SY0-401 Premium Bundle

SY0-401 Premium Bundle

CompTIA Security+ Certification Certification Exam

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CompTIA SY0-401 Free Practice Questions

Q1. After a company has standardized to a single operating system, not all servers are immune to a well-known OS vulnerability. Which of the following solutions would mitigate this issue? 

A. Host based firewall 

B. Initial baseline configurations 

C. Discretionary access control 

D. Patch management system 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A patch is an update to a system. Sometimes a patch adds new functionality; in other cases, it corrects a bug in the software. Patch Management can thus be used to fix security problems discovered within the OS thus negating a known OS vulnerability. 

Q2. ION NO: 93 Which of the following is an advantage of implementing individual file encryption on a hard drive which already deploys full disk encryption? 

A. Reduces processing overhead required to access the encrypted files 

B. Double encryption causes the individually encrypted files to partially lose their properties 

C. Individually encrypted files will remain encrypted when copied to external media 

D. File level access control only apply to individually encrypted files in a fully encrypted drive 

Answer:

Explanation: 

With full disk encryption a file is encrypted as long as it remains on the disk. This is because the data on the disk is decrypted when the user logs on, thus the data is in a decrypted form when it is copied to another disk. Individually encrypted files on the other hand remain encrypted. 

Q3. A system administrator wants to enable WPA2 CCMP. Which of the following is the only encryption used? 

A. RC4 

B. DES 

C. 3DES 

D. AES 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (CCMP) makes use of 128-bit AES encryption with a 48-bit initialization vector. 

Q4. A network inventory discovery application requires non-privileged access to all hosts on a network for inventory of installed applications. A service account is created by the network inventory discovery application for accessing all hosts. Which of the following is the MOST efficient method for granting the account non-privileged access to the hosts? 

A. Implement Group Policy to add the account to the users group on the hosts 

B. Add the account to the Domain Administrator group 

C. Add the account to the Users group on the hosts 

D. Implement Group Policy to add the account to the Power Users group on the hosts. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Group Policy is an infrastructure that allows you to implement specific configurations for users and computers. Group Policy settings are contained in Group Policy objects (GPOs), which are linked to the following Active Directory directory service containers: sites, domains, or organizational units (OUs). This means that if the GPO is linked to the domain, all Users groups in the domain will include the service account. 

Q5. Public keys are used for which of the following? 

A. Decrypting wireless messages 

B. Decrypting the hash of an electronic signature 

C. Bulk encryption of IP based email traffic 

D. Encrypting web browser traffic 

Answer:

Explanation: 

The sender uses the private key to create a digital signature. The message is, in effect, signed with the private key. The sender then sends the message to the receiver. The receiver uses the public key attached to the message to validate the digital signature. If the values match, the receiver knows the message is authentic. 

Q6. The systems administrator wishes to implement a hardware-based encryption method that could also be used to sign code. They can achieve this by: 

A. Utilizing the already present TPM. 

B. Configuring secure application sandboxes. 

C. Enforcing whole disk encryption. 

D. Moving data and applications into the cloud. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a hardware-based encryption solution that is embedded in the system’s motherboard and is enabled or disable in BIOS. It helps with hash key generation and stores cryptographic keys, passwords, or certificates. 

Q7. Two programmers write a new secure application for the human resources department to store personal identifiable information. The programmers make the application available to themselves using an uncommon port along with an ID and password only they know. This is an example of which of the following? 

A. Root Kit 

B. Spyware 

C. Logic Bomb 

D. Backdoor 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A backdoor in a computer system (or cryptosystem or algorithm) is a method of bypassing normal authentication, securing unauthorized remote access to a computer, obtaining access to plaintext, and so on, while attempting to remain undetected. The backdoor may take the form of an installed program (e.g., Back Orifice) or may subvert the system through a rootkit. A backdoor in a login system might take the form of a hard coded user and password combination which gives access to the system. Although the number of backdoors in systems using proprietary software (software whose source code is not publicly available) is not widely credited, they are nevertheless frequently exposed. Programmers have even succeeded in secretly installing large amounts of benign code as Easter eggs in programs, although such cases may involve official forbearance, if not actual permission. Many computer worms, such as Sobig and Mydoom, install a backdoor on the affected computer (generally a PC on broadband running Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Outlook). Such backdoors appear to be installed so that spammers can send junk e-mail from the infected machines. Others, such as the Sony/BMG rootkit distributed silently on millions of music CDs through late 2005, are intended as DRM measures—and, in that case, as data gathering agents, since both surreptitious programs they installed routinely contacted central servers. 

