CSSLP Practice Test 14 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A software development team is designing a new mobile application that will store sensitive personal data on the device. The security architect must ensure that the data remains confidential even if the device is lost or stolen, and that the data is protected against unauthorized access by other applications on the same device. Which design approach best meets these requirements?

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

Accepted Answer

Encrypt the data using a key stored in the device's secure hardware (e.g., Secure Enclave or Trusted Execution Environment) and store the encrypted data in the application's private storage directory.. Hardware-backed key storage combined with app-private storage provides the strongest protection for sensitive data on a mobile device. The secure hardware protects the key from extraction, and the private directory prevents other apps from accessing the encrypted data. This design ensures confidentiality even if the device is lost or stolen and maintains isolation from other applications.

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Encrypt the data using a key stored in the application's shared preferences and store the encrypted data on external storage.

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Obfuscate the data using a proprietary algorithm and store it in the application's private storage directory.

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Encrypt the data using a key derived from the user's password and store the encrypted data in the application's private storage directory.

Question 2

A security architect is designing a new web application that will handle sensitive customer data. The architect wants to incorporate the principle of 'defense in depth' into the architecture. Which TWO of the following design decisions best exemplify defense in depth? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Implement input validation at both the presentation layer and the business logic layer.. Defense in depth means layering multiple independent security controls so that if one fails, others still protect the asset. Validating input at multiple layers and combining network restrictions with data encryption are both examples of redundant, complementary controls. They reduce the risk of a single control failure leading to a breach.

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Use a single, strong authentication mechanism such as multi-factor authentication for all users.

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Rely on a Web Application Firewall (WAF) as the primary control to block all attacks against the application.

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Store all application logs on the same server as the application to simplify troubleshooting.

Question 3

A software architect is designing a system that uses a third-party library to parse complex file formats. The library has had several critical vulnerabilities in the past. The architect wants to reduce the risk of a zero-day vulnerability in the library compromising the entire application. Which design approach best mitigates this risk?

Accepted Answer

Run the file parsing library in a separate process with minimal privileges and communicate with the main application via a restricted interface.. Running a risky component in an isolated process with minimal privileges is a sandboxing technique that contains the damage from a zero-day. Even if the library is exploited, the attacker is confined to that process and cannot easily access the rest of the application or system. This is a proactive architectural mitigation.

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Wrap the library in a custom abstraction layer that validates all inputs and outputs to ensure they conform to expected formats.

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Require the library to be updated to the latest version as soon as patches are available and monitor vulnerability feeds.

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Perform static code analysis on the library's source code before each release to identify potential vulnerabilities.

Question 4

A software architect is designing a system that processes credit card payments. The design must comply with PCI DSS requirements for protecting cardholder data. The architect decides to use a tokenization service to replace sensitive card data with non-sensitive tokens. Which design consideration is most critical to ensure the tokenization solution effectively reduces the scope of PCI DSS compliance?

Accepted Answer

Ensure that the tokenization service is hosted in a separate network segment and that the application never stores or processes the original card data after tokenization.. Tokenization reduces PCI DSS scope by replacing sensitive card data with non-sensitive tokens, but this only works if the original data is not accessible to the application. Isolating the tokenization service and ensuring the application never handles raw card data keeps the application out of the cardholder data environment. This design minimizes the systems that must comply with PCI DSS, which is the primary benefit of tokenization.

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Use a token format that is mathematically derived from the original card number so that the token can be reversed if needed for business operations.

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Implement tokenization at the application layer so that the application can validate card numbers before sending them to the tokenization service.

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Store the tokenization mapping table in the same database as the application data to simplify lookups and reduce latency.

Question 5

A financial services firm is designing a new mobile banking application. The security architect wants to ensure that if an attacker gains physical access to a user's device, they cannot easily extract sensitive session tokens stored by the app. Which secure design principle should be applied to protect these tokens at rest?

