SY0-401 Premium Bundle

SY0-401 Premium Bundle

CompTIA Security+ Certification Certification Exam

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CompTIA SY0-401 Free Practice Questions

Q1. Which of the following protocols allows for secure transfer of files? (Select TWO). 

A. ICMP 

B. SNMP 

C. SFTP 

D. SCP 

E. TFTP 

Answer: C,D 

Explanation: 

Standard FTP is a protocol often used to move files between one system and another either over the Internet or within private networks. SFTP is a secured alternative to standard FTP. Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) is a secure file-transfer facility based on SSH and Remote Copy Protocol (RCP). 

Q2. A company is concerned that a compromised certificate may result in a man-in-the-middle attack against backend financial servers. In order to minimize the amount of time a compromised certificate would be accepted by other servers, the company decides to add another validation step to SSL/TLS connections. Which of the following technologies provides the FASTEST revocation capability? 

A. Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) 

B. Public Key Cryptography (PKI) 

C. Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL) 

D. Intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q3. A major security risk with co-mingling of hosts with different security requirements is: 

A. Security policy violations. 

B. Zombie attacks. 

C. Password compromises. 

D. Privilege creep. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

The entire network is only as strong as the weakest host. Thus with the co-mingling of hosts with different security requirements would be risking security policy violations. 

Q4. The use of social networking sites introduces the risk of: 

A. Disclosure of proprietary information 

B. Data classification issues 

C. Data availability issues 

D. Broken chain of custody 

Answer:

Explanation: 

People and processes must be in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or proprietary information and sensitive information s these pose a security risk to companies. With social networking your company can be exposed to as many threats as the amount of users that make use of social networking and are not advised on security policy regarding the use of social networking. 

Q5. Joe, an employee, was escorted from the company premises due to suspicion of revealing trade secrets to a competitor. Joe had already been working for two hours before leaving the premises. 

A security technician was asked to prepare a report of files that had changed since last night’s integrity scan. 

Which of the following could the technician use to prepare the report? (Select TWO). 

A. PGP 

B. MD5 

C. ECC 

D. AES 

E. Blowfish 

F. HMAC 

Answer: B,F 

Explanation: 

B: MD5 can be used to locate the data which has changed. 

The Message Digest Algorithm (MD) creates a hash value and uses a one-way hash. The hash 

value is used to help maintain integrity. There are several versions of MD; the most common are 

MD5, MD4, and MD2. 

F: A common method of verifying integrity involves adding a message authentication code (MAC) 

to the message. 

HMAC (Hash-Based Message Authentication Code) uses a hashing algorithm along with a 

symmetric key. 

Q6. Speaking a passphrase into a voice print analyzer is an example of which of the following security concepts? 

A. Two factor authentication 

B. Identification and authorization 

C. Single sign-on 

D. Single factor authentication 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Two-factor authentication is when two different authentication factors are provided for 

authentication purposes. 

Speaking (Voice) – something they are. 

Passphrase – something they know. 

Q7. When creating a public / private key pair, for which of the following ciphers would a user need to specify the key strength? 

A. SHA 

B. AES 

C. DES 

D. RSA 

Answer:

Explanation: 

RSA (an asymmetric algorithm) uses keys of a minimum length of 2048 bits. 

Q8. While configuring a new access layer switch, the administrator, Joe, was advised that he needed to make sure that only devices authorized to access the network would be permitted to login and utilize resources. Which of the following should the administrator implement to ensure this happens? 

A. Log Analysis 

B. VLAN Management 

C. Network separation 

D. 802.1x 

Answer:

Explanation: 

802.1x is a port-based authentication mechanism. It’s based on Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and is commonly used in closed-environment wireless networks. 802.1x was initially used to compensate for the weaknesses of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), but today it’s often used as a component in more complex authentication and connection-management systems, including Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), Diameter, Cisco System’s Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+), and Network Access Control (NAC). 

Q9. The data security manager is notified that a client will be sending encrypted information on optical discs for import into the company database. Once imported, the information is backed up and the discs are no longer needed. Following the import, which of the following is the BEST action for the manager to take? 

