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 can hide confidential or malicious data in the whitespace of other files (e.g. JPEGs)? 

A. Hashing 

B. Transport encryption 

C. Digital signatures 

D. Steganography 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Steganography is the process of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. Note: The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that the intended secret message does not attract attention to itself as an object of scrutiny. Plainly visible encrypted messages, no matter how unbreakable will arouse interest, and may in themselves be incriminating in countries where encryption is illegal. Thus, whereas cryptography is the practice of protecting the contents of a message alone, steganography is concerned with concealing the fact that a secret message is being sent, as well as concealing the contents of the message. 

Q2. A system administrator is responding to a legal order to turn over all logs from all company servers. The system administrator records the system time of all servers to ensure that: 

A. HDD hashes are accurate. 

B. the NTP server works properly. 

C. chain of custody is preserved. 

D. time offset can be calculated. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

It is quite common for workstation times to be off slightly from actual time, and that can happen with servers as well. 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. 

Q3. A user in the company is in charge of various financial roles but needs to prepare for an upcoming audit. They use the same account to access each financial system. Which of the following security controls will MOST likely be implemented within the company? 

A. Account lockout policy 

B. Account password enforcement 

C. Password complexity enabled 

D. Separation of duties 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Separation of duties means that users are granted only the permissions they need to do their work and no more. More so it means that there is differentiation between users, employees and duties per se which form part of best practices. 

Q4. In regards to secure coding practices, why is input validation important? 

A. It mitigates buffer overflow attacks. 

B. It makes the code more readable. 

C. It provides an application configuration baseline. 

D. It meets gray box testing standards. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Buffer overflow is an exploit at programming error, bugs and flaws. It occurs when an application is fed more input data than it is programmed to handle. This may cause the application to terminate or to write data beyond the end of the allocated space in memory. The termination of the application may cause the system to send the data with temporary access to privileged levels in the system, while overwriting can cause important data to be lost. Proper error and exception handling and input validation will help prevent Buffer overflow exploits. 

Q5. Ann an employee is visiting Joe, an employee in the Human Resources Department. While talking to Joe, Ann notices a spreadsheet open on Joe’s computer that lists the salaries of all employees in her department. Which of the following forms of social engineering would BEST describe this situation? 

A. Impersonation 

B. Dumpster diving 

C. Tailgating 

D. Shoulder surfing 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Ann was able to see the Spreadsheet on Joe’s computer. This direct observation is known as shoulder surfing. 

Shoulder surfing is using direct observation techniques, such as looking over someone's shoulder, to get information. Shoulder surfing is an effective way to get information in crowded places because it's relatively easy to stand next to someone and watch as they fill out a form, enter a PIN number at an ATM machine, or use a calling card at a public pay phone. Shoulder surfing can also be done long distance with the aid of binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices. To prevent shoulder surfing, experts recommend that you shield paperwork or your keypad from view by using your body or cupping your hand. 

Q6. The security officer is preparing a read-only USB stick with a document of important personal phone numbers, vendor contacts, an MD5 program, and other tools to provide to employees. At which of the following points in an incident should the officer instruct employees to use this information? 

A. Business Impact Analysis 

B. First Responder 

C. Damage and Loss Control 

D. Contingency Planning 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Incident response procedures involves: Preparation; Incident identification; Escalation and notification; Mitigation steps; Lessons learned; Reporting; Recover/reconstitution procedures; First responder; Incident isolation (Quarantine; Device removal); Data breach; Damage and loss control. In this scenario the security officer is carrying out an incident response measure that will address and be of benefit to those in the vanguard, i.e. the employees and they are the first responders. 

Q7. An encrypted message is sent using PKI from Sara, a client, to a customer. Sara claims she never sent the message. Which of the following aspects of PKI BEST ensures the identity of the sender? 

A. CRL 

B. Non-repudiation 

C. Trust models 

D. Recovery agents 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Nonrepudiation prevents one party from denying actions they carried out. This means that the identity of the email sender will not be repudiated. 

