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 types of encryption will help in protecting files on a PED? 

A. Mobile device encryption 

B. Transport layer encryption 

C. Encrypted hidden container 

D. Database encryption 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Device encryption encrypts the data on a Personal Electronic Device (PED). This feature ensures that the data on the device cannot be accessed in a useable form should the device be stolen. 

Q2. Joe, the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), is concerned about new malware being introduced into the corporate network. He has tasked the security engineers to implement a technology that is capable of alerting the team when unusual traffic is on the network. Which of the following types of technologies will BEST address this scenario? 

A. Application Firewall 

B. Anomaly Based IDS 

C. Proxy Firewall 

D. Signature IDS 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Anomaly-based detection watches the ongoing activity in the environment and looks for abnormal occurrences. An anomaly-based monitoring or detection method relies on definitions of all valid forms of activity. This database of known valid activity allows the tool to detect any and all anomalies. Anomaly-based detection is commonly used for protocols. Because all the valid and legal forms of a protocol are known and can be defined, any variations from those known valid constructions are seen as anomalies. 

Q3. Which of the following is a security advantage of using NoSQL vs. SQL databases in a three-tier environment? 

A. NoSQL databases are not vulnerable to XSRF attacks from the application server. 

B. NoSQL databases are not vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. 

C. NoSQL databases encrypt sensitive information by default. 

D. NoSQL databases perform faster than SQL databases on the same hardware. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q4. A security administrator wants to perform routine tests on the network during working hours when certain applications are being accessed by the most people. Which of the following would allow the security administrator to test the lack of security controls for those applications with the least impact to the system? 

A. Penetration test 

B. Vulnerability scan 

C. Load testing 

D. Port scanner 

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. 

Q5. After an audit, it was discovered that the security group memberships were not properly adjusted for employees’ accounts when they moved from one role to another. Which of the following has the organization failed to properly implement? (Select TWO). 

A. Mandatory access control enforcement. 

B. User rights and permission reviews. 

C. Technical controls over account management. 

D. Account termination procedures. 

E. Management controls over account management. 

F. Incident management and response plan. 

Answer: B,E 

Explanation: 

Reviewing user rights and permissions can be used to determine that all groups, users, and other accounts have the appropriate privileges assigned according to the policies of the corporation and their job descriptions since they were all moved to different roles. Control over account management would have taken into account the different roles that employees have and adjusted the rights and permissions of these roles accordingly. 

Q6. A company determines a need for additional protection from rogue devices plugging into physical ports around the building. 

Which of the following provides the highest degree of protection from unauthorized wired network access? 

A. Intrusion Prevention Systems 

B. MAC filtering 

C. Flood guards 

D. 802.1x 

Answer:

Explanation: 

IEEE 802.1x is an IEEE Standard for Port-based Network Access Control (PNAC). It is part of the IEEE 802.1 group of networking protocols and provides an authentication mechanism to wireless devices connecting to a LAN or WLAN. 

Q7. Disabling unnecessary services, restricting administrative access, and enabling auditing controls on a server are forms of which of the following? 

A. Application patch management 

B. Cross-site scripting prevention 

C. Creating a security baseline 

D. System hardening 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Hardening is the process of securing a system by reducing its surface of vulnerability. Reducing the surface of vulnerability typically includes removing or disabling unnecessary functions and features, removing or disabling unnecessary user accounts, disabling unnecessary protocols and ports, and disabling unnecessary services. 

Q8. At the outside break area, an employee, Ann, asked another employee to let her into the building because her badge is missing. Which of the following does this describe? 

A. Shoulder surfing 

B. Tailgating 

C. Whaling 

D. Impersonation 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Although Ann is an employee and therefore authorized to enter the building, she does not have her badge and therefore strictly she should not be allowed to enter the building. Just as a driver can tailgate another driver’s car by following too closely, in the security sense, tailgating means to compromise physical security by following somebody through a door meant to keep out intruders. Tailgating is actually a form of social engineering, whereby someone who is not authorized to enter a particular area does so by following closely behind someone who is authorized. 

