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 The traffic is no longer active.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 Since the traffic is no longer active, the administrator must query historical traffic logs in FortiAnalyzer to identify which firewall policy permitted the malicious flow.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 system events, not per-session traffic details.
- ✗
Security logs
Why it's wrong here
Security logs record intrusion prevention or web filtering events, not policy mapping for traffic.
- ✓
Traffic logs
Why this is correct
Traffic logs contain policy ID and action for each session, perfect for this investigation.
- ✗
Audit logs
Why it's wrong here
Audit logs track admin configuration changes, not traffic flows.
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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.