CCSM Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A security administrator is troubleshooting a site-to-site VPN between two Check Point Security Gateways. Phase 1 completes successfully, but Phase 2 fails with the error 'Quick Mode failed: no matching proposal'. The administrator has verified that the encryption and hash algorithms match on both peers. Which action should the administrator take next to resolve the Phase 2 failure?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Ensure that the Phase 2 proposal includes a matching Diffie-Hellman group if Perfect Forward Secrecy is enabled.. The correct action is to ensure the Phase 2 Diffie-Hellman group matches when Perfect Forward Secrecy is enabled. Phase 2 Quick Mode negotiates the IPsec SA, and the proposal must include matching encryption, hash, and, if PFS is used, the DH group. Since encryption and hash are confirmed matching, the DH group is the likely mismatch causing 'no matching proposal'.

Answer

Verify that the Diffie-Hellman group is identical in both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 proposals on both gateways.

Answer

Verify that the Phase 1 shared secret is identical on both gateways.

Answer

Check that the Phase 2 encryption and hash algorithms are identical on both gateways, including the SA lifetime.

Question 2

A Check Point gateway is configured for Mobile Access VPN with Office Mode. Remote users authenticate successfully but cannot access internal resources; the logs show 'encryption failure' for packets from the Office Mode IP pool. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The Office Mode IP pool overlaps with the internal network subnet.. Office Mode assigns virtual IPs to remote users. If this pool overlaps with internal subnets, the gateway may route return traffic internally rather than through the VPN tunnel, or encryption may fail due to conflicting routes. A unique, non-overlapping Office Mode pool ensures proper encryption and routing. Authentication success rules out certificate or blade issues.

Answer

The user's endpoint lacks the Check Point Mobile Access client.

Answer

The Mobile Access blade is not enabled on the gateway.

Answer

The gateway's certificate has expired.

Question 3

A security administrator is troubleshooting a site-to-site VPN between two Check Point Security Gateways. Phase 1 completes successfully, but Phase 2 fails with the error 'Quick Mode failed: no matching proposal'. The administrator has verified that the encryption and hash algorithms match on both peers. Which action should the administrator take next to resolve the Phase 2 failure?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

fwaccel stat. The fwaccel stat command is specifically designed to report SecureXL status, including whether acceleration is enabled and the number of accelerated connections. It provides the necessary counters and state information to confirm if SecureXL is active and if a particular connection is being offloaded. Other commands focus on packet drops, general statistics, or packet capture, none of which directly answer the question about SecureXL acceleration.

Answer

fw monitor -e 'accept;'

Answer

cpstat fw

Answer

fw ctl zdebug drop

Question 4

An administrator is reviewing a Threat Prevention log and sees a high volume of 'Low Confidence' detections for a custom-protected HTTP header on a public-facing web server. The administrator wants to reduce noise while still logging these events for later analysis, without blocking legitimate traffic. What should the administrator do?

Accepted Answer

Adjust the protection's confidence level or severity threshold in the Threat Prevention profile to only log higher-confidence matches.. Tuning the confidence or severity threshold for the custom protection allows the administrator to filter out low-confidence matches that generate noise while still logging higher-confidence events. This maintains visibility for later analysis and avoids blocking legitimate traffic, unlike changing the action to Prevent, which would block, or disabling the protection, which would remove logging entirely.

Answer

Disable the protection entirely on the web server's Threat Prevention profile.

Answer

Change the protection's action from Detect to Prevent on the relevant Threat Prevention profile.

Answer

Create an exception for the specific source IP addresses generating the low-confidence alerts.

Question 5

A security administrator is configuring Threat Emulation for a new gateway. The administrator wants to ensure that files are emulated in a way that matches the actual endpoint environment as closely as possible, including the specific operating system version, installed applications, and browser plug-ins. Which Threat Emulation setting should the administrator configure to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Custom emulation image. To emulate files in an environment that matches the actual endpoint, including OS version and installed applications, a custom emulation image is required. This image is created from a reference endpoint and uploaded to the management server, allowing Threat Emulation to run files in a VM that mirrors the production environment, thereby improving detection of evasive malware that targets specific software configurations.

