CND Practice Test 7 — 10 Questions

Question 1

An organization's security policy states that all Windows 10/11 endpoints must enforce AppLocker rules to block unauthorized executables. An administrator creates an Executable Rule allowing signed applications from a trusted software publisher, but users are still able to run unsigned tools from user-writable directories like C:\Users\Public. What is the most likely reason?

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

Accepted Answer

The Application Identity service (AppIDSvc) is stopped or disabled. AppLocker relies on the Application Identity service (AppIDSvc) to evaluate and enforce rules. If AppIDSvc is stopped or disabled, AppLocker policies are not applied, allowing all executables to run regardless of configured rules. The administrator's rule to allow signed apps would be ignored, and unsigned tools from user-writable directories would execute freely.

Answer

Windows Defender Real-time Protection is enabled

Answer

BitLocker encryption is not enabled on the system drive

Answer

Fast Startup is enabled in the BIOS

Question 2

A security analyst is hardening a Linux-based web server and wants to implement mandatory access control (MAC) to restrict processes to only the resources necessary for their function. Which built-in Linux kernel security module should the analyst configure?

Accepted Answer

Configure Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) or AppArmor in enforcing mode.. SELinux and AppArmor are Linux kernel security modules that implement mandatory access control (MAC), confining processes to only the resources defined by policy regardless of user privileges. Running them in enforcing mode ensures that policy violations are blocked, not just logged, which is the correct way to restrict processes to only necessary resources.

Answer

Modify standard Linux file permission bits (chmod and chown) for all application binaries.

Answer

Enable the Linux audit daemon (auditd) to log all system call activities.

Answer

Install and configure a host-based firewall using iptables or nftables.

Question 3

An incident responder in a Security Operations Center notices recurring failed login attempts followed by a successful root login on an SSH server. The administrator needs to identify the first phase of the incident response lifecycle according to NIST SP 800-61. Which action should be performed first?

Accepted Answer

Analyze the log files to verify if an unauthorized breach has occurred. NIST SP 800-61 defines the incident response lifecycle as Preparation; Detection and Analysis; Containment, Eradication, and Recovery; and Post-Incident Activity. The first phase after preparation is Detection and Analysis, which in this scenario means analyzing log files to verify whether an unauthorized breach has actually occurred. Only after confirming the incident should containment, eradication, or lessons-learned activities begin.

Answer

Contain the compromised host to prevent lateral movement

Answer

Perform post-incident lessons learned activities

Answer

Eradicate the malware from the impacted SSH server

Question 4

An organization is implementing database activity monitoring (DAM) to detect unauthorized data access and SQL injection attempts against their enterprise SQL Server databases. Where should the DAM sensor ideally be placed to capture all database queries accurately without relying solely on database logs?

Accepted Answer

Network tap / SPAN port capturing database protocol traffic or host-based driver interceptors. A DAM sensor captures database activity most accurately by sitting inline or out-of-band on the network path where database protocol traffic flows — typically via a network TAP or SPAN port mirroring the database VLAN — or by using host-based driver interceptors that hook the database client/server libraries. This captures the actual SQL statements on the wire (TDS for SQL Server, TNS for Oracle) independent of what the database chooses to log, which is critical because native audit logs can be tampered with or disabled by a compromised DBA.

Answer

On the perimeter firewall inspecting ICMP echo requests

Answer

At the corporate DNS resolver cache

Answer

As an SMTP email gateway relay filter

Question 5

An attacker performs a TCP SYN flood attack against a perimeter web server protected by a firewall. The security engineer enables SYN cookies on the firewall/router. How does this feature mitigate the attack?

Accepted Answer

The firewall encodes connection parameters into the sequence number (SYN cookie) without allocating memory state until the client responds with an ACK.. SYN cookies mitigate TCP SYN flood attacks by encoding connection parameters (such as source/destination IP and port, and a secret) into the initial sequence number (ISN) of the SYN-ACK. The server does not allocate any state for the half-open connection until it receives the final ACK from the client, which contains the cookie. This prevents the server's connection table from being exhausted by a flood of SYN packets. The firewall/router can implement SYN cookies to protect downstream servers.

Answer

The firewall drops all incoming SYN packets immediately.

Answer

The firewall resets the TCP window size to zero for all external connections.

Answer

The firewall proxies the TCP handshake by establishing a full connection before forwarding traffic to the server.

