SY0-701 Practice Test 36 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A security team discovers that several laptops occasionally boot from a removable drive before Windows loads, allowing unapproved recovery tools to run. Management wants to prevent this with the least impact on normal users. Which control is the best fit?

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

Accepted Answer

Enable secure boot and restrict the firmware boot order so only the approved internal boot path is allowed.. Secure Boot ensures that only signed, trusted firmware and bootloaders execute during the startup process. By restricting the firmware boot order to the internal drive only, the laptop will ignore removable media during boot, preventing unapproved recovery tools from running before Windows loads. This has minimal impact on normal users because they can still use USB devices after the OS has booted.

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Disable all USB ports permanently on every laptop.

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Uninstall the endpoint protection agent and replace it with manual inspections.

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Move user data to cloud storage so rogue boot media can no longer access it.

Question 2

A facilities manager receives an SMS from "FedEx Delivery" saying a shipment for the research lab cannot clear security until the recipient verifies the package by signing in. The message includes the manager's initials and the warehouse code, and the link opens a cloned sign-in page. Which attack is most likely?

Accepted Answer

Smishing, because the attacker is using a text message to deliver a targeted credential lure.. Smishing is a social engineering attack that uses SMS (Short Message Service) to deliver a fraudulent message designed to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information. In this scenario, the attacker sends a text message impersonating FedEx, includes the manager's initials and warehouse code for personalization, and provides a link to a cloned sign-in page, which is the classic credential-harvesting mechanism of a smishing attack.

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Vishing, because the attacker is pretending to be a delivery service representative.

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Spear phishing, because the message is targeted using the recipient's role and location.

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Baiting, because the message offers a shipment verification reward to encourage action.

Question 3

A company is evaluating a multi-tenant SaaS document platform. The security team wants to reduce the impact of another tenant’s breach and ensure employees who leave are removed from the app within minutes. Which two requirements should the team prioritize? Select two.

Accepted Answer

Require the provider to document logical tenant isolation and separate customer encryption keys.. Logical tenant isolation (e.g., separate databases or namespaces) and separate customer encryption keys ensure that a breach in one tenant cannot access another tenant's data, directly reducing the impact of cross-tenant attacks. This aligns with the shared responsibility model in SaaS, where the provider must enforce strong multi-tenant boundaries at the application and data layers.

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Use a shared local administrator account for the app so offboarding is easier.

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Allow anonymous public links as the default method for external collaboration.

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Rely on manual quarterly cleanup tickets to disable former employees.

Question 4

A small company has two security issues and can fix only one this week. Which should be prioritized first? One issue is an internal lab server with a medium-severity flaw. The other is an internet-facing login portal using default administrator credentials.

Accepted Answer

Fix the internet-facing login portal first because default administrator credentials create a much higher risk.. The internet-facing login portal using default administrator credentials represents an immediate, high-impact risk because it allows unauthorized remote access with administrative privileges. Default credentials are well-known and actively targeted by automated scanners and attackers, making exploitation trivial. In contrast, the internal lab server with a medium-severity flaw is behind network segmentation and requires additional access, so its risk is lower and can be deferred.

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Fix the internal lab server first because every vulnerability should be treated equally.

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Wait until the monthly maintenance window so both issues can be fixed at the same time.

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Ignore both issues until users report symptoms, then respond if something happens.

Question 5

A help desk team wants users to be unable to install unsanctioned browser extensions or freeware on corporate Windows laptops, while approved business apps still run. Which endpoint control is best?

Accepted Answer

Application allowlisting or application control.. Application allowlisting (or application control) is the correct endpoint control because it explicitly defines which software executables, scripts, and installers are permitted to run on the system. By default, all unapproved applications—including unsanctioned browser extensions and freeware—are blocked, while approved business apps are allowed to execute. This directly addresses the requirement to prevent unauthorized installations while maintaining normal operations for sanctioned software.

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Full-disk encryption on every laptop.

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A remote access VPN.

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A desktop wallpaper policy.

Question 6

An employee reports a ransomware note on a finance laptop. The laptop is still powered on, connected to Wi-Fi, and the user says they were just working in a spreadsheet. Management wants the fastest safe response that also preserves evidence. What should the responder do first?

Accepted Answer

Isolate the laptop from the network while keeping it powered on for volatile evidence collection.. The immediate priority is to contain the ransomware while preserving volatile evidence (e.g., memory contents, running processes, network connections) that could be critical for forensic analysis. Powering off the laptop (Option A) would destroy volatile data and may allow the ransomware to persist or trigger additional encryption on reboot. Isolating the network connection stops the ransomware from communicating with its command-and-control server or spreading laterally, while keeping the system powered on allows a responder to capture memory with tools like FTK Imager or LiME before performing a controlled shutdown.

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Shut the laptop down immediately to prevent further encryption activity.

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Ask the user to close all open applications and log off normally.

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Start deleting suspicious files to reduce the impact of the ransomware.

Question 7

Threat intelligence shows an attacker changes the domain name every day, but the malware file hash stays the same across incidents. What should defenders prioritize for blocking?

Accepted Answer

The malware file hash, because it remains consistent across incidents.. The malware file hash (e.g., MD5, SHA-1, or SHA-256) is a static, deterministic value derived from the malware's binary content. Since the attacker reuses the same malware across incidents, the hash remains consistent, making it a reliable indicator of compromise (IOC) for blocking via hash-based allow/deny lists in endpoint protection or network security controls. In contrast, domain names change daily (fast flux), so blocking them is less sustainable and requires constant updates.

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The daily domain names, because they are the easiest indicator to find.

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The color of the phishing email, because visual style is unique to the attacker.

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The user's browser homepage, because attackers often change it after infection.

Question 8

Based on the exhibit, which vulnerability is being exploited?

