PEN-200 Practice Test 3 — 10 Questions

Question 1

During an assessment, you identify a Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability that allows you to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of a victim user's browser session. What is the primary objective of leveraging this capability against an authenticated user?

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

Accepted Answer

Hijacking the user session by accessing session tokens or performing actions on their behalf within the application. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim browser session, giving them access to document.cookie, local storage, and the ability to perform actions on behalf of the user. This effectively hijacks their session without needing to crack their underlying password.

Answer

Extracting plaintext password hashes directly from the remote web server operating system memory

Answer

Modifying the enterprise DNS records hosted on the primary domain controller via client-side DOM manipulation

Answer

Bypassing enterprise firewall packet inspection rules by encapsulating shellcode inside HTTPS headers

Question 2

During an external penetration test, you discover a web application that uses a JSON Web Token (JWT) for authentication. The token header is {"alg":"HS256","typ":"JWT"}, and you have captured a valid token. You want to escalate privileges by modifying the "role" claim from "user" to "admin". Which action would most likely allow you to forge a valid token?

Accepted Answer

Brute-force the HMAC secret used to sign the token, then re-sign the modified token.. The JWT is signed with HS256, meaning a symmetric secret is used. If that secret is weak, an attacker can crack it offline and then sign arbitrary tokens. Changing the algorithm to "none" might work only if the server is misconfigured, but brute-forcing the secret is a direct and reliable method when the secret is guessable. The other options either rely on server misconfigurations or incorrect cryptographic assumptions.

Answer

Change the "alg" value to "none" and remove the signature, then send the token.

Answer

Modify the "role" claim and recompute the signature using the original token's signature as the key.

Answer

Change the "alg" value to "RS256" and sign the token with the public key.

Question 3

Which of the following describes the 'Open Redirect' vulnerability often used in phishing attacks?

Accepted Answer

The application uses user-supplied parameters to control the destination of a redirect.. Open Redirect occurs when an application accepts user-supplied input to determine a destination URL without validating it against a whitelist. Attackers exploit this to redirect users to a malicious site. Because the URL starts with the trusted domain, victims are less likely to suspect a phishing attempt, making it a highly effective social engineering technique to steal credentials or deliver malware.

Answer

The application reflects user input into the HTML body, allowing for XSS.

Answer

The application fails to set the Secure flag on cookies during redirection.

Answer

The application allows arbitrary file uploads to the server's redirect directory.

Question 4

A penetration tester is investigating scheduled tasks for potential privilege escalation. Which TWO conditions must be met for a scheduled task to be successfully exploited for gaining SYSTEM privileges?

Accepted Answer

The task is configured to run under the context of the SYSTEM account or a member of the Administrators group.. Scheduled tasks are a common persistence and escalation vector. For escalation, the task must execute with higher privileges than the current user, typically as SYSTEM or an Administrator. Additionally, the attacker must have the ability to influence what the task executes, either by modifying the executable file, a script it calls, or the task configuration itself to point to a malicious file.

Answer

The task must have a trigger set to 'At log on' for any user on the system.

Answer

The 'Hidden' attribute must be enabled in the task settings to bypass Windows Defender detection.

Answer

The task must be part of the default Windows installation rather than a third-party application.

Question 5

During an internal penetration test, you compromise a Linux machine that acts as a pivot host, but the target internal web server only permits HTTP traffic from localhost. Which local port forwarding syntax allows you to securely access this web application via your attacking machine?

Accepted Answer

ssh -L 8080:10.0.4.5:80 user@pivot-host. Local port forwarding binds a port on your attacking machine and forwards any connections through the compromised pivot host to the destination service. This technique bypasses strict perimeter controls by tunneling traffic securely across an existing SSH session, enabling interaction with internal services restricted strictly to localhost interfaces.

Answer

ssh -R 8080:10.0.4.5:80 user@pivot-host

Answer

ssh -D 1080 user@pivot-host

Answer

ssh -w 0:0 user@pivot-host

Question 6

Refer to the exhibit. You are running a public exploit, but it fails with a 'Connection refused' error. What should you investigate first?

