NSE7 Enterprise Firewall and VDOMs Practice Question
A FortiGate administrator notices that traffic from a specific subnet is not being inspected by the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) profile applied to the firewall policy. The policy is configured with the correct profile, and the IPS engine is enabled. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume an IPS profile will inspect all traffic by default once applied, overlooking the need to enable specific protocol sensors within the profile for the traffic to be inspected.
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
✓
The protocol in the IPS profile is not enabled for the application being used
The most likely cause is that the protocol in the IPS profile is not enabled for the application being used. Even when an IPS profile is applied to a firewall policy and the IPS engine is running, the profile must have the specific protocol (e.g., HTTP, SMTP, FTP) enabled for inspection. If the protocol is disabled or not selected, the IPS engine will bypass traffic of that type, resulting in no intrusion detection or prevention for that traffic.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The traffic is encrypted and SSL inspection is not enabled
Why it's wrong here
While SSL inspection is needed for HTTPS, the stem does not specify encryption.
- ✓
The protocol in the IPS profile is not enabled for the application being used
Why this is correct
IPS profiles have protocol-specific settings; if the protocol is disabled, traffic is not inspected.
- ✗
The IPS profile is configured for signature-based detection only
Why it's wrong here
Signature-based detection is the standard; this would not bypass inspection.
- ✗
The firewall policy is set to accept mode instead of explicit proxy
Why it's wrong here
Accept mode is not a valid configuration; the policy uses action Accept or Deny.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This NSE7 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Fortinet 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 NSE7 exam.