Q8. A security administrator has concerns regarding employees saving data on company provided mobile devices. Which of the following would BEST address the administrator’s concerns? 

A. Install a mobile application that tracks read and write functions on the device. 

B. Create a company policy prohibiting the use of mobile devices for personal use. 

C. Enable GPS functionality to track the location of the mobile devices. 

D. Configure the devices so that removable media use is disabled. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Mobile devices can be plugged into computers where they appear as an additional disk in the same way as a USB drive. This is known as removable media. This would enable users to copy company data onto the mobile devices. By disabling removable media use, the users will not be able to copy data onto the mobile devices. 

Q9. An internal auditor is concerned with privilege creep that is associated with transfers inside the company. Which mitigation measure would detect and correct this? 

A. User rights reviews 

B. Least privilege and job rotation 

C. Change management 

D. Change Control 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A privilege audit is used to determine that all groups, users, and other accounts have the appropriate privileges assigned according to the policies of an organization. This means that a user rights review will reveal whether user accounts have been assigned according to their ‘new’ job descriptions , or if there are privilege creep culprits after transfers has occurred. 

Q10. All of the following are valid cryptographic hash functions EXCEPT: 

A. RIPEMD. 

B. RC4. 

C. SHA-512. 

D. MD4. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

RC4 is not a hash function. RC4 is popular with wireless and WEP/WPA encryption. 

Q11. An auditor is given access to a conference room to conduct an analysis. When they connect their laptop’s Ethernet cable into the wall jack, they are not able to get a connection to the Internet but have a link light. Which of the following is MOST likely causing this issue? 

A. Ethernet cable is damaged 

B. The host firewall is set to disallow outbound connections 

C. Network Access Control 

D. The switch port is administratively shutdown 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Network Access Control (NAC) means controlling access to an environment through strict adherence to and implementation of security policies. The goals of NAC are to prevent/reduce zero-day attacks, enforce security policy throughout the network, and use identities to perform access control. 

Q12. Which of the following would be used to identify the security posture of a network without actually exploiting any weaknesses? 

A. Penetration test 

B. Code review 

C. Vulnerability scan 

D. Brute Force scan 

Answer:

Explanation: 

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. Vulnerability scanning typically refers to the scanning of systems that are connected to the Internet but can also refer to system audits on internal networks that are not connected to the Internet in order to assess the threat of rogue software or malicious employees in an enterprise. 

Q13. Which of the following hardware based encryption devices is used as a part of multi-factor authentication to access a secured computing system? 

A. Database encryption 

B. USB encryption 

C. Whole disk encryption 

D. TPM 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a hardware-based encryption solution that is embedded in the system’s motherboard and is enabled or disable in BIOS. It helps with hash key generation and stores cryptographic keys, passwords, or certificates. 

Q14. A large multinational corporation with networks in 30 countries wants to establish an understanding of their overall public-facing network attack surface. Which of the following security techniques would be BEST suited for this? 

A. External penetration test 

B. Internal vulnerability scan 

C. External vulnerability scan 

D. Internal penetration test 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q15. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of users being unable to verify a single user’s email signature and that user being unable to decrypt sent messages? 

A. Unmatched key pairs 

B. Corrupt key escrow 

C. Weak public key 

D. Weak private key 

Answer:

Explanation: 

In a PKI the sender encrypts the data using the receiver's public key. The receiver decrypts the data using his own private key. The sender and receiver must have a matching key in order for the receiver to decrypt the data.