CCSP Cloud Application Security Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A financial services company uses a multi-region cloud deployment for its trading application. The application consists of a web frontend, a REST API, and a relational database. Recently, a penetration test revealed that an attacker could perform a time-based blind SQL injection through the API's search functionality. The injection allows the attacker to enumerate database contents by observing response times. The development team was already aware of the issue but had prioritized other features. The security team now demands immediate remediation. The application is critical and cannot be taken offline. Which of the following is the most effective immediate action to mitigate the risk without modifying the application code?

Accepted Answer

Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with a rule to block SQL injection patterns. A WAF can inspect incoming HTTP requests and block those matching SQL injection patterns (e.g., SQL keywords, special characters) without modifying application code. Since the vulnerability is a time-based blind SQL injection, a WAF with a dedicated SQL injection rule set can immediately stop the attack vector by filtering malicious payloads at the edge, providing a virtual patch while the code fix is developed. This is the only option that directly addresses the injection vector without requiring code changes or downtime.

Answer

Implement rate limiting on the API endpoint

Answer

Enable DDoS protection on the cloud load balancer

Answer

Enable transparent data encryption (TDE) on the database

Question 2

A healthcare SaaS provider is deploying a new application that processes protected health information (PHI). The application uses a microservices architecture running on Kubernetes. Each microservice stores its data in a separate database. The compliance team requires that all data at rest be encrypted and that encryption keys be managed by the customer (CMEK). The cloud provider supports KMS with CMEK. However, the development team wants to use a single customer-managed key for all databases to simplify key management. The security architect is concerned about the blast radius if the key is compromised. Which of the following recommendations best balances security and operational efficiency?

Accepted Answer

Use a separate customer-managed key for each database, with automated key rotation. Option B is correct because it minimizes the blast radius by ensuring that compromise of one key does not expose data in other databases, while automated key rotation reduces the window of vulnerability and operational overhead. This aligns with the principle of least privilege and the compliance requirement for customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK). Using separate keys per database is a standard security best practice for microservices architectures, especially when handling PHI.

Answer

Use the cloud provider's default encryption keys for all databases

Answer

Disable encryption to improve performance and use network segmentation instead

Answer

Use one customer-managed key for all databases, but enable automatic key rotation

Question 3

A cloud security architect is designing a CI/CD pipeline for a serverless application using AWS Lambda. The application processes sensitive user data and requires encryption at rest and in transit. Which of the following is the BEST approach to securely manage database credentials used by the Lambda function?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Secrets Manager to store the credentials and retrieve them at runtime with least-privilege IAM roles.. AWS Secrets Manager is the best choice because it is purpose-built for securely storing, rotating, and retrieving secrets such as database credentials. It integrates natively with AWS Lambda via the Secrets Manager API, allowing the function to fetch credentials at runtime using a least-privilege IAM role. This approach avoids embedding secrets in code or configuration and supports automatic rotation, which is critical for compliance with encryption and access control requirements.

Answer

Store the credentials in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store with a SecureString parameter.

Answer

Store the credentials as encrypted environment variables in the Lambda function configuration.

Answer

Hardcode the credentials in the Lambda function code and encrypt the deployment package.

Question 4

A security team is implementing a web application firewall (WAF) for a cloud-based e-commerce application. The application is built on a microservices architecture and uses a RESTful API. Which of the following is the PRIMARY reason to deploy the WAF at the API gateway level rather than at the individual service level?

Accepted Answer

To provide centralized protection against common web exploits before traffic reaches the microservices.. Deploying the WAF at the API gateway provides a centralized security enforcement point that inspects and filters all incoming HTTP/HTTPS traffic before it is routed to any individual microservice. This ensures that common web exploits—such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and OWASP Top 10 attacks—are blocked at the perimeter, reducing the attack surface and preventing malicious payloads from ever reaching the internal services. It also simplifies policy management and avoids the need to configure and maintain separate WAF instances for each microservice, which would introduce operational complexity and potential gaps in coverage.

Answer

To reduce latency by caching responses at the API gateway.

Answer

To offload authentication from the microservices to the API gateway.

Answer

To monitor API usage and detect anomalies in traffic patterns.

Question 5

A cloud application developer is using a containerized application with Docker. The security team requires that the application runs with the least privilege possible. Which of the following is the BEST practice to ensure the container does not run as root?

Accepted Answer

Include a USER directive in the Dockerfile to specify a non-root user.. The USER directive in a Dockerfile sets the user for any subsequent RUN, CMD, or ENTRYPOINT instructions, ensuring the container process runs as a non-root user by default. This is the most direct and persistent method to enforce least privilege at build time, as it becomes part of the image itself and applies regardless of runtime flags.

Answer

Use the --no-root flag when starting the container.

Answer

Set the securityContext.runAsNonRoot parameter in the container manifest.

Answer

Use the --cap-drop=ALL option when running the container.

Question 6

A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to a cloud-native microservices architecture. The security architect is concerned about securing inter-service communication. Which of the following should be implemented to ensure mutual authentication and encryption between services?

Accepted Answer

Deploy a service mesh with mutual TLS (mTLS) for all inter-service communication.. A service mesh with mutual TLS (mTLS) provides both encryption and mutual authentication for inter-service communication, ensuring that each service verifies the identity of the other before exchanging data. This is the recommended approach for cloud-native microservices because it offloads security concerns from application code and uses X.509 certificates to establish trust, aligning with zero-trust principles.