Question 6

An organization's Security Operations Center (SOC) receives an alert regarding an unusual outbound connection to a known command-and-control (C2) IP address. According to the NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 incident response lifecycle, which phase immediately follows the Containment, Eradication, and Recovery phase?

Accepted Answer

Post-Incident Activity. The NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 2 incident response lifecycle consists of four phases: Preparation; Detection and Analysis; Containment, Eradication, and Recovery; and Post-Incident Activity. The question asks which phase immediately follows Containment, Eradication, and Recovery. According to the standard, Post-Incident Activity is the final phase, where lessons learned are captured and improvements are made to prevent future incidents.

Answer

Preparation

Answer

Detection and Analysis

Answer

Threat Hunting

Question 7

An incident responder is analyzing a memory dump using Volatility 3. To list all active network sockets and connections present in the captured memory image, which Volatility plugin should the analyst execute?

Accepted Answer

windows.netstat. In Volatility 3, the windows.netstat plugin enumerates network artifacts from a Windows memory image by walking the kernel's TCP/UDP endpoint and listener structures (e.g., tcpip.sys pools). It lists active connections, listening ports, and associated PIDs, which is exactly what an incident responder needs to identify command-and-control channels or exfiltration sockets. Volatility 3 uses a plugin naming convention of ., so windows.netstat is the correct choice for Windows network sockets.

Answer

windows.dlllist

Answer

windows.pslist

Answer

windows.registry.printkey

Question 8

A network engineer is configuring an enterprise DMZ and needs to ensure proper network isolation and protection between the internet, the DMZ, and the internal corporate network. Which THREE best practices should be implemented in this architecture? (Choose three)

Accepted Answer

Implement a 'three-legged' firewall configuration or a dual-firewall DMZ architecture to separate zones.. Option A is correct because a three-legged firewall (one firewall with separate interfaces for internet, DMZ, and internal LAN) or a dual-firewall DMZ (two firewalls with the DMZ sandwiched between them) enforces zone separation and prevents a compromised DMZ host from directly reaching the internal network. Option C is correct because strict ACLs on the DMZ perimeter that deny all traffic except explicitly required ports and protocols implement least-privilege filtering, limiting both inbound attack surface and outbound exfiltration or lateral movement. Option E is correct because hardening DMZ servers by disabling non-essential services, accounts, and management daemons (e.g., Telnet, unused RPC endpoints, default accounts) reduces the exploitable attack surface exposed to untrusted networks. Option B is wrong because placing primary Active Directory domain controllers in the DMZ exposes the internal identity infrastructure to internet-facing compromise; authentication for DMZ hosts should use read-only domain controllers or separate identity stores. Option D is wrong because allowing DMZ servers to initiate unrestricted connections into internal database servers violates segmentation and would let an attacker who compromises a DMZ host pivot directly into the corporate network.

Answer

Store primary enterprise Active Directory domain controllers directly inside the DMZ zone for faster authentication.

Answer

Allow DMZ servers to establish unrestricted initiating connections directly into the internal corporate database servers.

Question 9

A security analyst is investigating a suspected lateral movement attempt using Pass-the-Hash. Which Windows Security Event Log ID should the analyst examine to detect authentication via NTLM hash rather than plaintext password?

Accepted Answer

Event ID 4624. Event ID 4624 is logged on successful logon and includes a Logon Type field (Type 3 for network, Type 9 for NewCredentials) plus an Authentication Package field that shows NTLM when a hash is used instead of a plaintext password. Analysts filter 4624 events for NTLM authentication to detect Pass-the-Hash activity.

Answer

Event ID 1102

Answer

Event ID 4698

Answer

Event ID 4720

Question 10

A security engineer is configuring a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) to perform deep packet inspection (DPI) on encrypted TLS traffic. Due to privacy regulations, specific internal banking applications must be excluded from SSL decryption. How should the engineer configure the firewall to bypass decryption for these specific destinations without disabling overall inspection?

Accepted Answer

Configure a Decryption Exclusion / Bypass rule for specific trusted destination URL categories or domains. Configuring a Decryption Exclusion or Bypass rule for specific trusted destination URL categories or domains allows the NGFW to skip SSL decryption for those destinations while continuing to decrypt and inspect all other TLS traffic. This satisfies privacy regulations without disabling overall inspection.

Answer

Create an outbound NAT rule mapping banking IP addresses to a loopback interface.

Answer

Configure a static route directing banking traffic through an uninspected bypass interface.

Answer

Disable all Layer 7 application inspection signatures globally for TCP port 443.