vectors did the penetration tester use?

   • SQL injection
   • CSRF
   • Brute force
   • XSS
   • TOC/TOU

6. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for an organization wants to develop custom IDS rulesets faster, prior to new rules being released by IDS vendors. Which of the following BEST meets this objective?

   • Identify a third-party source for IDS rules and change the configuration on the applicable IDSs to pull in the new rulesets
   • Encourage cybersecurity analysts to review open-source intelligence products and threat database to generate new IDS rules based on those sources
   • Leverage the latest TCP- and UDP-related RFCs to arm sensors and IDSs with appropriate heuristics for anomaly detection
   • Use annual hacking conventions to document the latest attacks and threats, and then develop IDS rules to counter those threats

7. A user workstation was infected with a new malware variant as a result of a drive-by download. The security administrator reviews key controls on the infected workstation and discovers the following:

   

   Which of the following would BEST prevent the problem from reoccurring in the future? (Choose two.)

   • Install HIPS
   • Enable DLP
   • Install EDR
   • Install HIDS
   • Enable application blacklisting
   • Improve patch management processes

8. An engineer is assisting with the design of a new virtualized environment that will house critical company services and reduce the datacenter’s physical footprint. The company has expressed concern about the integrity of operating systems and wants to ensure a vulnerability exploited in one datacenter segment would not lead to the compromise of all others. Which of the following design objectives should the engineer complete to BEST mitigate the company’s concerns? (Choose two.)

   • Deploy virtual desktop infrastructure with an OOB management network
   • Employ the use of vTPM with boot attestation
   • Leverage separate physical hardware for sensitive services and data
   • Use a community CSP with independently managed security services
   • Deploy to a private cloud with hosted hypervisors on each physical machine

9. After embracing a BYOD policy, a company is faced with new security challenges from unmanaged mobile devices and laptops. The company’s IT department has seen a large number of the following incidents:

   – Duplicate IP addresses
   – Rogue network devices
   – Infected systems probing the company’s network

   Which of the following should be implemented to remediate the above issues? (Choose two.)

   • Port security
   • Route protection
   • NAC
   • HIPS
   • NIDS

10. Following a security assessment, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is reviewing the results of the assessment and evaluating potential risk treatment strategies. As part of the CISO’s evaluation, a judgment of potential impact based on the identified risk is performed. To prioritize response actions, the CISO uses past experience to take into account the exposure factor as well as the external accessibility of the weakness identified. Which of the following is the CISO performing?

    • Documentation of lessons learned
    • Quantitative risk assessment
    • Qualitative assessment of risk
    • Business impact scoring
    • Threat modeling

11. A Chief Information Officer (CIO) publicly announces the implementation of a new financial system. As part of a security assessment that includes a social engineering task, which of the following tasks should be conducted to demonstrate the BEST means to gain information to use for a report on social vulnerability details about the financial system?

    • Call the CIO and ask for an interview, posing as a job seeker interested in an open position
    • Compromise the email server to obtain a list of attendees who responded to the invitation who is on the IT staff
    • Notify the CIO that, through observation at events, malicious actors can identify individuals to befriend
    • Understand the CIO is a social drinker, and find the means to befriend the CIO at establishments the CIO frequents

12. A recent assessment identified that several users’ mobile devices are running outdated versions of endpoint security software that do not meet the company’s security policy. Which of the following should be performed to ensure the users can access the network and meet the company’s security requirements?

    • Vulnerability assessment
    • Risk assessment
    • Patch management
    • Device quarantine
    • Incident management

13. A systems administrator at a medical imaging company discovers protected health information (PHI) on a general-purpose file server. Which of the following steps should the administrator take NEXT?

