MS-102 Manage security and threats by using Microsoft Defender XDR — 40 Questions

Question 1

A security administrator needs a single console to investigate and respond to a complex incident involving alerts from endpoints, email, and identities. Which Microsoft portal should they use?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft 365 Defender portal. The Microsoft 365 Defender portal (security.microsoft.com) is the correct choice because it provides a unified incident management console that correlates alerts from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and Microsoft Defender for Identity. This allows the security administrator to investigate and respond to a complex incident spanning endpoints, email, and identities from a single pane of glass, leveraging automated investigation and response (AIR) capabilities.

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Microsoft Sentinel

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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Microsoft 365 compliance center

Question 2

An organization uses Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to monitor shadow IT. They want to enforce policies that block downloads from risky cloud apps. Which Microsoft Defender XDR component provides this capability?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is the correct component because it is specifically designed to provide visibility into shadow IT and enforce policies on cloud applications. Its 'Governance' actions include blocking downloads from risky apps by integrating with the cloud app's API to prevent data exfiltration, which directly addresses the requirement.

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

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Microsoft Defender for Identity

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Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Question 3

An organization wants to prevent users from running executable files from the Windows Temp folder. Which Microsoft Defender for Endpoint capability should be configured?

Accepted Answer

Attack surface reduction rules. Attack surface reduction (ASR) rules are a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint capability that can block executable files from running from specific locations, such as the Windows Temp folder. Rule GUID 9e6c4e1f-7d60-472f-ba1a-a39ef669e4b2 specifically targets this behavior by preventing executables and scripts from launching from temporary folders. This is the correct capability because ASR rules are designed to reduce the attack surface by controlling common malware entry points and persistence mechanisms.

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Network protection

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Exploit protection

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Controlled folder access

Question 4

A security team wants to automatically investigate and respond to security incidents across endpoints, email, and identities without manual intervention. Which Microsoft Defender XDR capability provides this automation?

Accepted Answer

Automated investigation and response (AIR). Automated investigation and response (AIR) is the Microsoft Defender XDR capability that automatically investigates alerts and takes remediation actions across endpoints, email, and identities without manual intervention. It uses playbooks and machine learning to triage incidents, determine scope, and apply actions like isolating devices or deleting malicious emails.

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Advanced hunting

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Threat analytics

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Attack surface reduction rules

Question 5

A security administrator notices that users are receiving phishing emails that evade built-in anti-spam filters. The administrator wants to enable users to report these suspicious emails from Outlook and have them automatically trigger an investigation and block the sender. Which feature should be configured in Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

Accepted Answer

User reported settings in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal. User reported settings in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal allow administrators to configure how user-reported messages are handled. When enabled, users can report suspicious emails directly from Outlook, and these reports can automatically trigger an investigation and block the sender via automated investigation and response (AIR) policies. This directly addresses the requirement to have user-reported emails initiate security actions.

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Attack simulation training

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Threat Explorer

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Safe Links

Question 6

A security operations team uses Microsoft Defender XDR. They want to create a custom detection rule that alerts when a specific process (e.g., wscript.exe) launches from a user's temp directory and then performs a network connection to an external IP. Which advanced hunting query language should they use?

Accepted Answer

Kusto Query Language (KQL). Microsoft Defender XDR uses Kusto Query Language (KQL) for advanced hunting queries, including custom detection rules. KQL allows querying the DeviceProcessEvents and DeviceNetworkEvents tables to correlate process launches with network connections, making it the correct choice for this scenario.

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PowerShell

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Splunk SPL

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SQL

Question 7

A security administrator wants to automatically block malicious IP addresses from sending email to Exchange Online mailboxes. Which Microsoft Defender component should be configured?

Accepted Answer

Exchange Online Protection (EOP). Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is the cloud-based email filtering service that protects Exchange Online mailboxes from spam, malware, and malicious IP addresses. It includes connection filtering, which can automatically block messages from specified IP addresses by using the default connection filter policy or custom IP Allow/Block lists. This makes EOP the correct component for blocking malicious IPs from sending email to Exchange Online.

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

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Microsoft Defender for Identity

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Question 8

A security analyst investigates a potential data exfiltration incident. The analyst identifies that a user's device has made multiple connections to an unknown external IP address using a custom port. Which Microsoft Defender XDR data source would provide the most detailed network communication logs for this investigation?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE) provides the most detailed network communication logs for this investigation because it captures full network events at the device level, including connections to external IP addresses on custom ports. MDE's advanced hunting schema includes the DeviceNetworkEvents table, which records source/destination IPs, ports, protocols, and process-level details, enabling precise analysis of anomalous outbound connections.