Accepted Answer

Authentication bypass. The exhibit shows a URL parameter `?admin=false` being changed to `?admin=true`, which directly toggles an administrative access control flag. This is a classic authentication bypass vulnerability because the application trusts client-supplied input to determine authorization status, allowing an attacker to escalate privileges without valid credentials.

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Cross-site scripting (XSS)

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Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

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Command injection

Question 9

A security auditor is reviewing the access controls for a payroll application. The auditor discovers that a single user, the payroll manager, has permissions to both create new employee records and then approve and process salary payments for those records. The company's security policy requires that no single individual should be able to execute both the creation and the approval of a payment for the same employee. Which of the following security principles is the company's policy attempting to enforce?

Accepted Answer

Separation of duties. The company's policy prohibits a single user from both creating employee records and approving payments for them, which is a classic application of separation of duties. This principle ensures that no single individual has the authority to execute two conflicting or sensitive tasks that could lead to fraud or error, such as creating a fictitious employee and then approving a salary payment to that employee. In the context of a payroll application, separation of duties requires distinct roles or users for record creation and payment approval to enforce checks and balances.

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Least privilege

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Defense in depth

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Mandatory access control

Question 10

A SOC analyst reviews email platform logs for a finance user account. At 08:12, the user successfully signs in from Denver. At 08:15, the same account signs in from a residential ISP in another state. At 08:16, the mailbox creates a new external forwarding rule and deletes the original alert message. The user says they did not set up forwarding. What is the best assessment?

Accepted Answer

True positive indicating likely account compromise and unauthorized mailbox abuse.. The rapid succession of logins from geographically distant locations (Denver and a different state via a residential ISP) within three minutes, followed immediately by creation of an external forwarding rule and deletion of the original alert message, is a classic indicator of account takeover. The user's denial of setting up forwarding confirms the activity is unauthorized. This pattern aligns with attacker behavior: after compromising credentials, they establish persistence (forwarding) and cover tracks (deleting alerts).

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False positive caused by normal mailbox synchronization behavior across devices.

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Benign activity because the user successfully authenticated with valid credentials and no malware was detected.

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A denial-of-service event because the attacker is attempting to overwhelm the mail system.

Question 11

A SOC analyst notices that log timestamps from different servers do not line up during an investigation. What should be implemented to improve event correlation?

Accepted Answer

Network Time Protocol time synchronization across systems.. Network Time Protocol (NTP) synchronizes clocks across systems to a common time source, ensuring log timestamps align for accurate event correlation. Without NTP, timestamps from different servers can drift, making it impossible to reconstruct the sequence of events during an investigation. This is a foundational requirement for effective security monitoring and incident response.

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A more aggressive password policy for all users.

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Longer user account names to make records easier to read.

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Disabling centralized logging to reduce duplication.

Question 12

An online retailer is moving its public web app, internal API, and database into separate zones. Public users must reach only the web tier. The web tier must contact the app tier, and only the app tier may query the database. Admins should manage all servers from a hardened jump host. Which design best meets these goals and minimizes lateral movement?

Accepted Answer

Create separate DMZ, application, and database zones with default-deny east-west rules and use a jump host for administration.. It implements a multi-tier network architecture with separate DMZ, application, and database zones, enforcing default-deny east-west traffic rules. This ensures that public users can only reach the web tier, the web tier can only communicate with the app tier, and only the app tier can query the database, while all administrative access is funneled through a hardened jump host, which minimizes lateral movement by restricting inter-zone traffic to only what is explicitly required.

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Place all servers in one VLAN and rely on host-based firewalls to block unwanted traffic.

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Put the database in the DMZ so the web tier can connect to it without extra firewall rules.

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Expose the application tier to the Internet and use NAT to hide the database subnet.

Question 13

A software supplier is adding a new subcontractor to process your company's customer data. The security team wants to understand the new exposure before allowing the change. Which three items should it request or review first? Select three.

Accepted Answer

A list of the subcontractor's locations and where the data will be processed.. Understanding where data will be processed and the subcontractor's physical locations is critical for assessing jurisdictional risks, data sovereignty requirements, and compliance with regulations like GDPR or CCPA. The security team needs this information to evaluate potential exposure to different legal frameworks and physical security controls before granting access to customer data.

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The subcontractor's logo and marketing brochure.

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The supplier's quarterly sales forecast.

Question 14

A backup server encrypts large nightly database exports before sending them to an offsite storage system. The organization has already arranged a secure way to share the secret key between the systems, and performance is a concern because the files are very large. Which encryption approach is the best fit?

Accepted Answer

Symmetric encryption. Symmetric encryption (e.g., AES-256) is the best fit because it uses a single shared secret key for both encryption and decryption, offering significantly higher throughput than asymmetric methods. For large files like nightly database exports, symmetric ciphers are hardware-accelerated (e.g., AES-NI) and introduce minimal performance overhead, while the secure key exchange is already handled separately.

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Asymmetric encryption

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Hashing

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Digital signatures

Question 15

A company is evaluating a new payroll SaaS provider that will store employee tax and bank details. Before signing the contract, which action BEST supports vendor due diligence?

Accepted Answer

Review a current independent security attestation and verify contractual security obligations.. Vendor due diligence for a SaaS provider handling sensitive employee data (tax and bank details) requires verifying independent security attestations (e.g., SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 certification) and ensuring contractual security obligations (e.g., data encryption, breach notification, right to audit) are explicitly defined. This provides objective, audited evidence of the vendor's security posture rather than relying on marketing claims or unverified assurances.

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Ask the vendor for a marketing brochure describing platform features and uptime claims.

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Accept the vendor’s assurance that its customers have never experienced incidents.

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Wait until after go-live and then review the security posture during the first annual audit.