SY0-401 Premium Bundle

SY0-401 Premium Bundle

CompTIA Security+ Certification Certification Exam

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CompTIA SY0-401 Free Practice Questions

Q1. A security administrator wants to test the reliability of an application which accepts user provided parameters. The administrator is concerned with data integrity and availability. Which of the following should be implemented to accomplish this task? 

A. Secure coding 

B. Fuzzing 

C. Exception handling 

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. 

Q2. 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. 

Q3. Which of the following should the security administrator implement to limit web traffic based on country of origin? (Select THREE). 

A. Spam filter 

B. Load balancer 

C. Antivirus 

D. Proxies 

E. Firewall 

F. NIDS 

G. URL filtering 

Answer: D,E,G 

Explanation: 

A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources 

from other servers. 

Firewalls manage traffic using a rule or a set of rules. 

A URL is a reference to a resource that specifies the location of the resource. A URL filter is used 

to block access to a site based on all or part of a URL. 

Q4. Matt, a security administrator, wants to configure all the switches and routers in the network in order to securely monitor their status. Which of the following protocols would he need to configure on each device? 

A. SMTP 

B. SNMPv3 

C. IPSec 

D. SNMP 

Answer:

Explanation: Currently, SNMP is predominantly used for monitoring and performance management. SNMPv3 defines a secure version of SNMP and also facilitates remote configuration of the SNMP entities. 

Q5. Which of the following is an authentication and accounting service that uses TCP for connecting to routers and switches? 

A. DIAMETER 

B. RADIUS 

C. TACACS+ 

D. Kerberos 

Answer:

Explanation: 

TACACS+ is an authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) service that makes us of TCP only. 

Q6. Maintenance workers find an active network switch hidden above a dropped-ceiling tile in the CEO’s office with various connected cables from the office. Which of the following describes the type of attack that was occurring? 

A. Spear phishing 

B. Packet sniffing 

C. Impersonation 

D. MAC flooding 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A Protocol Analyzer is a hardware device or more commonly a software program used to capture network data communications sent between devices on a network. Capturing packets sent from a computer system is known as packet sniffing. However, packet sniffing requires a physical connection to the network. The switch hidden in the ceiling is used to provide the physical connection to the network. Well known software protocol analyzers include Message Analyzer (formerly Network Monitor) from Microsoft and Wireshark (formerly Ethereal). 

A sniffer (packet sniffer) is a tool that intercepts data flowing in a network. If computers are connected to a local area network that is not filtered or switched, the traffic can be broadcast to all computers contained in the same segment. This doesn’t generally occur, since computers are generally told to ignore all the comings and goings of traffic from other computers. However, in the case of a sniffer, all traffic is shared when the sniffer software commands the Network Interface Card (NIC) to stop ignoring the traffic. The NIC is put into promiscuous mode, and it reads communications between computers within a particular segment. This allows the sniffer to seize everything that is flowing in the network, which can lead to the unauthorized access of sensitive data. A packet sniffer can take the form of either a hardware or software solution. A sniffer is also known as a packet analyzer. 

Q7. Which of the following network design elements allows for many internal devices to share one public IP address? 

A. DNAT 

B. PAT 

C. DNS 

D. DMZ 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Port Address Translation (PAT), is an extension to network address translation (NAT) that permits multiple devices on a local area network (LAN) to be mapped to a single public IP address. The goal of PAT is to conserve IP addresses. 

Most home networks use PAT. In such a scenario, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns a single IP address to the home network's router. When Computer X logs on the Internet, the router assigns the client a port number, which is appended to the internal IP address. This, in effect, gives Computer X a unique address. If Computer Z logs on the Internet at the same time, the router assigns it the same local IP address with a different port number. Although both computers are sharing the same public IP address and accessing the Internet at the same time, the router knows exactly which computer to send specific packets to because each computer has a unique internal address. 

Q8. A technician has just installed a new firewall onto the network. Users are reporting that they cannot reach any website. Upon further investigation, the technician determines that websites can be reached by entering their IP addresses. Which of the following ports may have been closed to cause this issue? 

