CSSLP Practice Test 5 — 10 Questions

Question 1

Which THREE of the following are common challenges when implementing a Secure SDLC in a large organization?

Accepted Answer

Lack of security expertise within development teams.. Option B is correct because in large organizations development teams often lack dedicated application-security skills (e.g., secure coding, threat modeling, SAST/DAST interpretation), so security must be embedded via training and champions rather than assumed. Option C is correct because integrating security tooling such as SAST, DAST, SCA, and secret scanning into existing CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) is technically complex, often slows builds, and produces false positives that must be triaged. Option D is correct because a Secure SDLC requires cultural and process change—shifting security left, adding gates, and changing developer workflows—which typically meets organizational resistance. Option A is not a standard challenge of Secure SDLC implementation; the real tension is balancing security with delivery speed, not that development itself is inherently too slow. Option E is incorrect because large organizations rarely suffer from having too much security budget; budget constraints and tool sprawl are the more common issues.

Answer

The speed of software development is too slow.

Answer

Having too much budget for security tools.

Question 2

Your development team is integrating a new third-party library via npm. To prevent dependency confusion attacks where a malicious package is pulled from a public registry instead of your internal private registry, which configuration should be applied?

Accepted Answer

Set the registry URL in the .npmrc file to point specifically to your internal Artifactory or Nexus scope.. Scoped registries in .npmrc ensure that packages within a specific scope are always fetched from the designated private registry, preventing the resolution of malicious public packages with the same name.

Answer

Run 'npm audit fix' before every build process.

Answer

Add the dependency to the 'bundledDependencies' array in package.json.

Answer

Enable 'strict-ssl' in the global npm configuration.

Question 3

Which document is essential to map regulatory compliance requirements to specific software features?

Accepted Answer

Security Requirements Traceability Matrix (SRTM). A Security Requirements Traceability Matrix (SRTM) maps security and regulatory requirements to specific software features, controls, and test cases, providing bidirectional traceability from requirement to implementation and verification. It is the essential document for demonstrating that each regulatory obligation is addressed by a concrete feature or control. This traceability is critical for audits (e.g., PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX) and for change management.

Answer

System Architecture Document

Answer

Incident Response Plan

Answer

Software Development Plan

Question 4

Which TWO of the following are primary benefits of including security requirements early in the SDLC?

Accepted Answer

Reduces the total cost of remediation. Option A is correct because addressing security requirements during early SDLC phases (such as requirements and design) allows flaws to be identified and fixed before code is written or deployed, and defects found later in production or even in testing are dramatically more expensive to remediate — this is the well-established "shift left" cost curve. Option B is correct because incorporating security requirements early ensures that security controls and architecture are designed to support the organization's business objectives, compliance obligations, and risk tolerance rather than being bolted on afterward, keeping security aligned with business requirements. Option C is incorrect because penetration testing remains a necessary validation activity regardless of when security requirements are introduced; early requirements reduce but never eliminate the need for adversarial testing. Option D is incorrect because security requirements typically increase documentation (policies, threat models, control mappings, test evidence) rather than reduce it. Option E is incorrect because security testing cannot be removed — early requirements complement, not replace, verification and validation activities such as SAST, DAST, and penetration testing.

Answer

Eliminates the need for penetration testing

Answer

Reduces the amount of documentation required

Answer

Allows for the removal of all security testing

Question 5

Which of the following describes the purpose of 'misuse case' modeling?

Accepted Answer

To describe scenarios where the system is used to cause harm. Misuse cases identify threats by describing how an actor can misuse the system to create a negative impact.

Answer

To ensure user interface guidelines are followed

Answer

To identify all potential bugs in the code

Answer

To document the project timeline

Question 6

What is the primary goal of the 'Principle of Least Privilege' (PoLP)?

Accepted Answer

To restrict access to the minimum necessary for a task.. PoLP ensures that entities are granted only the minimum level of access required to perform their functions.

Answer

To simplify administrative tasks by giving everyone full access.

Answer

To ensure that security controls are invisible to users.

Answer

To provide all users with the same set of permissions.

Answer

To automatically grant permissions based on time of day.

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are examples of how software can maintain 'Integrity'?

Accepted Answer

Using cryptographic hash functions (e.g., SHA-256) to verify file contents.. Integrity means ensuring data is not altered in an unauthorized or undetected way, and option C supports this directly: cryptographic hash functions such as SHA-256 produce a fixed-length digest of file contents, so recomputing the hash and comparing it to a trusted value detects any modification to the data. Option D also supports integrity because strong access control lists (ACLs) restrict who may write to or modify a resource, preventing unauthorized changes at the source. By contrast, option A (AES encryption at rest) primarily provides confidentiality, option B (server always online) addresses availability, and option E (forcing regular password changes) is an authentication/credential-hygiene control, none of which by themselves guarantee that data remains unaltered.

Answer

Encrypting data at rest using AES.

Answer

Ensuring the server is always online.

Answer

Forcing users to change passwords regularly.

Question 8

When developing a microservice using gRPC, which mechanism is recommended for authenticating service-to-service communication?

Accepted Answer

Mutual TLS (mTLS). Mutual TLS (mTLS) is the recommended mechanism for gRPC service-to-service authentication because gRPC is built on HTTP/2 over TLS, and mTLS provides bidirectional certificate-based authentication of both client and server. Each service presents a certificate, so the caller verifies the callee's identity and vice versa, and the channel is encrypted end-to-end. This aligns with zero-trust principles and is natively supported by gRPC's channel credentials without application-layer token handling.

Answer

HTTP Basic Auth

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IP allow-listing

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Shared API keys in headers

Question 9

A government client requires that all software be validated against FIPS 140-3 standards. During requirements gathering, what is the most important step for the cryptographic module implementation?

Accepted Answer

Ensure all cryptographic modules are FIPS-validated. FIPS 140-3 validates the specific cryptographic modules used; therefore, the requirement must mandate the use of pre-validated modules.

Answer

Implement multi-party authorization

Answer

Develop custom encryption algorithms

Answer

Encrypt all databases at rest

Question 10

Which phase of the secure software lifecycle is the most cost-effective for identifying and correcting security requirements?

Accepted Answer

Requirements phase. The earlier a requirement gap is identified, the cheaper it is to fix (before design or coding begins).

Answer

Maintenance phase

Answer

Deployment phase

Answer

Testing phase