350-701 Practice Question: Secure Network Access, Visibility and Enforcement
An ISE deployment uses TrustSec with SGTs assigned by Active Directory group membership. A group of users in the 'Finance' AD group is correctly receiving SGT 5, but a new user added to that group is getting SGT 0. The ISE policy is unchanged, and other users in the group work fine. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the misconception that SGT assignment is immediate upon AD group membership change, but the trap here is that ISE must synchronize the AD group membership before it can apply the correct SGT, and a default SGT of 0 indicates the user is not matched to any authorization policy.
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
✓
ISE has not synchronized the latest AD group membership
ISE uses Active Directory (AD) as an identity source and must synchronize group membership changes before it can map the new user to the correct Security Group Tag (SGT). If the AD group membership has not been refreshed via the scheduled or manual sync, ISE will not know the new user belongs to the 'Finance' group, resulting in a default SGT of 0 (unknown/untrusted). Other users already in the group work fine because their membership was present during the last successful sync.
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 user endpoint has not been profiled by ISE yet
Why it's wrong here
Profiling is not required for AD group-based SGT assignment.
- ✓
ISE has not synchronized the latest AD group membership
Why this is correct
ISE caches AD groups. If the user was recently added, the cache may be stale, causing ISE to assign a default SGT (0).
- ✗
The user endpoint is running antivirus software that blocks SGT assignment
Why it's wrong here
Endpoint protection does not affect ISE SGT assignment.
- ✗
The user does not have a PAC (Protected Access Credential)
Why it's wrong here
PAC is used for machine authentication, not AD group-based SGT assignment.
- ✗
The switchport is configured with 'authentication violation restrict' which blocks the new user
Why it's wrong here
The violation mode would affect access, not SGT assignment.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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