A. Wipe the discs and place into inventory for future use 

B. Send the discs back to the client 

C. Contract with a third party to shred the discs 

D. Instruct employees to store the discs in a secure area 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q10. Sara, a security analyst, is trying to prove to management what costs they could incur if their customer database was breached. This database contains 250 records with PII. Studies show that the cost per record for a breach is $300. The likelihood that their database would be breached in the next year is only 5%. Which of the following is the ALE that Sara should report to management for a security breach? 

A. $1,500 

B. $3,750 

C. $15,000 

D. $75,000 

Answer:

Explanation: 

SLE × ARO = ALE, where SLE is equal to asset value (AV) times exposure factor (EF); and ARO 

is the annualized rate of occurrence. 

SLE = 250 x $300; ARO = 5% 

$75000 x 0.05 = $3750 

Q11. Which of the following describes how Sara, an attacker, can send unwanted advertisements to a mobile device? 

A. Man-in-the-middle 

B. Bluejacking 

C. Bluesnarfing 

D. Packet sniffing 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field (i.e., for bluedating or bluechat) to another Bluetooth-enabled device via the OBEX protocol. Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around 10 metres (32.8 ft) on mobile phones, but laptops can reach up to 100 metres (328 ft) with powerful (Class 1) transmitters. Bluejacking is usually harmless, but because bluejacked people generally don't know what has happened, they may think that their phone is malfunctioning. Usually, a bluejacker will only send a text message, but with modern phones it's possible to send images or sounds as well. Bluejacking has been used in guerrilla marketing campaigns to promote advergames. 

Q12. One of the servers on the network stops responding due to lack of available memory. Server administrators did not have a clear definition of what action should have taken place based on the available memory. Which of the following would have BEST kept this incident from occurring? 

A. Set up a protocol analyzer 

B. Set up a performance baseline 

C. Review the systems monitor on a monthly basis 

D. Review the performance monitor on a monthly basis 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A performance baseline provides the input needed to design, implement, and support a secure network. The performance baseline would define the actions that should be performed on a server that is running low on memory. 

Q13. Which of the following BEST represents the goal of a vulnerability assessment? 

A. To test how a system reacts to known threats 

B. To reduce the likelihood of exploitation 

C. To determine the system’s security posture 

D. To analyze risk mitigation strategies 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A vulnerability scan is the process of scanning the network and/or I.T. infrastructure for threats and vulnerabilities. The threats and vulnerabilities are then evaluated in a risk assessment and the necessary actions taken to resolve and vulnerabilities. A vulnerability scan scans for known weaknesses such as missing patches or security updates. 

A vulnerability scan is the automated process of proactively identifying security vulnerabilities of computing systems in a network in order to determine if and where a system can be exploited and/or threatened. While public servers are important for communication and data transfer over the Internet, they open the door to potential security breaches by threat agents, such as malicious hackers. Vulnerability scanning employs software that seeks out security flaws based on a database of known flaws, testing systems for the occurrence of these flaws and generating a report of the findings that an individual or an enterprise can use to tighten the network's security. 

Q14. Which of the following relies on the use of shared secrets to protect communication? 

A. RADIUS 

B. Kerberos 

C. PKI 

D. LDAP 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Obfuscated passwords are transmitted by the RADIUS protocol via a shared secret and the MD5 hashing algorithm. 

Q15. A security administrator is reviewing the company’s continuity plan. The plan specifies an RTO of six hours and RPO of two days. Which of the following is the plan describing? 

A. Systems should be restored within six hours and no later than two days after the incident. 

B. Systems should be restored within two days and should remain operational for at least six hours. 

C. Systems should be restored within six hours with a minimum of two days worth of data. 

D. Systems should be restored within two days with a minimum of six hours worth of data. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum amount of time that a process or service is allowed to be down and the consequences still to be considered acceptable. Beyond this time, the break in business continuity is considered to affect the business negatively. The RTO is agreed on during the business impact analysis (BIA) creation. 

The recovery point objective (RPO) is similar to RTO, but it defines the point at which the system needs to be restored. This could be where the system was two days before it crashed (whip out the old backup tapes) or five minutes before it crashed (requiring complete redundancy). As a general rule, the closer the RPO matches the item of the crash, the more expensive it is to obtain.