Answer

ThreatCloud reputation

Answer

File type support

Answer

Emulation environment

Question 6

An administrator is configuring Threat Extraction to sanitize documents. The organization requires that all active content be removed from PDF files, but the original file must be retained for auditing. Which Threat Extraction setting should be configured?

Accepted Answer

Enable 'Extract' mode and configure the 'Original file' setting to 'Keep'.. Threat Extraction's Extract mode sanitizes files, and the 'Keep' option for the original file retains it for auditing. This combination removes active content while preserving the original. The other options either fail to retain the original or do not enforce sanitization.

Answer

Enable 'Extract' mode and set the action to 'Detect'.

Answer

Enable 'Extract' mode and set the action to 'Prevent'.

Answer

Enable 'Extract' mode and configure the 'Original file' setting to 'Discard'.

Question 7

A security analyst is investigating a malware outbreak and needs to identify the command and control (C&C) infrastructure used by the malware. The analyst has access to Check Point ThreatCloud and SmartLog. Which two actions should the analyst take to identify the C&C servers? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Query ThreatCloud for the malware's hash to retrieve associated C&C IP addresses.. ThreatCloud provides a repository of malware indicators, including C&C IPs linked to file hashes, and Anti-Bot logs capture outbound C&C traffic. Together, these actions efficiently identify C&C infrastructure. The other options are either less direct or focus on host remediation rather than network indicators.

Answer

Check the Threat Emulation report for the malware sample to see if it lists C&C domains.

Answer

Analyze firewall logs for inbound connections from known malicious IPs.

Answer

Run a full system scan on the infected host using Anti-Virus.

Question 8

A security administrator is configuring a Check Point R81.20 Management Server to use an external User Directory for administrator authentication. The administrator wants to ensure that users can log into SmartConsole using their Active Directory credentials and that group membership determines their permission profile. Which two actions must be performed to achieve this? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure the User Directory object in SmartConsole to point to the Active Directory server.. To enable AD authentication and group-based permissions for SmartConsole, you must configure a User Directory object pointing to the AD server and define administrator groups mapped to AD groups. This allows AD users to log in with their credentials and inherit permissions based on their group membership. Manual account creation and other options are not required.

Answer

Install a Check Point identity awareness blade on the Management Server.

Answer

Enable LDAP over SSL (LDAPS) on the Management Server to encrypt authentication traffic.

Answer

Create an administrator account for each AD user and manually assign permission profiles.

Question 9

An administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on a Security Gateway running R81.10. They suspect that SecureXL is not offloading traffic as expected. Which command should they use to check the current SecureXL status and see if it is enabled?

Accepted Answer

fwaccel stat. The fwaccel stat command is specifically designed to display SecureXL status, including whether it is enabled and its current mode. In a performance troubleshooting scenario, verifying SecureXL operation is crucial because if it is disabled, traffic may not be accelerated, leading to higher CPU usage. The other commands provide different types of information and do not directly answer the question.

Answer

fw ctl pstat

Answer

fw monitor -e 'accept;'

Answer

cpstat fw

Question 10

A security administrator is analyzing a Check Point Threat Emulation report for a suspicious PDF file that was emulated. The report indicates that the file attempted to connect to a remote server and download additional content. The administrator wants to identify the specific Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) from the report to block future attacks. Which TWO pieces of information should the administrator extract from the Threat Emulation report to create effective threat prevention rules? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The URL or IP address of the remote server contacted by the PDF.. The two most valuable IOCs from the Threat Emulation report are the SHA-256 hash of the malicious file and the URL or IP address of the remote server it contacted. These can be directly used to create blocking rules in Check Point Threat Prevention, preventing similar attacks. Other details like file size or author are not reliable for detection.

Answer

The date and time the PDF was created.

Answer

The file size of the PDF.

Answer

The name of the PDF author from the document properties.

Question 11

An administrator needs to grant a new security operator the ability to view and modify security policies in SmartConsole but not to install them on gateways. Which permission profile should be assigned to this operator?