Accepted Answer

Store session tokens in the device's secure hardware-backed keystore, such as the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore, and require user authentication to access them.. Hardware-backed keystores provide a secure, isolated environment for cryptographic keys and sensitive data, making extraction extremely difficult even with physical device access. By storing session tokens there and requiring user authentication, the design leverages platform security features to protect data at rest. This is the most robust approach for mobile banking applications handling sensitive financial data.

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Store session tokens in the application's private data directory with file permissions restricted to the app's user ID, and encrypt them using a key derived from a user-supplied PIN.

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Store session tokens in a remote server and only keep a reference identifier in the app, fetching the token over a secure channel when needed.

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Obfuscate the session token by splitting it into multiple parts and storing them in different locations within the app's sandbox, reassembling only in memory when needed.

Question 6

A company is designing a microservices-based e-commerce platform. The security team wants to ensure that if one microservice is compromised, the attacker cannot easily move laterally to other services. The design must enforce least privilege and provide strong authentication and authorization between services. Which design pattern best achieves these goals?

Accepted Answer

Implement a service mesh with mutual TLS (mTLS) for service-to-service authentication and authorization policies enforced at the sidecar proxy.. A service mesh with mutual TLS and sidecar-enforced authorization provides strong identity and least privilege for service-to-service communication. Each service has a cryptographic identity, and policies are enforced consistently at the proxy. This design prevents lateral movement because a compromised service cannot authenticate as another without valid certificates, and all traffic is subject to fine-grained authorization policies.

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Implement network segmentation with firewalls between microservices, and use static API keys for authentication.

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Use a shared database with row-level security, and enforce access control at the application layer for each microservice.

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Use a centralized API gateway for all service-to-service communication, with OAuth 2.0 tokens for authentication and authorization.

Question 7

During a threat model, you identify a risk related to 'Broken Access Control'. Which design mitigation is best suited for this?

Accepted Answer

Enforcing centralized, server-side authorization checks for every request.. Policy-based access control (RBAC or ABAC) ensures users only access resources they are authorized to.

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Using HTTPS for all communications.

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Implementing a strong password policy.

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Relying on client-side hidden fields to identify user roles.

Question 8

To ensure secure deployment of software artifacts, you must verify the integrity of the binaries. Which mechanism is most effective for ensuring that artifacts have not been tampered with since they were signed by the build system?

Accepted Answer

Verify the digital signature using a trusted public key from your organization's key store.. Cryptographic signing (such as GPG or Cosign for containers) creates a verifiable link between the source code and the binary.

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Check the file timestamp using the operating system's file system metadata.

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Upload the artifact to a public VirusTotal scan before deploying.

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Compare the file size of the artifact with the size listed in the manifest file.

Question 9

When evaluating software security governance, which TWO of the following are necessary to ensure security alignment with business goals?

Accepted Answer

Integrating security risk management with enterprise risk management.. Option B is correct because integrating security risk management with enterprise risk management (ERM) ensures that security risks are evaluated, prioritized, and reported using the same governance framework and risk appetite as other business risks, directly aligning security decisions with organizational objectives. Option C is correct because securing executive sponsorship and support provides the authority, funding, and strategic direction needed to embed security into business processes and hold the organization accountable to governance goals. Options A, D, and E do not belong: limiting access to all security documentation impedes transparency and informed decision-making, focusing exclusively on technical tool implementation ignores strategic and process-level governance, and increasing the number of security alerts for developers creates noise rather than alignment with business goals.

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Limiting access to all security documentation.

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Focusing exclusively on technical tool implementation.

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Increasing the number of security alerts for developers.

Question 10

When managing third-party libraries, why is a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) essential?

Accepted Answer

To provide a complete inventory of software components. An SBOM provides a machine-readable, complete inventory of all software components and their dependencies, which is essential for identifying and responding to vulnerabilities in third-party libraries. Without this inventory, an organization cannot know whether it is affected by a newly disclosed CVE in a transitive dependency. This transparency is the foundation of software supply chain risk management.

