CPENT Practice Question: Privilege Escalation Lateral Movement And Post Exploitation
A penetration tester is analyzing a Linux host for potential privilege escalation vectors related to sudo rights. Which THREE commands or checks should the tester perform to identify misconfigured sudo privileges? Choose three.
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
✓
ls -la /etc/sudoers.d/
sudo -l, checking /etc/sudoers, and inspecting files within /etc/sudoers.d/ are essential checks for sudo misconfigurations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
arp -a
Why it's wrong here
arp -a displays the local ARP table.
- ✗
uname -r
Why it's wrong here
uname -r outputs the kernel release version.
- ✓
ls -la /etc/sudoers.d/
Why this is correct
Files in /etc/sudoers.d contain additional sudo configurations that must be inspected.
- ✓
sudo -l
Why this is correct
sudo -l lists the permitted (and forbidden) commands for the current user via sudo.
- ✓
cat /etc/sudoers
Why this is correct
Inspecting /etc/sudoers directly reveals global sudo rules and user/group privileges.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official EC-Council exam blueprint
This CPENT practice question is part of Courseiva's free EC-Council 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 CPENT exam.