This CS0-003 practice question tests your understanding of security operations. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A security analyst notices that an IDS is generating a high number of false positives for legitimate encrypted traffic. Which tuning method should the analyst use to reduce false positives without reducing detection capability?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Whitelist the source IP addresses of known, trusted servers.
Whitelisting the source IP addresses of known, trusted servers reduces false positives by instructing the IDS to ignore alerts for encrypted traffic from those specific hosts. This approach preserves detection capability because the IDS continues to apply all signatures to traffic from other, potentially malicious sources. It is a targeted tuning method that does not disable detection mechanisms or alter sensitivity thresholds, which could otherwise miss real threats.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Whitelist the source IP addresses of known, trusted servers.
Why this is correct
Whitelisting reduces false positives by exempting known benign traffic.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Disable the signatures that trigger for encrypted traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling signatures reduces detection capability, which is not desired.
✗
Increase the sensitivity threshold for the encrypted traffic signatures.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing sensitivity would likely increase false positives.
✗
Enable full packet capture and analyze the encrypted traffic manually.
Why it's wrong here
Full packet capture does not reduce false positives and is not efficient tuning.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
CompTIA often tests the misconception that disabling signatures or increasing thresholds is an acceptable tuning method, but the trap here is that those actions reduce detection capability, whereas whitelisting trusted sources is the only option that maintains full detection for untrusted traffic.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In IDS/IPS systems, encrypted traffic (e.g., TLS 1.3) often triggers false positives because the sensor cannot inspect the payload, leading to reliance on metadata like IP addresses, ports, and packet sizes. Whitelisting trusted IPs leverages the IDS's allowlist feature, which is typically implemented as a rule that suppresses all alerts for traffic matching the whitelist criteria, without affecting the detection engine's stateful analysis of other flows. In real-world deployments, this is commonly applied to internal mail servers, domain controllers, or cloud service endpoints that generate consistent encrypted traffic patterns.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CS0-003 question in full detail.
Security Operations — This question tests Security Operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Whitelist the source IP addresses of known, trusted servers. — Whitelisting the source IP addresses of known, trusted servers reduces false positives by instructing the IDS to ignore alerts for encrypted traffic from those specific hosts. This approach preserves detection capability because the IDS continues to apply all signatures to traffic from other, potentially malicious sources. It is a targeted tuning method that does not disable detection mechanisms or alter sensitivity thresholds, which could otherwise miss real threats.
What should I do if I get this CS0-003 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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