350-701 Network Security Practice Question
A security analyst is tuning Snort rules to reduce false positives. The analyst identifies a rule that triggers on a common benign application. Which action should be taken to suppress alerts for that specific traffic without disabling the rule entirely?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Add a 'threshold' rule to limit the number of alerts.
Snort allows using 'threshold' or 'suppress' options to limit alerts. The 'suppress' keyword can suppress alerts for specific source/destination IPs. Alternatively, creating a pass rule in the local policy could bypass inspection for that traffic. However, directly modifying the rule's action to 'pass' is not standard; using threshold is common.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Delete the rule from the policy.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting the rule removes detection entirely; might miss real attacks.
- ✗
Change the rule action to 'alert'
Why it's wrong here
Alert still generates an alert; need to suppress.
- ✓
Add a 'threshold' rule to limit the number of alerts.
Why this is correct
Threshold can limit alerts per time interval, reducing noise.
- ✗
Set the rule to 'drop' action.
Why it's wrong here
Drop would block the benign traffic, causing false positives.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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