A. HTTP 

B. DHCP 

C. DNS 

D. NetBIOS 

Answer:

Explanation: 

DNS links IP addresses and human-friendly fully qualified domain names (FQDNs), which are made up of the Top-level domain (TLD), the registered domain name, and the Subdomain or hostname. 

Therefore, if the DNS ports are blocked websites will not be reachable. 

Q9. A company is looking to reduce the likelihood of employees in the finance department being involved with money laundering. Which of the following controls would BEST mitigate this risk? 

A. Implement privacy policies 

B. Enforce mandatory vacations 

C. Implement a security policy 

D. Enforce time of day restrictions 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A mandatory vacation policy requires all users to take time away from work to refresh. And in the same time it also gives the company a chance to make sure that others can fill in any gaps in skills and satisfy the need to have replication or duplication at all levels in addition to affording the company an opportunity to discover fraud for when others do the same job in the absence of the regular staff member then there is transparency. 

Q10. An administrator has a network subnet dedicated to a group of users. Due to concerns regarding data and network security, the administrator desires to provide network access for this group only. Which of the following would BEST address this desire? 

A. Install a proxy server between the users’ computers and the switch to filter inbound network traffic. 

B. Block commonly used ports and forward them to higher and unused port numbers. 

C. Configure the switch to allow only traffic from computers based upon their physical address. 

D. Install host-based intrusion detection software to monitor incoming DHCP Discover requests. 

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. MAC filtering is commonly used in wireless networks but is considered insecure because a MAC address can be spoofed. However, in a wired network, it is more secure because it would be more difficult for a rogue computer to sniff a MAC address. 

Q11. Ann, an employee, is cleaning out her desk and disposes of paperwork containing confidential customer information in a recycle bin without shredding it first. This is MOST likely to increase the risk of loss from which of the following attacks? 

A. Shoulder surfing 

B. Dumpster diving 

C. Tailgating 

D. Spoofing 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Dumpster diving is looking for treasure in someone else's trash. (A dumpster is a large trash container.) In the world of information technology, dumpster diving is a technique used to retrieve information that could be used to carry out an attack on a computer network. Dumpster diving isn't limited to searching through the trash for obvious treasures like access codes or passwords written down on sticky notes. Seemingly innocent information like a phone list, calendar, or organizational chart can be used to assist an attacker using social engineering techniques to gain access to the network. To prevent dumpster divers from learning anything valuable from your trash, experts recommend that your company establish a disposal policy where all paper, including print-outs, is shredded in a cross-cut shredder before being recycled, all storage media is erased, and all staff is educated about the danger of untracked trash. 

Q12. A small company has recently purchased cell phones for managers to use while working outside if the office. 

The company does not currently have a budget for mobile device management and is primarily concerned with deterring leaks if sensitive information obtained by unauthorized access to unattended phones. Which of the following would provide the solution BEST meets the company’s requirements? 

A. Screen-lock 

B. Disable removable storage 

C. Full device encryption 

D. Remote wiping 

Answer:

Explanation: 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. 

Q13. Which of the following could a security administrator implement to mitigate the risk of tailgating for a large organization? 

A. Train employees on correct data disposal techniques and enforce policies. 

B. Only allow employees to enter or leave through one door at specified times of the day. 

C. Only allow employees to go on break one at a time and post security guards 24/7 at each entrance. 

D. Train employees on risks associated with social engineering attacks and enforce policies. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Tailgating is the term used for someone being so close to you when you enter a building that they are able to come in right behind you without needing to use a key, a card, or any other security device. Many social engineering intruders needing physical access to a site will use this method of gaining entry. Educate users to beware of this and other social engineering ploys and prevent them from happening. 

Q14. After Matt, a user enters his username and password at the login screen of a web enabled portal, the following appears on his screen: 

`Please only use letters and numbers on these fields’ 

Which of the following is this an example of? 

A. Proper error handling 

B. Proper input validation 

C. Improper input validation 

D. Improper error handling 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Input validation is an aspect of secure coding and is 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. 

Q15. An information bank has been established to store contacts, phone numbers and other records. 

An application running on UNIX would like to connect to this index server using port 88. Which of the following authentication services would this use this port by default? 

A. Kerberos 

B. TACACS+ 

C. Radius 

D. LDAP 

Answer:

Explanation: Kerberos makes use of port 88.