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CompTIA Security+ Certification Certification Exam

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CompTIA SY0-401 Free Practice Questions

Q1. After reviewing the firewall logs of her organization’s wireless APs, Ann discovers an unusually high amount of failed authentication attempts in a particular segment of the building. She remembers that a new business moved into the office space across the street. Which of the following would be the BEST option to begin addressing the issue? 

A. Reduce the power level of the AP on the network segment 

B. Implement MAC filtering on the AP of the affected segment 

C. Perform a site survey to see what has changed on the segment 

D. Change the WPA2 encryption key of the AP in the affected segment 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Some access points include power level controls that allow you to reduce the amount of output provided if the signal is traveling too far. 

Q2. Joe, a technician at the local power plant, notices that several turbines had ramp up in cycles during the week. Further investigation by the system engineering team determined that a timed .exe file had been uploaded to the system control console during a visit by international contractors. Which of the following actions should Joe recommend? 

A. Create a VLAN for the SCADA 

B. Enable PKI for the MainFrame 

C. Implement patch management 

D. Implement stronger WPA2 Wireless 

Answer:

Explanation: 

VLANs are used for traffic management. VLANs can be used to isolate traffic between network segments. This can be accomplished by not defining a route between different VLANs or by specifying a deny filter between certain VLANs (or certain members of a VLAN). Any network segment that doesn’t need to communicate with another in order to accomplish a work task/function shouldn’t be able to do so. 

Q3. Without validating user input, an application becomes vulnerable to all of the following EXCEPT: 

A. Buffer overflow. 

B. Command injection. 

C. Spear phishing. 

D. SQL injection. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Input validation is a defensive technique intended to mitigate against possible user input attacks, such as buffer overflows and fuzzing. Input validation checks every user input submitted to the application before processing that input. The check could be a length, a character type, a language type, or a domain. 

Q4. Sara, an attacker, is recording a person typing in their ID number into a keypad to gain access to the building. Sara then calls the helpdesk and informs them that their PIN no longer works and would like to change it. Which of the following attacks occurred LAST? 

A. Phishing 

B. Shoulder surfing 

C. Impersonation 

D. Tailgating 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Two attacks took place in this question. The first attack was shoulder surfing. This was the act of Sara recording a person typing in their ID number into a keypad to gain access to the building. The second attack was impersonation. Sara called the helpdesk and used the PIN to impersonate the person she recorded. 

Q5. Sara, the Chief Security Officer (CSO), has had four security breaches during the past two years. 

Each breach has cost the company $3,000. A third party vendor has offered to repair the security hole in the system for $25,000. The breached system is scheduled to be replaced in five years. 

Which of the following should Sara do to address the risk? 

A. Accept the risk saving $10,000. 

B. Ignore the risk saving $5,000. 

C. Mitigate the risk saving $10,000. 

D. Transfer the risk saving $5,000. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Risk transference involves sharing some of the risk burden with someone else, such as an insurance company. The cost of the security breach over a period of 5 years would amount to $30,000 and it is better to save $5,000. 

Q6. Which of the following offers the LEAST secure encryption capabilities? 

A. TwoFish 

B. PAP 

C. NTLM 

D. CHAP 

Answer:

Explanation: 

PAP transmits unencrypted ASCII passwords over the network and is therefore considered insecure. It is used as a last resort when the remote server does not support a stronger authentication protocol, like CHAP or EAP. 

Q7. Which of the following application security testing techniques is implemented when an automated system generates random input data? 

A. Fuzzing 

B. XSRF 

C. Hardening 

D. Input validation 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Fuzzing is a software testing technique that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to as inputs to a computer program. The program is then monitored for exceptions such as crashes, or failed validation, or memory leaks. 

Q8. A company that has a mandatory vacation policy has implemented which of the following controls? 

A. Risk control 

B. Privacy control 

C. Technical control 

D. Physical control 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Risk mitigation is done anytime you take steps to reduce risks. Thus mandatory vacation implementation is done as a risk control measure because it is a step that is taken as risk mitigation. 

Q9. Jane, an IT security technician, needs to create a way to secure company mobile devices. Which of the following BEST meets this need? 

A. Implement voice encryption, pop-up blockers, and host-based firewalls. 

B. Implement firewalls, network access control, and strong passwords. 

C. Implement screen locks, device encryption, and remote wipe capabilities. 

D. Implement application patch management, antivirus, and locking cabinets. 

Answer:

Explanation: Screen-lock is a security feature that requires the user to enter a password after a short period of inactivity before they can access the system again. This feature ensures that if your device is left unattended or is lost or stolen, it will be difficult for anyone else to access your data or applications. Device encryption encrypts the data on the device. This feature ensures that the data on the device cannot be accessed in a useable form should the device be stolen. Remote wipe is the process of deleting data on a device in the event that the device is stolen. This is performed over remote connections such as the mobile phone service or the internet connection and helps ensure that sensitive data is not accessed by unauthorized people. 

