Custom IPS Signature Not Triggering on FortiGate: Missing Protocol Parameter
An administrator runs 'diagnose ips anomaly http' and sees many entries with 'type=SQLi' and 'score=0'. What does a score of 0 indicate?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume a score of 0 means 'no threat' or 'disabled', but Fortinet uses 0 to indicate a sub-threshold detection that is still tracked, not a lack of detection.
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 traffic showed suspicious patterns but did not meet the threshold
In Fortinet's IPS anomaly detection, a score of 0 indicates that the traffic exhibited suspicious patterns (e.g., SQLi signatures) but did not accumulate enough anomaly points to meet the configured threshold for triggering an action. This means the traffic was flagged as potentially malicious but was not deemed severe enough to warrant logging or blocking, so it remains in a 'monitoring' state without enforcement.
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 anomaly detection is disabled
Why it's wrong here
Anomaly detection is demonstrably running, since it produced type=SQLi entries with scores; disabled detection would generate no such log lines. It is tempting because a zero value can suggest inactivity, but the score quantifies confidence in a match, not whether the engine itself is enabled.
- ✓
The traffic showed suspicious patterns but did not meet the threshold
Why this is correct
A score of 0 means the SQLi signature matched suspicious request patterns, but the cumulative anomaly score stayed below the configured block or alert threshold, so no action was triggered. The detection engine recorded the type without enough weighted severity to flag it.
- ✗
The IPS sensor is not applied to any policy
Why it's wrong here
The score field reflects the anomaly engine's confidence in the matched signature, not whether the sensor is bound to a policy; an unapplied sensor produces no anomaly log entries at all. It is tempting because sensor-to-policy binding is a common cause of missing IPS enforcement, but that would suppress logging entirely rather than yield zero-scored matches.
- ✗
The traffic is definitely an SQL injection attack
Why it's wrong here
A score of 0 means the anomaly engine recorded the SQLi signature match but assigned no confidence, so the traffic is not confirmed as an attack. It is tempting because 'type=SQLi' names the signature category, yet the score field is precisely what distinguishes a benign pattern match from a genuine detection.
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