CEH Timed Practice Test 5 — 10 Questions

Question 1

You are the lead security engineer for a financial technology company that hosts a critical web application on three load-balanced servers behind a reverse proxy. The application uses a REST API to process transactions. Recently, the company has experienced intermittent service outages during peak hours. Upon reviewing logs, you find that the reverse proxy is returning HTTP 503 errors for legitimate API requests, and the application servers show high CPU usage but normal memory. The network team reports no bandwidth issues. The application team claims no code changes were made. You suspect a specific type of attack is causing the outages. Which action should you take first to confirm the attack type?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the incoming request patterns in the reverse proxy logs to identify if there is a high volume of requests to a specific API endpoint.. Option B is correct because the symptoms—HTTP 503 errors, high CPU usage on application servers, normal memory, and no bandwidth issues—strongly suggest a Layer 7 DDoS attack, specifically an HTTP flood targeting a resource-intensive API endpoint. By analyzing reverse proxy logs for a high volume of requests to a specific endpoint, you can confirm the attack type (e.g., a slow loris or GET flood) before taking mitigation steps. This aligns with the CEH methodology of first identifying the attack vector through log analysis.

Answer

Configure the firewall to block all incoming traffic from the IPs that appear most frequently in logs.

Answer

Increase the number of application servers to handle the load.

Answer

Run a SQL injection scanner on the application.

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. An analyst suspects that the downloaded file 'update.exe' may have been tampered with. The vendor's official website lists the SHA256 hash as 4e7c2a8f9b3d1e5f6a0c8b7d2e3f4a5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f. What should the analyst conclude?

Accepted Answer

The file is authentic and has not been tampered with.. Option C is correct because the SHA256 hash provided by the vendor exactly matches the hash of the downloaded file. SHA256 is a cryptographically strong hash function that produces a fixed 256-bit (64-character hexadecimal) output. A matching hash confirms the file's integrity and authenticity, indicating it has not been tampered with.

Answer

The file has been tampered with because the hash is from a different file.

Answer

The SHA256 hash is not reliable; the analyst should use MD5 instead.

Answer

The file is malicious because the hash is too long.

Question 3

During a penetration test, an ethical hacker captures a WPA2 handshake and successfully cracks the PSK. Which additional action must be taken to decrypt previously captured traffic?

Accepted Answer

Compute the Pairwise Master Key Identifier (PMKID) from the PSK and AP MAC.. Option A is correct because after cracking the WPA2 Pre-Shared Key (PSK), the Pairwise Master Key (PMK) is derived from the PSK, SSID, and hashing iterations (PBKDF2). To decrypt previously captured traffic, you need the Pairwise Transient Key (PTK), which is computed from the PMK, the client nonce (SNonce), the AP nonce (ANonce), and both MAC addresses. However, the nonces are exchanged during the 4-way handshake and are present in the captured handshake; the missing piece is the PMKID, which is derived from the PMK, AP MAC, and STA MAC. Computing the PMKID from the cracked PSK and AP MAC allows tools like aircrack-ng to verify the correct PMK and then derive the PTK to decrypt the traffic.

Answer

Capture the nonce values from the access point.

Answer

Use the PSK directly to compute the Michael Integrity Check (MIC).

Answer

Obtain the Group Temporal Key (GTK) from the access point.

Question 4

During a penetration test, a security analyst discovers that an organization's web application uses HTTP for login forms, potentially exposing credentials to interception. Which of the following is the BEST cryptographic control to implement to protect credentials in transit?

Accepted Answer

Enforce HTTPS using TLS 1.2 or higher.. HTTPS with TLS 1.2 or higher encrypts the entire HTTP session, including login credentials, preventing interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. This is the standard cryptographic control for protecting data in transit, as mandated by RFC 2818 and PCI DSS. TLS 1.2+ uses strong cipher suites like ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 to ensure forward secrecy and confidentiality.

Answer

Implement password hashing with bcrypt on the server side.

Answer

Use digital signatures to sign the login request.

Answer

Encrypt the password field using AES-256 before sending via HTTP.

Question 5

You are performing a web application security assessment and discover that the application uses a hidden form field named 'price' to store the product price. The price is submitted with the form and used to process payments. Which attack would allow you to purchase an item for a lower price?

Accepted Answer

Parameter tampering. Parameter tampering is the correct answer because the 'price' field is stored in a hidden form field, which is client-side data that can be modified before submission. By intercepting the HTTP request (e.g., using a proxy like Burp Suite) and changing the 'price' value to a lower amount, the attacker can purchase the item at a reduced cost. This exploits the lack of server-side validation of the price parameter.

Answer

Directory traversal

Answer

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Answer

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Question 6

A cloud security engineer wants to ensure that only authorized users can access an S3 bucket containing sensitive data. Which AWS service should be used to enforce fine-grained access control?

Accepted Answer

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the correct service because it allows the cloud security engineer to define fine-grained permissions using IAM policies that specify which users, groups, or roles can perform specific actions (e.g., s3:GetObject, s3:PutObject) on the S3 bucket. IAM integrates directly with S3 to enforce access control based on the principle of least privilege, ensuring only authorized users can access sensitive data.

Answer

AWS Key Management Service (KMS)

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS CloudFront

Question 7

A security analyst is configuring a web application firewall (WAF) to protect against SQL injection. Which HTTP parameter location should the analyst focus on to block malicious SQL queries?

Accepted Answer

Query string parameters. SQL injection attacks commonly target query string parameters because user input in URLs is often directly concatenated into SQL queries without proper sanitization. A WAF configured to inspect and filter query string parameters can block malicious SQL payloads before they reach the database server, as these parameters are the most frequent vector for such attacks.

Answer

Request body (POST data)

Answer

Cookie headers

Answer

User-Agent header

Question 8

During footprinting, a tester finds that the target's DNS server allows recursive queries from the internet. What is the MOST significant security implication of this finding?

Accepted Answer

The DNS server can be used for denial of service. Option D is correct because a DNS server that allows recursive queries from the internet can be exploited in a DNS amplification attack, a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack. The attacker sends a small query with a spoofed source IP (the victim's IP) to the open recursive resolver, which responds with a much larger response (e.g., using the ANY record type), amplifying traffic up to 50-100 times. This floods the victim's network, making the DNS server an unwitting participant in the attack.

Answer

Unauthorized zone transfers are possible

Answer

The DNS server can be used for denial of service (amplification)

Answer

The DNS cache can be poisoned easily

Question 9

Which THREE of the following are effective countermeasures against DNS poisoning attacks? (Select exactly 3)

Accepted Answer

Restrict recursive queries to trusted sources. Option B is correct because restricting recursive queries to trusted sources prevents attackers from using your DNS server as an open resolver to cache forged responses. By limiting recursion to authorized clients only, the server will not accept and cache DNS data from external, potentially malicious queries, which is a primary vector for DNS cache poisoning.

Answer

Use a single DNS server for all queries

Answer

Disable DNS caching

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. An ethical hacker runs the shown Nmap scan against a target. Which port state indicates that the port is reachable but no service is listening?

Accepted Answer

closed. Option B is correct because a 'closed' port in Nmap indicates that the target host responded with a TCP RST (Reset) packet, meaning the port is reachable and the host is alive, but no application is listening on that port. This state confirms the port is accessible (not filtered by a firewall) yet no service is bound to it.

Answer

open

Answer

filtered

Answer

unfiltered