Security Operations

An analyst is using AWS GuardDuty and sees a finding that an EC2 instance is communicating with a known command-and-control (C2) IP address. What type of alert is this?

A security analyst is tuning a SIEM rule that generates alerts for any failed login attempt. The rule produces too many alerts, overwhelming the team. Which TWO actions would most effectively reduce false positives while maintaining detection of actual brute-force attacks?

During a network traffic analysis, a security analyst observes repeated connections from an internal host to a known malicious IP on port 4444. The payload appears to be encrypted. Which type of activity is most likely indicated?

A security analyst is configuring a vulnerability scanner for an internal network. Which two settings are most important for reducing false positives during the scan? (Choose two.)

An analyst is creating a detection rule for lateral movement using SMB. Which two network indicators should be included in the rule? (Choose two.)

A security analyst is investigating a potential data exfiltration using DNS. Which TWO indicators are most consistent with DNS tunneling?

A threat hunter is using osquery to look for persistence mechanisms on a set of Windows endpoints. Which THREE registry keys or scheduled tasks should the hunter check for common persistence?

An analyst is configuring correlation rules in a SIEM. Which TWO data sources are essential for detecting lateral movement using pass-the-hash attacks?

An analyst is creating a YARA rule to detect a specific malware family that uses the string 'evil' in its PE file. Which of the following rule structures is correct?

Which of the following is a persistence mechanism that involves modifying the Windows Registry to execute a program when a user logs in?

A security analyst is reviewing network traffic and suspects a host is infected with malware that uses a domain generation algorithm (DGA) for C2 communication. Which two of the following indicators are most consistent with DGA activity?

During a threat hunt, an analyst is looking for signs of lateral movement using pass-the-hash. Which three of the following log sources would be most useful for detecting this technique?

An analyst is investigating a potential data exfiltration incident. The analyst observes repeated HTTPS connections to a cloud storage provider from a server that does not normally use that service. Which three additional artifacts would strengthen the case for exfiltration?

A threat hunter is analyzing network traffic and observes a system making outbound connections to multiple IP addresses on port 53 (DNS) with unusually large payload sizes. The hunter suspects DNS tunneling. Which THREE characteristics are indicative of DNS tunneling?

A security analyst is tuning a SIEM rule that generates alerts for every failed login attempt. The rule is causing alert fatigue. Which TWO actions would reduce false positives while maintaining security visibility?

During a threat hunt, an analyst uses Velociraptor to collect forensic artifacts from endpoints. Which THREE of the following artifacts are most useful for detecting persistence mechanisms?

A SOC team is evaluating cloud-native security monitoring tools. Which TWO of the following are AWS services specifically designed for threat detection and security monitoring?

During a threat hunting exercise, an analyst creates a hypothesis that a threat actor may be using scheduled tasks for persistence. Which Windows registry key or log source should the analyst examine to confirm the hypothesis?

A security analyst is reviewing a CASB alert indicating a user is accessing a cloud storage application from an unusual location. The analyst needs to investigate further. Which TWO actions are most appropriate?

A security analyst is creating a Sigma rule to detect use of the LOLBin 'certutil' for downloading payloads. Which THREE command-line arguments should the rule look for to indicate malicious use?

A security analyst is investigating a potential advanced persistent threat (APT) that uses living off the land binaries (LOLBins). The EDR has flagged several processes. Which THREE process behaviors are most indicative of LOLBin abuse? (Choose THREE.)

A cloud security analyst is investigating an alert from AWS GuardDuty that indicates an EC2 instance is communicating with a known malicious IP address. The instance is part of an auto-scaling group. What is the best immediate action?

A security analyst is using osquery to hunt for persistence mechanisms on a Windows endpoint. Which THREE Windows artifacts should the analyst query to identify common persistence locations? (Select THREE.)

During a cloud security investigation, a security analyst notices unusual API calls from a compromised IAM user in AWS. The analyst wants to determine the scope of the breach and identify affected resources. Which TWO cloud-native services should the analyst use?

A threat hunter is reviewing endpoint telemetry and sees a process 'svchost.exe' spawning 'cmd.exe', which then executes 'reg.exe add' to create a Run key. The hunter suspects persistence. Which TWO artifacts should the hunter examine to confirm persistence?

A SOC analyst is triaging a SIEM alert that indicates a possible DNS tunneling attack. The alert was generated based on a correlation rule that looks for unusually high DNS query volume from a single host. Which TWO additional data sources should the analyst correlate to confirm the attack?

A security analyst is creating a YARA rule to detect a specific malware strain that uses a unique string in its code section and has a characteristic import table. The analyst wants to minimize false positives. Which THREE YARA rule elements should the analyst include?

During a memory forensics investigation, a security analyst identifies a process that appears to have code injected into it. The process is 'explorer.exe' and its memory contains sections that are not part of the original executable. Which TWO memory analysis techniques should the analyst use to confirm code injection?

A threat hunter is using Velociraptor to search for signs of lateral movement across multiple endpoints. The hunter wants to identify instances where a user logged into multiple systems using the same credentials within a short time frame. Which THREE artifacts should the hunter collect from each endpoint?