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To encrypt source code

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To speed up build times

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To replace the need for unit testing

Question 11

When designing a system that must satisfy both HIPAA and local privacy laws, which requirement approach is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Adopt the most restrictive controls from all applicable regulations. When multiple regulations apply simultaneously, the correct engineering approach is to adopt the most restrictive controls from each applicable regulation, because a control that satisfies the strictest requirement generally satisfies the looser ones as well. This avoids building parallel compliance silos and produces a single unified control set that is defensible to every auditor. HIPAA sets a floor, not a ceiling, and local privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, state statutes) may impose stricter breach notification, consent, or data-residency rules that must also be met.

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Prioritize HIPAA over local laws

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Follow only the most recent regulation

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Create separate modules for each regulation

Question 12

A company is designing a microservices-based e-commerce platform. The security team wants to ensure that if one microservice is compromised, the attacker cannot easily move laterally to other services. Which design pattern best addresses this concern?

Accepted Answer

Service mesh with mutual TLS (mTLS) and fine-grained access policies.. A service mesh with mTLS and fine-grained access policies provides strong identity-based authentication and authorization for service-to-service communication. By enforcing least privilege and encrypting traffic, it prevents a compromised microservice from accessing other services without proper credentials. This segmentation is key to containing breaches and limiting lateral movement, unlike centralized gateways or shared databases that do not enforce internal segmentation.

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Shared database with a single set of credentials for all microservices.

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Client-side load balancing with direct service-to-service calls.

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API gateway with centralized authentication and authorization.

Question 13

A software architect is designing a new web application that will handle credit card transactions. The design must ensure that the application does not store sensitive authentication data after authorization, and that any display of cardholder data is masked. Which two design principles should be applied to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Implement data masking to display only the last four digits of the primary account number (PAN) and mask all other sensitive data in the user interface and logs.. Data minimization and data masking are the two design principles that directly address the requirements. Data minimization ensures sensitive authentication data is not stored after authorization and only necessary cardholder data is retained. Data masking ensures that displayed cardholder data is masked, such as showing only the last four digits of the PAN, preventing exposure in the UI and logs.

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Implement tokenization to replace the primary account number (PAN) with a surrogate value, and store the tokenization vault in the same database as the application.

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Implement encryption of all cardholder data at rest using strong cryptography, and store the encryption keys in the same database for easy access.

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Implement audit logging of all access to cardholder data, and store the logs in a centralized logging system with strict access controls.

Question 14

Which TWO of the following are crucial when performing a manual code review for security?

Accepted Answer

Identifying data flow sources and sinks. Option A is correct because identifying data flow sources and sinks is essential in manual security code review: you trace where untrusted input enters (sources such as HTTP parameters, headers, or file uploads) and where it reaches sensitive operations (sinks such as SQL queries, OS commands, or HTML output), which is how you spot injection, XSS, and similar flaws. Option D is correct because verifying that authorization checks are enforced ensures each sensitive function or resource access validates the caller's permissions server-side, preventing broken access control (e.g., IDOR or privilege escalation) that automated tools often miss. Option B is not appropriate because UI design elements are cosmetic and unrelated to security vulnerabilities. Option C is not appropriate because rewriting the entire application is a remediation/development activity, not part of reviewing code for security. Option E is not appropriate because code indentation consistency is a style concern with no direct security impact.

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Focusing only on UI design elements

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Rewriting the entire application

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Checking code indentation consistency

Question 15

You are leading a threat modeling session for a new cloud-native application. You identify a potential threat where an attacker attempts to inject malicious SQL queries into the search bar. Which technique should you employ to document this behavior during the Secure Software Requirements phase?

Accepted Answer

Misuse Case Modeling. Misuse case modeling documents how a system can be misused by an actor (the misuser) to achieve a malicious goal, which is exactly what is needed to capture an attacker injecting SQL into a search bar during the Secure Software Requirements phase. It complements use cases by describing negative behavior and is used to derive security requirements and test cases. Attack trees are better suited to decomposing a high-level attack goal into sub-goals during threat modeling, not for documenting a specific misuse scenario in requirements.

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Attack Tree Analysis

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Data Flow Diagramming

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Compliance Matrix Mapping