    • Isolate all of the PHI on its own VLAN and keep it segregated at Layer 2
    • Immediately encrypt all PHI with AES-256
    • Delete all PHI from the network until the legal department is consulted
    • Consult the legal department to determine legal requirements

14. A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is reviewing the results of a gap analysis with an outside cybersecurity consultant. The gap analysis reviewed all procedural and technical controls and found the following:

    – High-impact controls implemented: 6 out of 10
    – Medium-impact controls implemented: 409 out of 472
    – Low-impact controls implemented: 97 out of 1000

    The report includes a cost-benefit analysis for each control gap. The analysis yielded the following information:

    – Average high-impact control implementation cost: $15,000; Probable ALE for each high-impact control gap: $95,000
    – Average medium-impact control implementation cost: $6,250; Probable ALE for each medium-impact control gap: $11,000

    Due to the technical construction and configuration of the corporate enterprise, slightly more than 50% of the medium-impact controls will take two years to fully implement. Which of the following conclusions could the CISO draw from the analysis?

    • Too much emphasis has been placed on eliminating low-risk vulnerabilities in the past
    • The enterprise security team has focused exclusively on mitigating high-level risks
    • Because of the significant ALE for each high-risk vulnerability, efforts should be focused on those controls
    • The cybersecurity team has balanced residual risk for both high and medium controls

15. After investigating virus outbreaks that have cost the company $1000 per incident, the company’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has been researching new antivirus software solutions to use and be fully supported for the next two years. The CISO has narrowed down the potential solutions to four candidates that meet all the company’s performance and capability requirements:

    

    Using the table above, which of the following would be the BEST business-driven choice among the five possible solutions?

    • Product A
    • Product B
    • Product C
    • Product D
    • Product E

16. A financial consulting firm recently recovered from some damaging incidents that were associated with malware installed via rootkit. Post-incident analysis is ongoing, and the incident responders and systems administrators are working to determine a strategy to reduce the risk of recurrence. The firm’s systems are running modern operating systems and feature UEFI and TPMs. Which of the following technical options would provide the MOST preventive value?

    • Update and deploy GPOs
    • Configure and use measured boot
    • Strengthen the password complexity requirements
    • Update the antivirus software and definitions

17. A company monitors the performance of all web servers using WMI. A network administrator informs the security engineer that web servers hosting the company’s client-facing portal are running slowly today. After some investigation, the security engineer notices a large number of attempts at enumerating host information via SNMP from multiple IP addresses. Which of the following would be the BEST technique for the security engineer to employ in an attempt to prevent reconnaissance activity?

    • Install a HIPS on the web servers
    • Disable inbound traffic from offending sources
    • Disable SNMP on the web servers
    • Install anti-DDoS protection in the DMZ

18. One of the objectives of a bank is to instill a security awareness culture. Which of the following are techniques that could help to achieve this? (Choose two.)

    • Blue teaming
    • Phishing simulations
    • Lunch-and-learn
    • Random audits
    • Continuous monitoring
    • Separation of duties

19. The risk subcommittee of a corporate board typically maintains a master register of the most prominent risks to the company. A centralized holistic view of risk is particularly important to the corporate Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) because:

    • IT systems are maintained in silos to minimize interconnected risks and provide clear risk boundaries used to implement compensating controls
    • risks introduced by a system in one business unit can affect other business units in ways in which the individual business units have no awareness
    • corporate general counsel requires a single system boundary to determine overall corporate risk exposure
    • major risks identified by the subcommittee merit the prioritized allocation of scare funding to address cybersecurity concerns

20. An insurance company has two million customers and is researching the top transactions on its customer portal. It identifies that the top transaction is currently password reset. Due to users not remembering their secret questions, a large number of calls are consequently routed to the contact center for manual password resets. The business wants to develop a mobile application to improve customer engagement in the future, continue with a single factor of authentication, minimize management overhead of the solution, remove passwords, and eliminate to the contact center. Which of the following techniques would BEST meet the requirements? (Choose two.)

    • Magic link sent to an email address
    • Customer ID sent via push notification
    • SMS with OTP sent to a mobile number
    • Third-party social login
    • Certificate sent to be installed on a device
    • Hardware tokens sent to customers