Answer

Use shared API keys embedded in each service's configuration.

Answer

Implement TLS termination at the load balancer with internal certificates.

Answer

Place all services in the same Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and restrict ingress with security groups.

Question 7

Which THREE of the following are essential components of a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) for cloud applications?

Accepted Answer

Security regression testing to validate that new code does not reintroduce vulnerabilities.. Security regression testing (C) is essential because it ensures that new code changes do not reintroduce previously fixed vulnerabilities, which is critical in the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines typical of cloud applications. This testing validates that security patches remain effective across rapid iterations, directly supporting the 'verify' phase of the SSDLC.

Answer

Manual penetration testing after every code commit.

Answer

Security awareness training for all developers.

Question 8

An AWS S3 bucket policy is configured as shown in the exhibit. The security team wants to ensure that only requests from the corporate IP range (203.0.113.0/24) can read objects in the bucket. However, they notice that a CloudFront distribution configured to serve content from this bucket is returning 403 Forbidden errors. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

CloudFront requests originate from CloudFront IP addresses, not the end user's IP.. D is correct because when CloudFront fetches objects from an S3 origin, it uses its own IP addresses, not the end user's IP address. The bucket policy restricts access to the corporate IP range (203.0.113.0/24), but CloudFront's requests come from AWS's CloudFront edge IP range, which falls outside that range. This causes S3 to deny the request, resulting in a 403 Forbidden error.

Answer

The bucket policy has a syntax error in the Condition block.

Answer

There is an implicit deny that overrides the explicit allow.

Answer

The bucket policy does not allow the s3:GetObject action.

Question 9

You are a cloud security engineer for a financial services company. The company has developed a cloud-native application that processes credit card transactions and stores sensitive financial data. The application is deployed on a Kubernetes cluster in a public cloud provider. The compliance team requires that all data at rest be encrypted using a customer-managed key (CMK) with automatic rotation. The application uses a managed database service (e.g., Amazon RDS) and object storage (e.g., Amazon S3) for storing transaction logs. The current configuration uses cloud-provider-managed keys for both services. The development team is concerned that enabling CMK with automatic rotation might cause application downtime due to key rotation latency. Additionally, the security team wants to ensure that access to the keys is auditable. Which course of action BEST addresses the compliance requirement while minimizing risk?

Accepted Answer

Create a CMK with automatic rotation enabled, grant the database and storage service access via IAM roles, and validate the rotation process in a staging environment before production deployment.. Option A is correct because it directly satisfies the compliance requirement for customer-managed keys (CMK) with automatic rotation, while mitigating the risk of downtime by validating the rotation process in a staging environment. Using IAM roles to grant the database and storage service access to the CMK ensures that key access is auditable via CloudTrail, meeting the security team's audit requirement. This approach allows the development team to test and confirm that key rotation latency does not cause application downtime before production deployment.

Answer

Continue using cloud-provider-managed keys and implement additional logging to meet audit requirements.

Answer

Use a CMK with manual rotation to have full control over the rotation schedule and avoid any potential downtime.

Answer

Implement client-side encryption with a key stored in a secure vault and disable server-side encryption.

Question 10

A company is implementing a secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) for its cloud-native applications. Which practice should be automated to detect vulnerabilities early in the development process?

Accepted Answer

Static application security testing (SAST). Static application security testing (SAST) analyzes source code, bytecode, or binaries without executing the application, making it ideal for early detection of vulnerabilities during the coding phase of the SSDLC. By integrating SAST into the CI/CD pipeline, developers receive immediate feedback on security flaws such as SQL injection or buffer overflows, enabling remediation before the code is built or deployed. This aligns with the 'shift left' principle, catching issues when they are cheapest and easiest to fix.

Answer

Penetration testing in production

Answer

Dynamic application security testing (DAST)

Answer

Manual code review

Question 11

Which TWO of the following are primary objectives of a cloud application security program?

Accepted Answer

Maintaining application availability. Maintaining application availability is a primary objective of a cloud application security program because it directly supports the security triad of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA). In a cloud environment, availability ensures that authorized users can access applications and data when needed, which is critical for business continuity and is often enforced through SLAs, redundancy, and DDoS protection mechanisms. Without availability, security controls become irrelevant as the service is effectively denied.

Answer

Performing continuous deployment

Answer

Implementing a microservices architecture

Answer

Adopting Agile development practices

Question 12

Refer to the exhibit. A security analyst reviews the S3 bucket policy shown. Which security issue should be flagged?

Accepted Answer

The policy allows unauthenticated write access to the bucket. Option C is correct because the S3 bucket policy contains a Principal element set to "*" with an Effect of "Allow" on the s3:PutObject action, which grants unauthenticated write access to the bucket. This means anyone on the internet can upload objects without any authentication, leading to potential data corruption, storage cost abuse, or malware hosting. The policy does not include any condition (e.g., aws:SourceIp or aws:SecureTransport) to restrict the write operation, making it a critical security misconfiguration.

Answer

The policy restricts read access to a specific role, which is too permissive

Answer

The policy does not enable server-side encryption

Answer

The policy contains a syntax error in the JSON

Question 13

Drag and drop the steps for implementing a cloud data encryption strategy using a customer-managed key (CMK) in AWS KMS into the correct order.

Question 14

Drag and drop the steps for conducting a cloud security risk assessment using the NIST CSF framework into the correct order.

Question 15

Match each cloud service model to its primary responsibility area according to the shared responsibility model.