200-201 Network Intrusion Analysis Practice Question
A security analyst is reviewing PCAP data and sees a TCP stream with interactive shell commands such as 'whoami', 'ls -la', and 'cat /etc/passwd'. The session appears to be bidirectional with a remote IP. Which type of attack is most likely occurring?
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
✓
Reverse shell
Interactive shell commands over TCP indicate a reverse shell, where the attacker has a command shell on the victim.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Reverse shell
Why this is correct
Interactive shell commands characterize a reverse shell.
- ✗
DNS tunnelling
Why it's wrong here
DNS tunnelling uses DNS queries, not interactive shell.
- ✗
SQL injection
Why it's wrong here
No database queries.
- ✗
Man-in-the-middle attack
Why it's wrong here
No evidence of interception.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-201 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 200-201 exam.