Accepted Answer

Policy Editor. The Policy Editor permission profile is designed for users who need to create and modify policies but should not install them. It provides the exact level of access required without granting installation rights. Other profiles either grant too much (Security Administrator) or too little (Security Operator or Auditor) for the stated task.

Answer

Security Operator

Answer

Auditor

Answer

Security Administrator

Question 12

A Check Point administrator is configuring Threat Extraction on an R81 Security Gateway to sanitize incoming email attachments. The administrator wants to ensure that users can view the original content of a PDF file while also receiving a sanitized version that has active content removed. The administrator enables Threat Extraction and sets it to 'Extract' mode. However, users report that they only receive the sanitized PDF and cannot access the original file. What should the administrator do to allow users to access both the original and the sanitized file?

Accepted Answer

Set the Threat Extraction action to 'Extract and Deliver' mode, which provides both the sanitized file and the original file.. Threat Extraction offers three modes: Detect, Extract, and Extract and Deliver. In Extract mode, the original file is replaced with a sanitized version, so users do not receive the original. To deliver both the original and the sanitized file, the administrator must use Extract and Deliver mode. This mode is specifically designed to provide users with both versions, allowing them to access the original content while still benefiting from the sanitized version for safety.

Answer

Change the Threat Extraction action to 'Detect' mode so that the original file is delivered and the sanitized file is not created.

Answer

Enable 'Threat Extraction' in 'Detect' mode and configure a separate rule to sanitize the file using the Anti-Virus blade.

Answer

Configure Threat Extraction to 'Extract' mode and enable the 'Deliver original file' option in the Threat Extraction settings.

Question 13

An administrator is troubleshooting a Check Point Security Gateway that is dropping packets unexpectedly. The administrator runs 'fw ctl zdebug + drop' and sees the message 'dropped by fw_log: log buffer full'. What is the most appropriate next step to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Check the connectivity and performance between the Security Gateway and the management/log server, and verify that the log server is not overloaded.. A full log buffer typically means the gateway cannot send logs to the management server quickly enough. This can be due to network latency, a busy log server, or a high log generation rate. Checking connectivity and performance between the gateway and the log server, and verifying the log server's load, directly addresses the likely causes and helps restore normal log flow without disrupting services.

Answer

Restart the Check Point services on the gateway using 'cpstop; cpstart' to clear the log buffer and reset the logging subsystem.

Answer

Disable logging for the affected traffic by modifying the Security Policy to remove the track option from the relevant rules.

Answer

Increase the log buffer size by modifying the kernel parameter 'fw_log_buf_size' in $FWDIR/boot/modules/fwkern.conf.

Question 14

A security administrator manages a distributed Check Point environment with a Management Server and three Security Gateways. They need to ensure that the Management Server can resolve the gateways' IP addresses and that the gateways can resolve the Management Server's IP address for policy installation and logging. Which component must be correctly configured on all devices to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

The hosts file on each device with appropriate entries. For Check Point Management Server and Security Gateways to communicate, they must resolve each other's names to IP addresses. The hosts file on each device provides a static, reliable mapping that does not depend on external DNS. This is a common practice in distributed deployments to ensure policy installation and logging function correctly even if DNS is unavailable or misconfigured.

Answer

The Security Management Server's internal certificate authority

Answer

DNS servers on each device

Answer

A properly configured NTP server on each device

Question 15

A remote access VPN user authenticates successfully with a certificate, and IKE Phase 1 completes, but the tunnel drops immediately after Phase 2 starts. The gateway logs show that the user's certificate has been revoked. Which Check Point component should the administrator verify first to confirm the revocation status?

Accepted Answer

The gateway's certificate revocation list (CRL) cache, to confirm whether the user's certificate serial number is listed as revoked.. A log entry stating the certificate is revoked means the gateway made a revocation decision during authentication. Before changing any IPsec parameters, the administrator should verify the gateway's CRL cache contains the user's serial number, ensuring the revocation data is current and the decision is valid.

Answer

The user's local certificate store, to confirm the user has not accidentally deleted the client certificate.

Answer

The gateway's IKE Phase 2 encryption and hashing proposals, to confirm they match the client's proposal list.

Answer

The gateway's Visitor Mode settings, to confirm remote users are permitted to connect over port 443.