Q9. NO: 104 

A UNIX administrator would like to use native commands to provide a secure way of connecting to other devices remotely and to securely transfer files. Which of the following protocols could be utilized? (Select TWO). 

A. RDP 

B. SNMP 

C. FTP 

D. SCP 

E. SSH 

Answer: D,E 

Explanation: 

SSH is used to establish a command-line, text-only interface connection with a server, router, 

switch, or similar device over any distance. 

Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) is a secure file-transfer facility based on SSH and Remote Copy 

Protocol (RCP). SCP is commonly used on Linux and Unix platforms. 

Q10. A small business needs to incorporate fault tolerance into their infrastructure to increase data availability. Which of the following options would be the BEST solution at a minimal cost? 

A. Clustering 

B. Mirrored server 

C. RAID 

D. Tape backup 

Answer:

Explanation: 

RAID, or redundant array of independent disks (RAID). RAID allows your existing servers to have more than one hard drive so that if the main hard drive fails, the system keeps functioning. RAID can achieve fault tolerance using software which can be done using the existing hardware and software. 

Q11. Identifying residual risk is MOST important to which of the following concepts? 

A. Risk deterrence 

B. Risk acceptance 

C. Risk mitigation 

D. Risk avoidance 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Risk acceptance is often the choice you must make when the cost of implementing any of the other four choices exceeds the value of the harm that would occur if the risk came to fruition. To truly qualify as acceptance, it cannot be a risk where the administrator or manager is unaware of its existence; it has to be an identified risk for which those involved understand the potential cost or damage and agree to accept it. Residual risk is always present and will remain a risk thus it should be accepted (risk acceptance) 

Q12. Which of the following authentication services should be replaced with a more secure alternative? 

A. RADIUS 

B. TACACS 

C. TACACS+ 

D. XTACACS 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System (TACACS) is less secure than XTACACS, which is a proprietary extension of TACACS, and less secure than TACACS+, which replaced TACACS and XTACACS. 

Q13. Which of the following protocols encapsulates an IP packet with an additional IP header? 

A. SFTP 

B. IPSec 

C. HTTPS 

D. SSL 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Authentication Header (AH) is a member of the IPsec protocol suite. AH operates directly on top of IP, using IP protocol number 51. 

Q14. Which of the following malware types may require user interaction, does not hide itself, and is commonly identified by marketing pop-ups based on browsing habits? 

A. Botnet 

B. Rootkit 

C. Adware 

D. Virus 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Adware is free software that is supported by advertisements. Common adware programs are toolbars, games and utilities. They are free to use, but require you to watch advertisements as long as the programs are open. Adware typically requires an active Internet connection to run. 

Q15. A new virtual server was created for the marketing department. The server was installed on an existing host machine. Users in the marketing department report that they are unable to connect to the server. Technicians verify that the server has an IP address in the same VLAN as the marketing department users. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason the users are unable to connect to the server? 

A. The new virtual server’s MAC address was not added to the ACL on the switch 

B. The new virtual server’s MAC address triggered a port security violation on the switch 

C. The new virtual server’s MAC address triggered an implicit deny in the switch 

D. The new virtual server’s MAC address was not added to the firewall rules on the switch 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Configuring the switch to allow only traffic from computers based upon their physical address is known as MAC filtering. The physical address is known as the MAC address. Every network adapter has a unique MAC address hardcoded into the adapter. You can configure the ports of a switch to allow connections from computers with specific MAC addresses only and block all other MAC addresses. In computer networking, MAC Filtering (or GUI filtering, or layer 2 address filtering) refers to a security access control method whereby the 48-bit address assigned to each network card is used to determine access to the network. MAC addresses are uniquely assigned to each card, so using MAC filtering on a network permits and denies network access to specific devices through the use of blacklists and whitelists. While the restriction of network access through the use of lists is straightforward, an individual person is not identified by a MAC address, rather a device only, so an authorized person will need to have a whitelist entry for each device that he or she would use to access the network.