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Microsoft Defender for Office 365

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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Microsoft 365 Defender portal alerts

Question 9

A security administrator wants to automatically block a file that is detected as malware on one endpoint from being executed on all other endpoints in the organization. Which Microsoft Defender for Endpoint capability provides this?

Accepted Answer

Automated investigation and remediation. Automated investigation and remediation (AIR) in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is designed to automatically respond to detected threats by containing or blocking malicious files across the organization. When malware is detected on one endpoint, AIR can trigger a remediation action (e.g., blocking the file hash) that is propagated to all other endpoints via the Microsoft Defender security center, preventing execution elsewhere.

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Attack surface reduction rules

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Network protection

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Tamper protection

Question 10

A security operations team wants to receive real-time alerts when a user is at high risk of having their account compromised based on unusual sign-in patterns. Which Microsoft Defender XDR component should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Identity. Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) is the correct component because it is specifically designed to detect and alert on identity-based threats, including unusual sign-in patterns that indicate a high risk of account compromise. MDI uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to monitor on-premises Active Directory and Azure AD sign-in logs for anomalies such as impossible travel, unusual login times, or suspicious credential usage, triggering real-time alerts. This directly matches the requirement for real-time alerts on user risk from unusual sign-in patterns.

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Microsoft Defender for Office 365

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Question 11

A security analyst wants to create a custom detection rule in Microsoft Defender XDR that triggers when a user receives a phishing email and clicks a link to a known malicious domain. Which advanced hunting table should the analyst query to track the clicked URL?

Accepted Answer

EmailUrlInfo. The EmailUrlInfo table in Advanced Hunting for Microsoft Defender XDR contains records of URLs that were present in emails, including the URL domain and whether the link was clicked. By joining EmailEvents with EmailUrlInfo on the NetworkMessageId, the analyst can identify when a user clicked a URL that leads to a known malicious domain, making it the correct table for tracking clicked URLs.

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EmailEvents

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EmailAttachmentInfo

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DeviceEvents

Question 12

A ransomware alert is confirmed in Microsoft Defender XDR on a user device that is still communicating with other endpoints. What should the administrator do first to reduce spread while preserving the ability to investigate?

Accepted Answer

Isolate the affected device from the network. Option A is correct because immediately isolating the affected device from the network stops the ransomware from spreading laterally to other endpoints via SMB, RDP, or other protocols, while preserving the device's state for forensic analysis. Microsoft Defender XDR's device isolation feature blocks all inbound and outbound communication except with the Defender for Endpoint cloud service, allowing investigation to continue without the risk of further infection.

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Collect a forensic package before taking containment action

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Run a full antivirus scan before isolating the device

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Wait for automated investigation to complete before responding

Question 13

A security administrator wants to create a custom detection rule in Microsoft Defender XDR that alerts when a device initiates an outbound TCP connection to a known malicious IP address on a non-standard port (e.g., port 4444). Which advanced hunting table should be queried to find these network connections?

Accepted Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents. DeviceNetworkEvents is the correct table because it specifically captures network connection events, including outbound TCP connections to IP addresses and ports. This table contains fields like RemoteIP, RemotePort, and Protocol, making it ideal for detecting connections to known malicious IPs on non-standard ports such as 4444.

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DeviceProcessEvents

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EmailEvents

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IdentityLogonEvents

Question 14

A security team wants to automatically investigate and remediate alerts generated from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Office 365, and Microsoft Entra ID. Which Microsoft Defender XDR capability should be configured?

Accepted Answer

Automated Investigation and Response. Automated Investigation and Response (AIR) in Microsoft Defender XDR is the correct capability because it automatically triggers playbooks to investigate and remediate alerts across Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Office 365, and Microsoft Entra ID. AIR uses predefined or custom automation rules to correlate signals from these sources, run investigations, and apply remediation actions like isolating devices or blocking accounts without manual intervention.

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Threat Analytics

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Advanced Hunting

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Secure Score

Question 15

A security analyst wants to create a custom detection rule that triggers when a user receives a phishing email that bypassed Exchange Online Protection, and then clicks a link that leads to a known malicious domain. Which two advanced hunting tables should the analyst combine to detect this chain of events?