Q8. Joe, a network administrator, is able to manage the backup software console by using his network login credentials. Which of the following authentication services is he MOST likely using? 

A. SAML 

B. LDAP 

C. iSCSI 

D. Two-factor authentication 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q9. When designing a new network infrastructure, a security administrator requests that the intranet web server be placed in an isolated area of the network for security purposes. Which of the following design elements would be implemented to comply with the security administrator’s request? 

A. DMZ 

B. Cloud services 

C. Virtualization 

D. Sandboxing 

Answer:

Explanation: 

A demilitarized zone (DMZ) is an area of a network that is designed specifically for public users to access. The DMZ is a buffer network between the public untrusted Internet and the private trusted LAN. Often a DMZ is deployed through the use of a multihomed firewall. 

Q10. Visitors entering a building are required to close the back door before the front door of the same entry room is open. Which of the following is being described? 

A. Tailgating 

B. Fencing 

C. Screening 

D. Mantrap 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Mantraps are designed to contain an unauthorized, potentially hostile person/individual physically until authorities arrive. Mantraps are typically manufactured with bulletproof glass, high-strength doors, and locks and to allow the minimal amount of individuals depending on its size. Some mantraps even include scales that will weigh the person. The doors are designed in such a way as to open only when the mantrap is occupied or empty and not in-between. This means that the backdoor must first close before the front door will open; exactly what is required in this scenario. 

Q11. In order to securely communicate using PGP, the sender of an email must do which of the following when sending an email to a recipient for the first time? 

A. Import the recipient’s public key 

B. Import the recipient’s private key 

C. Export the sender’s private key 

D. Export the sender’s public key 

Answer:

Explanation: 

See step 4 below. 

1.

 When a user encrypts plaintext with PGP, PGP first compresses the plaintext. 

2.

 PGP then creates a session key, which is a one-time-only secret key. 

3.

 This session key works with a very secure, fast conventional encryption algorithm to encrypt the plaintext; the result is ciphertext. 

4.

 Once the data is encrypted, the session key is then encrypted to the recipient's public key. This public key-encrypted session key is transmitted along with the ciphertext to the recipient. 

Q12. Which of the following provides dedicated hardware-based cryptographic functions to an operating system and its applications running on laptops and desktops? 

A. TPM 

B. HSM 

C. CPU 

D. FPU 

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. 

Q13. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) receives a suspicious voice mail warning of credit card fraud. No one else received the voice mail. Which of the following BEST describes this attack? 

A. Whaling 

B. Vishing 

C. Spear phishing 

D. Impersonation 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Q14. Which of the following is a BEST practice when dealing with user accounts that will only need to be active for a limited time period? 

A. When creating the account, set the account to not remember password history. 

B. When creating the account, set an expiration date on the account. 

C. When creating the account, set a password expiration date on the account. 

D. When creating the account, set the account to have time of day restrictions. 

Answer:

Explanation: 

Disablement is a secure feature to employ on user accounts for temporary workers, interns, or consultants. It automatically disables a user account or causes the account to expire at a specific time and on a specific day. 

Q15. A quality assurance analyst is reviewing a new software product for security, and has complete access to the code and data structures used by the developers. 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: 

White box testing is the process of testing an application when you have detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the application. White-box testing (also known as clear box testing, glass box testing, transparent box testing, and structural testing) is a method of testing software that tests internal structures or workings of an application, as opposed to its functionality (i.e. black-box testing). In white-box testing an internal perspective of the system, as well as programming skills, are used to design test cases. The tester chooses inputs to exercise paths through the code and determine the appropriate outputs. This is analogous to testing nodes in a circuit, e.g. in-circuit testing (ICT). White-box testing can be applied at the unit, integration and system levels of the software testing process. Although traditional testers tended to think of white-box testing as being done at the unit level, it is used for integration and system testing more frequently today. It can test paths within a unit, paths between units during integration, and between subsystems during a system–level test.