Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
NetFlow shows one workstation initiating SMB and WinRM sessions to 25 internal servers within 12 minutes, followed by a spike in Kerberos authentication requests and attempts to access admin shares. The user says they only opened an invoice spreadsheet. What is the most likely attacker objective?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Distributed denial-of-service activity against the internal network.
The traffic pattern is targeted at multiple hosts for authentication and remote execution, not flooding a service.
B
Best answer
Lateral movement using compromised credentials to pivot across the environment.
The pattern of SMB, WinRM, Kerberos, and admin-share activity strongly suggests an attacker is using one compromised workstation to move laterally and reach additional systems. That behavior matches post-compromise pivoting, often with stolen credentials or remote execution tooling. The invoice spreadsheet is likely the initial infection vector.
C
Distractor review
Port scanning from an external attacker trying to enumerate exposed services.
This is internal, authenticated-looking east-west traffic rather than an external reconnaissance scan.
D
Distractor review
DNS tunneling used to bypass content filtering and exfiltrate data.
DNS tunneling usually produces unusual DNS query patterns, not broad SMB, WinRM, and Kerberos activity.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A laptop is suspected of being used in a malware incident. It is still powered on and connected to Wi-Fi. What should the responder do before shutting it down?
Question 2
An employee reports a ransomware note on a file server. The server is still powered on, shares are still being accessed, and management wants service restored as quickly as possible. What should the incident response team do first?
Question 3
An employee reports a ransomware note on a finance laptop. The laptop is still powered on, connected to Wi-Fi, and the user says they were just working in a spreadsheet. Management wants the fastest safe response that also preserves evidence. What should the responder do first?
Question 4
You are handed a company laptop suspected in an insider theft case. Legal says the evidence may be needed in court. Which action best preserves admissibility?
Question 5
A developer wants to reduce the risk of SQL injection in a new customer search form. Which two changes are the best mitigations? Select two.
Question 6
A branch office uses a flat LAN, and a compromise on one user workstation could spread quickly to finance systems. Management wants finance workstations isolated from general users, but finance staff still need access to a central finance application and network printer. What is the best design change?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SY0-701 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Lateral movement using compromised credentials to pivot across the environment. — The most likely objective is lateral movement after a workstation compromise. The combination of SMB, WinRM, Kerberos spikes, and admin-share access attempts indicates the attacker is trying to pivot to other internal systems and execute remotely. This is classic post-compromise tradecraft and often follows phishing or malware execution from a document attachment. The priority is to contain the source host and assess credential exposure. Why others are wrong: A denial-of-service attack would show volume and availability impact rather than authenticated movement across many hosts. Port scanning is typically unauthenticated reconnaissance, often from outside the network, not coordinated internal access attempts. DNS tunneling would show unusual name-resolution behavior and small data streams over DNS, not repeated SMB and WinRM sessions to many servers.
What should I do if I get this SY0-701 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
Discussion
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