PCNSA Practice Test 2 — 10 Questions

Question 1

Refer to the exhibit. A user at IP 10.1.1.5 on the untrust zone is trying to access a server on the trust zone. The traffic is being blocked by a default deny rule instead of being allowed by rule1. What is the most likely reason?

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

Accepted Answer

The rule uses negation on the source address.. When a rule uses negation on the source address (e.g., 'not 10.1.1.5'), the firewall treats the source as 'any IP except 10.1.1.5'. This means traffic from 10.1.1.5 will not match the rule, causing it to fall through to the default deny rule. Negation in Palo Alto Networks policies explicitly excludes the specified address from matching, which is a common misconfiguration.

Answer

The rule's destination is set to 'any' which is too broad.

Answer

The rule does not specify any application or service.

Answer

The rule has not been committed.

Question 2

Drag and drop the steps to configure a NAT policy on a Palo Alto Networks firewall into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Navigate to Policies > NAT, add rule > Configure Original Packet (Source Zone, Destination Zone, Source Address, Destination Address, Service) > Configure Translated Packet (Translated Source, Translated Destination) > Commit. NAT policy configuration requires specifying original and translated addresses, service, and committing.

Answer

Navigate to Policies > NAT, add rule > Configure Translated Packet (Translated Source, Translated Destination) > Configure Original Packet (Source Zone, Destination Zone, Source Address, Destination Address, Service) > Commit

Answer

Configure Original Packet > Navigate to Policies > NAT, add rule > Configure Translated Packet > Commit

Answer

Navigate to Policies > NAT, add rule > Configure Original Packet > Commit > Configure Translated Packet

Question 3

After making configuration changes, an administrator clicks 'Commit' but the changes are not applied. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Configuration validation errors exist. When an administrator clicks 'Commit' but the changes are not applied, the most likely cause is that configuration validation errors exist. The Palo Alto Networks firewall performs a validation check before committing; if any errors are found (e.g., invalid IP addresses, missing required fields, or conflicting rules), the commit is blocked and an error message is displayed. This ensures that only syntactically and semantically correct configurations are applied to the running state.

Answer

The commit is scheduled for a later time

Answer

The commit was canceled by another admin

Answer

The firewall is in multi-vsys mode and only the current vsys is committed

Question 4

Based on the log excerpt, which object is used for the destination address?

Accepted Answer

Address 'any'. The log excerpt shows the destination address field is set to 'any', which is a predefined address object in Palo Alto Networks firewalls that matches any IP address. Since the question asks for the object used for the destination address, 'Address any' is the correct answer because it directly corresponds to the destination address object in the log entry.

Answer

Zone 'untrust'

Answer

Application 'web-browsing'

Answer

Service 'service-http'

Question 5

A firewall administrator wants to ensure that all traffic from the inside zone to the outside zone is inspected for threats, but without causing a bottleneck. Which profile group should be applied to the security rule?

Accepted Answer

Security profile group that includes antivirus, anti-spyware, vulnerability protection, and URL filtering.. A security profile group combines multiple profiles (antivirus, anti-spyware, vulnerability protection, URL filtering) for comprehensive inspection without significant performance impact. Options A and C are incomplete. Option D is wrong as default does not inspect.

Answer

URL filtering profile only.

Answer

No profile is needed; default settings suffice.

Answer

Antivirus profile only.

Question 6

What is the most likely reason the traffic is being denied?

Accepted Answer

A threat prevention profile is blocking the application due to its 'evasive-behavior' characteristic.. The question describes a scenario where traffic is denied despite the application being identified by App-ID. A threat prevention profile can block applications that exhibit 'evasive-behavior' characteristics, such as using non-standard ports or encryption to evade detection. This is a common security control in Palo Alto Networks firewalls to prevent malicious or evasive applications from bypassing policy.

Answer

The application is not actually matching the rule.

Answer

A DoS protection policy is blocking the traffic.

Answer

App-ID is incorrectly identifying the traffic.

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. An internal DNS server in the trust zone communicates with an external DNS server in the untrust zone. Which rule will match the DNS traffic?

Accepted Answer

rule 2 (allow-dns). Rule 2 (allow-dns) specifically allows DNS application from trust zone to untrust zone. Option A is incorrect because rule 2 does match. Option B (deny-all) would only match if no prior rule matches, but rule 2 matches first. Option D (allow-http) only allows web-browsing, not DNS.

Answer

No rule will match

Answer

rule 3 (deny-all)

Answer

rule 1 (allow-http)

Question 8

Drag and drop the steps to configure a VLAN interface on a Palo Alto Networks firewall into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Create VLAN object, then assign Layer 2 interfaces to VLAN, then configure IP address on VLAN interface, then create security policy, then commit. VLAN interface setup involves creating VLAN, assigning interfaces, IP address, security policy, and commit.

Answer

Create VLAN object, then configure IP address on VLAN interface, then assign Layer 2 interfaces to VLAN, then create security policy, then commit

Answer

Create security policy, then create VLAN object, then assign Layer 2 interfaces to VLAN, then configure IP address on VLAN interface, then commit

Answer

Create VLAN object, then assign Layer 2 interfaces to VLAN, then configure IP address on VLAN interface, then commit, then create security policy

Question 9

A company uses Panorama to manage multiple firewalls. The administrator wants changes made in Panorama to be automatically pushed to managed firewalls without manual intervention. Which setting should be enabled?

Accepted Answer

Auto Commit in Panorama Push Settings. The 'Auto Commit on Panorama Push Settings' feature enables Panorama to automatically commit and push configuration changes to managed firewalls immediately after an administrator commits on Panorama, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This setting is specifically designed for automated deployment workflows where changes must be propagated without delay.

Answer

Scheduled Config Update

Answer

Auto Push on Panorama

Answer

Schedule Commit

Answer

Commit on Startup

Question 10

Refer to the exhibit. Which profile group is applied to this security rule?

Accepted Answer

strict-profile-group. The exhibit shows the security rule's 'Profile Group' field set to 'strict-profile-group', which applies a predefined set of security profiles (antivirus, anti-spyware, vulnerability protection, URL filtering, and file blocking) to the rule. This is visible in the rule configuration where the profile group is explicitly selected, not set to 'none' or a custom group.

Answer

No profile group is applied

Answer

log-profile-group

Answer

default-profile-group