CEH Timed Practice Test 4 — 10 Questions

Question 1

During a penetration test, you are tasked with performing footprinting on a target organization. You have identified the target's IP range 192.168.1.0/24. Which of the following techniques would provide the most comprehensive information about the target's network topology and potential entry points?

Accepted Answer

Use traceroute to map the network path and identify intermediate routers and firewalls.. Traceroute (using ICMP, UDP, or TCP probes with incrementing TTL values) reveals the Layer 3 path from the tester to the target, identifying each hop (router, firewall, or other gateway) along the route. This directly maps the network topology and can expose intermediate security devices, ACLs, and potential choke points, which is the most comprehensive technique for understanding the target's network layout and entry points from the given options.

Answer

Conduct social engineering to gather information from employees about internal network structure.

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Perform a WHOIS lookup to obtain domain registration details including administrative contacts.

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Perform DNS enumeration to find all subdomains and associated IP addresses.

Question 2

During a penetration test, a tester gains access to a Linux system and needs to escalate privileges. The tester finds that the user has sudo privileges to run /usr/bin/less as root without a password. Which technique should the tester use to escalate privileges?

Accepted Answer

Run /usr/bin/less with sudo, then type !/bin/bash to spawn a root shell. Option B is correct because when a user has sudo privileges to run /usr/bin/less as root without a password, the tester can leverage the fact that less can execute shell commands from within its interface. By running 'sudo /usr/bin/less' and then typing '!/bin/bash', the tester spawns a root shell, effectively escalating privileges to root.

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Exploit a kernel vulnerability using a local exploit

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Use the find command with -exec to execute a shell

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Check for world-writable scripts in cron jobs

Question 3

A penetration tester discovers that an Nmap SYN scan against a target host returns no open ports, but a TCP connect scan reveals port 443 open. Which of the following is the most likely reason for this discrepancy?

Accepted Answer

A network firewall is performing stateful inspection and dropping unsolicited SYN packets while allowing established connections.. The discrepancy occurs because a network firewall is performing stateful inspection. It drops unsolicited SYN packets (the first step of a SYN scan) but allows full TCP connections (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK) to complete, as the connect scan establishes a full three-way handshake. This behavior is typical of stateful firewalls that track connection state and only permit packets belonging to established sessions.

Answer

The target host has a host-based firewall that drops SYN packets but allows full connections.

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The target host has ICMP filtering enabled, preventing Nmap from identifying it as online.

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Nmap's SYN scan requires root privileges, and the tester ran it without sudo.

Question 4

What can be inferred from the output?

Accepted Answer

The domain has two mail servers with different priority levels.. The output shows two MX records for the domain, each with a different priority value (e.g., 10 and 20). Lower priority numbers indicate higher preference, so the mail server with priority 10 is tried first, and the one with priority 20 is a backup. This directly indicates the domain has two mail servers with different priority levels, which is exactly what MX records are designed to convey.

Answer

The command failed because the DNS server is unreachable.

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The domain uses SPF records to prevent email spoofing.

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The domain's web server IP address is 192.168.1.1.

Question 5

A security analyst runs a vulnerability scan and finds that a server is vulnerable to CVE-2021-44228 (Log4j). Which of the following is the best immediate remediation step?

Accepted Answer

Update Log4j to version 2.17.1 or later. Option A is correct because CVE-2021-44228 (Log4Shell) is a remote code execution vulnerability in Apache Log4j versions 2.0 through 2.14.1, triggered by JNDI lookups in log messages. Updating to Log4j 2.17.1 or later fully patches the flaw by disabling JNDI lookups by default and fixing the LDAP deserialization vector. This is the vendor-recommended immediate remediation step as it addresses the root cause without relying on workarounds.

Answer

Remove the JndiLookup class from the Log4j jar

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Disable JDBC appender in Log4j configuration

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Block outbound traffic from the server to the internet

Question 6

A network administrator wants to prevent an attacker from using a network sniffer to capture traffic between a client and a web server. Which protocol should be enforced to encrypt all communication?

Accepted Answer

HTTPS. HTTPS (HTTP over TLS, RFC 2818) encrypts all communication between a client and a web server using TLS/SSL, preventing a network sniffer from capturing plaintext data such as cookies, URLs, or form submissions. This ensures confidentiality and integrity of the web traffic, directly countering passive eavesdropping attacks.

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SNMP

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FTP

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HTTP

Question 7

An ethical hacker is testing a web application that uses cookies for session management. The tester notices that the session cookie does not have the HttpOnly or Secure flags set. Which attack is most likely to succeed due to this misconfiguration?

Accepted Answer

Session hijacking via cross-site scripting (XSS). Option C is correct because the absence of the HttpOnly flag allows JavaScript to access the session cookie via `document.cookie`. An attacker can exploit a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability to steal the cookie and perform session hijacking. The missing Secure flag further exposes the cookie to interception over unencrypted HTTP connections, making the attack easier to execute.

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SQL injection

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Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

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Clickjacking

Question 8

Which THREE of the following are common indicators of a buffer overflow vulnerability?

Accepted Answer

Unexpected program crashes or segmentation faults. A is correct because buffer overflow vulnerabilities often cause unexpected program crashes or segmentation faults. When a program writes data beyond the allocated buffer size, it can corrupt the stack or heap, leading to invalid memory access that the operating system detects and terminates with a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV). This is a classic symptom of overwritten return addresses or other critical control data.

Answer

Use of return-oriented programming (ROP)

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High CPU usage

Question 9

Which TWO of the following are valid techniques for password cracking?

Accepted Answer

Brute-force attack. A brute-force attack is a valid password cracking technique that systematically tries every possible combination of characters until the correct password is found. It is computationally intensive but guaranteed to succeed given enough time, making it a fundamental method in password auditing and recovery.

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Phishing

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Man-in-the-middle attack

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Keylogging

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. A penetration tester runs the above Nmap scan. Which of the following statements is most accurate regarding the state of port 3389?

Accepted Answer

A firewall is likely blocking the scan probes to port 3389, preventing Nmap from determining whether the port is open.. The Nmap scan output shows port 3389 in a 'filtered' state, which means Nmap received no response or an ICMP unreachable error from the target. This typically indicates a firewall is blocking the probes, preventing Nmap from determining whether the port is actually open or closed. A filtered state does not confirm the port is open or closed, only that access is being obstructed.

Answer

Port 3389 is open and running a Remote Desktop service, but the service version could not be identified.

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Port 3389 is closed and the target is ignoring the probe.

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The target is likely a honeypot designed to simulate a Windows machine.