Q10. After an assessment, auditors recommended that an application hosting company should contract with additional data providers for redundant high speed Internet connections. Which of the following is MOST likely the reason for this recommendation? (Select TWO). 

A. To allow load balancing for cloud support 

B. To allow for business continuity if one provider goes out of business 

C. To eliminate a single point of failure 

D. To allow for a hot site in case of disaster 

E. To improve intranet communication speeds 

Answer: B,C 

Explanation: 

A high-speed internet connection to a second data provider could be used to keep an up-to-date replicate of the main site. In case of problem on the first site, operation can quickly switch to the second site. This eliminates the single point of failure and allows the business to continue uninterrupted on the second site. Note: Recovery Time Objective 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 be considered acceptable. Beyond this time, the break in business continuity is considered to affect the business negatively. The RTO is agreed on during BIA creation. 

Q11. A recent intrusion has resulted in the need to perform incident response procedures. The incident response team has identified audit logs throughout the network and organizational systems which hold details of the security breach. Prior to this incident, a security consultant informed the company that they needed to implement an NTP server on the network. Which of the following is a problem that the incident response team will likely encounter during their assessment? 

A. Chain of custody 

B. Tracking man hours 

C. Record time offset 

D. Capture video traffic 

Answer:

Explanation: 

It is quite common for workstation as well as server times to be off slightly from actual time. Since a forensic investigation is usually dependent on a step-by-step account of what has happened, being able to follow events in the correct time sequence is critical. Because of this, it is imperative to record the time offset on each affected machine during the investigation. One method of assisting with this is to add an entry to a log file and note the time that this was done and the time associated with it on the system. There is no mention that this was done by the incident response team. 

Q12. The security consultant is assigned to test a client’s new software for security, after logs show targeted attacks from the Internet. To determine the weaknesses, the consultant has no access to the application program interfaces, code, or data structures. This is an example of which of the following types of testing? 

A. Black box 

B. Penetration 

C. Gray box 

D. White box 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Black-box testing is a method of software testing that examines the functionality of an application without peering into its internal structures or workings. This method of test can be applied to virtually every level of software testing: unit, integration, system and acceptance. It typically comprises most if not all higher level testing, but can also dominate unit testing as well. Specific knowledge of the application's code/internal structure and programming knowledge in general is not required. The tester is aware of what the software is supposed to do but is not aware of how it does it. For instance, the tester is aware that a particular input returns a certain, invariable output but is not aware of how the software produces the output in the first place. 

Q13. Pete, the system administrator, is reviewing his disaster recovery plans. He wishes to limit the downtime in the event of a disaster, but does not have the budget approval to implement or maintain an offsite location that ensures 99.99% availability. Which of the following would be Pete’s BEST option? 

A. Use hardware already at an offsite location and configure it to be quickly utilized. 

B. Move the servers and data to another part of the company’s main campus from the server room. 

C. Retain data back-ups on the main campus and establish redundant servers in a virtual environment. 

D. Move the data back-ups to the offsite location, but retain the hardware on the main campus for redundancy. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A warm site provides some of the capabilities of a hot site, but it requires the customer to do more work to become operational. Warm sites provide computer systems and compatible media capabilities. If a warm site is used, administrators and other staff will need to install and configure systems to resume operations. For most organizations, a warm site could be a remote office, a leased facility, or another organization with which yours has a reciprocal agreement. Warm sites may be for your exclusive use, but they don’t have to be. A warm site requires more advanced planning, testing, and access to media for system recovery. Warm sites represent a compromise between a hot site, which is very expensive, and a cold site, which isn’t preconfigured. 

Q14. An active directory setting restricts querying to only secure connections. Which of the following ports should be selected to establish a successful connection? 

A. 389 

B. 440 

C. 636 

D. 3286 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q15. An organization is recovering data following a datacenter outage and determines that backup copies of files containing personal information were stored in an unsecure location, because the sensitivity was unknown. Which of the following activities should occur to prevent this in the future? 

A. Business continuity planning 

B. Quantitative assessment 

C. Data classification 

D. Qualitative assessment 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Information classification is done by confidentiality and comprises of three categories, namely: public use, internal use and restricted use. Knowing how to apply these categories and matching it up with the appropriate data handling will address the situation of the data ‘unknown sensitivity’