350-701 Practice Question: Secure Network Access, Visibility and Enforcement
An engineer is implementing Cisco ISE posture assessment for corporate Windows laptops. The requirement: endpoints that are missing critical Microsoft security patches must be quarantined in a remediation VLAN. The ISE posture policy uses an 'Application Condition' to check for the patch. However, some laptops with missing patches are still allowed access. During testing, the engineer notices that the posture agent reports 'NAC Agent: Posture Unknown' for those laptops. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
The authorization policy does not include a posture profile
Posture Unknown indicates that the posture assessment did not complete. This often occurs when the authorization policy does not include a posture profile, so ISE does not issue a posture requirement to the agent, and the agent remains in an unknown state. Option D correctly identifies this cause. Option A (outdated agent) could cause other issues but typically not Posture Unknown. Option B (patches not on ISE list) would lead to non-compliance, not unknown. Option C (ISE unreachable) would cause authentication failure entirely.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The posture agent software is outdated
Why it's wrong here
Outdated agent might fail but usually reports a version mismatch, not 'Posture Unknown'.
- ✗
The missing patches are not on the ISE patch list
Why it's wrong here
If patches are missing, the posture condition would fail, not return unknown.
- ✗
The ISE server is unreachable from the client VLAN
Why it's wrong here
If ISE is unreachable, authentication would fail altogether, not just posture.
- ✓
The authorization policy does not include a posture profile
Why this is correct
Without a posture profile in the authorization result, the client does not receive instructions to perform posture assessment, leading to 'Posture Unknown'.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-701 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 350-701 exam.