NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
An administrator is investigating a security incident and needs to determine which firewall policy allowed a specific malicious traffic flow. The traffic is no longer active. Which FortiAnalyzer log type should the admin query?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse 'security logs' (which log threat detections) with 'traffic logs' (which log all permitted sessions), mistakenly thinking that a security event log would contain the policy ID that allowed the malicious flow, when in fact traffic logs are the only source for historical policy-to-session mapping.
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
✓
Traffic logs
Traffic logs record every session that passes through the FortiGate, including the source/destination IPs, ports, policy ID, and action taken. Since the traffic is no longer active, the administrator must query historical traffic logs in FortiAnalyzer to identify which firewall policy permitted the malicious flow. Event logs, security logs, and audit logs do not contain the per-session policy mapping needed for this forensic analysis.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Event logs
Why it's wrong here
Event logs record administrative, system and user activity, not the traffic fields needed to identify a policy that permitted a flow. Traffic logs are the correct source for matching source, destination and policy ID. Event logs suit auditing logins, configuration changes and system events instead.
- ✗
Security logs
Why it's wrong here
Security logs in FortiAnalyzer cover IPS, antivirus, web filter and anomaly detections, recording what was blocked or flagged rather than the firewall policy that permitted the session. It is tempting because the traffic is malicious, and would be correct when reviewing intrusion detections, but policy attribution requires traffic logs.
- ✓
Traffic logs
Why this is correct
Traffic logs record each session with the matching firewall policy ID, source, destination, and action, so historical malicious flows can be traced to the policy that permitted them. This satisfies the requirement to identify the allowing policy after the traffic ended.
- ✗
Audit logs
Why it's wrong here
Audit logs record administrative and system events—configuration changes, logins, policy edits—not traffic flows, so they cannot identify which firewall policy permitted the malicious session. They are tempting because audit logs do track policy modifications, making them the right query when investigating who changed a firewall rule rather than which rule allowed the traffic.
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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.