NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
An administrator runs 'diagnose sys top' and sees process 'httpsd' consuming 95% CPU. What is the best immediate action to alleviate the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose to kill the process or disable HTTPS entirely, thinking it will stop the CPU usage, but they overlook that the root cause is likely an external attack or misconfiguration that requires access control, not process termination.
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
✓
Change the administration HTTPS port and restrict access to trusted hosts
The 'httpsd' process handles HTTPS administration traffic. A CPU spike to 95% indicates a possible DoS attack or excessive management connections. Changing the HTTPS port and restricting access to trusted hosts immediately mitigates the attack surface without disrupting other services, as it limits the source of the malicious 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.
- ✓
Change the administration HTTPS port and restrict access to trusted hosts
Why this is correct
Correct. Changing the port and restricting source IPs can mitigate the attack without losing access.
- ✗
Kill the httpsd process
Why it's wrong here
Killing the process may cause instability and would not address the root cause.
- ✗
Disable HTTPS administration access
Why it's wrong here
This would prevent GUI access but might be too drastic; restricting access is a better compromise.
- ✗
Reboot the FortiGate
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting is temporary and does not prevent recurrence.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This NSE7 question is part of Courseiva's 940-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.