CAS-004 Security Operations Practice Question
An analyst is examining a memory dump with Volatility and finds a suspicious process that has no parent process (parent PID 0). Which technique is the malware likely using to hide?
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
✓
Process hollowing
Process hollowing replaces the memory of a legitimate process with malicious code. The parent PID 0 indicates that the process was spawned by the kernel, which can occur after hollowing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Rootkit
Why it's wrong here
Rootkits may hide processes, but parent PID 0 is more specific to hollowing.
- ✗
DLL injection
Why it's wrong here
DLL injection typically shows a parent process.
- ✓
Process hollowing
Why this is correct
Process hollowing can result in a process with no parent.
- ✗
WMI persistence
Why it's wrong here
WMI persistence usually has a parent process like svchost.exe.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CAS-005 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 CAS-005 exam.