200-201 Host-Based Analysis Practice Question
A security analyst is analyzing a suspicious PE file. Using a hex editor, the analyst sees the ASCII string 'MZ' at the beginning. What does this indicate?
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 file is a Windows Portable Executable
The 'MZ' magic bytes (0x4D 0x5A) are the signature of a Portable Executable (PE) file, indicating it is a Windows executable. This is the first step in file identification.
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 file is a plain text file
Why it's wrong here
Plain text files have no such header.
- ✓
The file is a Windows Portable Executable
Why this is correct
Correct. 'MZ' is the PE signature.
- ✗
The file is a Linux ELF binary
Why it's wrong here
ELF starts with 0x7F 'ELF'.
- ✗
The file is a PDF document
Why it's wrong here
PDFs start with '%PDF'.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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