Accepted Answer

The service availability and network path to the target.. A 'Connection refused' error usually indicates that the target port is not open, the service is not running, or a firewall is blocking the connection. Investigating the network connectivity and service status using tools like Nmap or netcat is essential. This allows you to confirm the service is actually reachable and running on the expected port before assuming the exploit itself is flawed or the payload is failing.

Answer

The exploit's payload encoding settings.

Answer

The exploit's memory address offsets.

Answer

The target's operating system version.

Question 7

You are assessing a Windows host and discover the Print Spooler service is running. You locate a public PoC for CVE-2021-1675 that requires an attacker-controlled SMB share hosting a malicious DLL. You want to execute the exploit from your Kali machine against the target. Which action must you take FIRST before running the PoC?

Accepted Answer

Configure a Samba share on your Kali machine with anonymous read access that hosts the malicious DLL.. The PrintNightmare PoC abuses the Spooler's driver installation to load a DLL from a UNC path. The attacker must therefore host that DLL on an SMB share reachable by the target, typically with anonymous read access. The other options either target the wrong delivery mechanism or assume capabilities the attacker does not yet possess.

Answer

Upload the DLL to C:\Windows\Temp on the target using an existing low-privilege session.

Answer

Start a Metasploit handler on port 445 to catch the reverse shell from the Spooler service.

Answer

Disable Windows Defender Real-Time Protection on the target through a registry remoting call.

Question 8

You have compromised a Linux host that sits on both your external network and an isolated internal network containing a Windows server with SMB exposed. From your Kali machine you need to interact with the SMB service as if it were local. Which single command creates the correct tunnel?

Accepted Answer

ssh -L 127.0.0.1:445:10.10.10.20:445 user@10.10.10.10. A local port forward created with -L makes your attacking machine listen on a chosen local address and port, then relays that traffic through the SSH server to a destination reachable from the pivot. Binding to 127.0.0.1 keeps the forwarded port private to your host, which is appropriate when only your local tools need to reach the internal SMB service. Remote and dynamic forwards solve different problems and do not give a direct local-to-internal mapping here.

Answer

ssh -D 445 user@10.10.10.10

Answer

ssh -R 127.0.0.1:445:10.10.10.20:445 user@10.10.10.10

Answer

ssh -L 0.0.0.0:445:10.10.10.20:445 user@10.10.10.10

Question 9

You have compromised a service account that has the SeEnableDelegationPrivilege right on a domain controller. You want to abuse Kerberos delegation to gain access to a target server's file share. Which two steps are required to configure and exploit unconstrained delegation on a controlled computer object? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Set the TRUSTED_FOR_DELEGATION flag on the controlled computer object so the domain controller will forward TGTs to it.. Unconstrained delegation abuse requires two things: enabling the TRUSTED_FOR_DELEGATION flag on a controlled computer so the DC forwards TGTs to it, and coercing a privileged user to authenticate to that computer so a TGT is cached in memory. Extracting the TGT then allows impersonation. The other options describe constrained delegation, an unrelated SPN configuration, or a security control that blocks the attack.

Answer

Configure a Service Principal Name on the controlled computer object for the target file share service (cifs/target).

Answer

Modify the msDS-AllowedToDelegateTo attribute on the controlled computer to include the target server's CIFS service.

Answer

Add the controlled computer to the Protected Users group to ensure delegation tokens are cached securely.

Question 10

You have obtained a plaintext password for a domain user and want to quickly identify which domain-joined systems the account can access with local administrative rights, without triggering account lockout. Which approach is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Use CrackMapExec with the -u and -p options against a list of hosts and the smb module to check for administrative access.. CrackMapExec with valid credentials is the standard tool for quickly checking administrative access across many hosts. It performs a single authentication per host using the known password, avoiding lockout, and reports whether the account has local admin rights. Alternatives either risk lockout, capture unrelated credentials, or collect session data that does not directly answer the access question.

Answer

Execute BloodHound with SharpHound using the -c Session collection method to enumerate where the user has administrative rights.

Answer

Use Hydra to brute-force the password against SMB on each host to confirm administrative access.

Answer

Run Responder on the network to poison LLMNR and capture administrative credentials from other hosts.