- (Exam Topic 3)
A security analyst is investigating what appears to be unauthorized access to a corporate web application. The security analyst reviews the web server logs and finds the following entries:
Which of the following password attacks is taking place?
Correct Answer:
D
Spraying is a password attack that involves trying a few common passwords against a large number of usernames. Spraying is different from brute-force attacks, which try many possible passwords against one username, or dictionary attacks, which try a list of words from a dictionary file against one username. Spraying is often used when the web application has a lockout policy that prevents multiple failed login attempts for the same username. Spraying can be detected by looking for patterns of failed login attempts from the same source IP address with different usernames and the same or similar passwords.
- (Exam Topic 1)
An employee, receives an email stating he won the lottery. The email includes a link that requests a name, mobile phone number, address, and date of birth be provided to confirm employee's identity before sending him the prize. Which of the following BEST describes this type of email?
Correct Answer:
C
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack that uses fraudulent emails or other forms of communication to trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal details. Phishing emails often impersonate legitimate entities, such as banks, online services, or lottery organizations, and entice users to click on malicious links or attachments that lead to fake websites or malware downloads. Phishing emails usually target a large number of users indiscriminately, hoping that some of them will fall for the scam.
References: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/security#examdetails https://www.comptia.org/content/guides/comptia-security-sy0-601-exam-objectives https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-phishing
- (Exam Topic 1)
A Chief Information Officer receives an email stating a database will be encrypted within 24 hours unless a payment of $20,000 is credited to the account mentioned In the email. This BEST describes a scenario related to:
Correct Answer:
C
The scenario of receiving an email stating a database will be encrypted unless a payment is made is an example of spear phishing. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide by Emmett Dulaney, Chapter 2: Threats, Attacks, and Vulnerabilities, Social Engineering
- (Exam Topic 2)
A security analyst reviews web server logs and finds the following string gallerys?file—. ./../../../../. . / . ./etc/passwd
Which of the following attacks was performed against the web server?
Correct Answer:
A
Directory traversal is an attack that exploits a vulnerability in a web application or a file system to access files or directories that are outside the intended scope. The attacker can use special characters, such as …/ or …\ , to navigate through the directory structure and access restricted files or directories.
- (Exam Topic 1)
Which of the following is required in order for an IDS and a WAF to be effective on HTTPS traffic?
Correct Answer:
C
an IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and a WAF (Web Application Firewall) are both used to monitor and protect web applications from common attacks such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection12. However, these attacks can also be hidden in encrypted HTTPS traffic, which uses the TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol to provide cryptography and authentication between two communicating applications34. Therefore, in order for an IDS and a WAF to be effective on HTTPS traffic, they need to be able to decrypt and inspect the data that flows in the TLS tunnel. This is achieved by using a feature called TLS inspectio3n45, which creates two dedicated TLS connections: one with the web server and another with the client. The firewall then uses a customer-provided CA (Certificate Authority) certificate to generate an on-the-fly certificate that replaces the web server certificate and shares it with the client. This way, the firewall can see the content of the HTTPS traffic and apply the IDS and WAF rules accordingly34.