Accepted Answer

EmailEvents and UrlClickEvents. Option B is correct because the detection requires correlating the email receipt (EmailEvents) with the user's click on a malicious link (UrlClickEvents). EmailEvents captures email delivery details, while UrlClickEvents records user clicks on URLs in email messages, including those that bypassed Exchange Online Protection. Combining these two tables allows the analyst to identify the specific chain: a user received a phishing email and then clicked a link to a known malicious domain.

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EmailEvents and DeviceNetworkEvents

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EmailEvents and IdentityLogonEvents

Question 16

A security analyst needs to create a custom detection rule in Microsoft Defender XDR that triggers when a user's device establishes a network connection to a known malicious IP address on a port commonly used by a specific malware. The rule must also include process information such as the filename of the process that initiated the connection. Which advanced hunting table should be the primary data source for this rule?

Accepted Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents. The DeviceNetworkEvents table in Microsoft Defender XDR captures network connection events, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, and the initiating process's filename and ID. This makes it the ideal primary data source for a custom detection rule that must trigger on a specific malicious IP and port combination while also providing process information.

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DeviceProcessEvents

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DeviceFileEvents

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IdentityLogonEvents

Question 17

A security analyst needs to search for devices that have been communicating with a known malicious command-and-control server over the past 7 days. The analyst wants to identify the process that initiated the connection. Which advanced hunting query would be most efficient?

Accepted Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents | where RemoteIP == 'malicious IP' and Timestamp > ago(7d) | project DeviceName, InitiatingProcessFileName, Timestamp. Option A is correct because DeviceNetworkEvents contains network connection data including the remote IP and the initiating process details. Filtering by RemoteIP and Timestamp directly retrieves the required information without unnecessary joins or subqueries, making it the most efficient query for identifying the process that initiated the connection to a known malicious C2 server.

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DeviceProcessEvents | where ProcessId in (select ProcessId from DeviceNetworkEvents where RemoteIP == 'malicious IP' and Timestamp > ago(7d)) | project DeviceName, ProcessFileName, Timestamp

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DeviceNetworkEvents | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | join DeviceProcessEvents on ProcessId | where RemoteIP == 'malicious IP' | project DeviceName, ProcessFileName, Timestamp

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IdentityLogonEvents | where IPAddress == 'malicious IP' | project DeviceName, Timestamp

Question 18

A security analyst identifies a malicious file hash on one endpoint. They need to ensure that file is blocked from executing on all other endpoints in the organization immediately. Which Microsoft Defender for Endpoint feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Indicators of compromise (IOCs). Indicators of compromise (IOCs) in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint allow security analysts to create custom indicators (e.g., file hashes, IPs, URLs) that are enforced across all endpoints in near real-time. By adding the malicious file hash as an IOC with an 'Alert and Block' action, the file is immediately prevented from executing on any managed device, providing a rapid, organization-wide block without waiting for signature updates.

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Attack surface reduction rules

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Automated investigation and response

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Custom detection rules

Question 19

A security analyst wants to create a custom detection rule in Microsoft Defender XDR that triggers when a user receives a phishing email and later clicks a link to a known malicious domain from their device. The rule will use advanced hunting queries. Which two tables should be joined to detect the click event from the device?

Accepted Answer

EmailEvents and DeviceNetworkEvents. Option C is correct because detecting a user clicking a link to a known malicious domain from their device requires joining the email URL information (EmailUrlInfo) with the device-level network event (DeviceNetworkEvents). EmailUrlInfo contains the URLs from emails, and DeviceNetworkEvents records outbound network connections from devices, including the destination domain. Joining these tables on the URL or domain allows you to correlate the email link with the subsequent device click event.

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EmailEvents and EmailUrlInfo

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EmailAttachmentInfo and DeviceProcessEvents

Question 20

A security analyst needs to identify the specific process (filename) that initiated a network connection from a device to a known malicious IP address over the last 24 hours. Which advanced hunting table in Microsoft Defender XDR provides the necessary data including the initiating process filename and the remote IP address?

Accepted Answer

DeviceNetworkEvents. DeviceNetworkEvents is the correct table because it specifically captures network connection events, including the initiating process filename (InitiatingProcessFileName) and the remote IP address (RemoteIP). This table is designed for hunting network-related activities, such as connections to known malicious IPs, within Microsoft Defender XDR's advanced hunting schema.

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DeviceProcessEvents

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DeviceEvents

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DeviceRegistryEvents