GCFA Practice Question: Identification of Malicious and Normal Activity
During a live response on a Windows 10 workstation, you observe a process named 'lsass.exe' with PID 672. Its parent process is 'winlogon.exe' (PID 596), and its executable path is 'C:\Windows\System32\lsass.exe'. However, the process has an open handle to a suspicious named pipe '\\.\pipe\evil'. Based on this evidence, what is the most likely explanation?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that because the process path and parent are correct, the process is entirely benign, ignoring the suspicious named pipe handle.
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 process is a legitimate lsass.exe that has been compromised via a DLL injection or reflective loading technique.
The correct answer identifies that a legitimate lsass.exe with an unusual named pipe handle suggests compromise through injection or reflective loading. The process path and parent are normal, so the anomaly is the pipe, which is not part of standard lsass behavior. This indicates malicious code running within a trusted process.
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 named pipe is a standard Windows component used for local security authority communication and is not suspicious.
Why it's wrong here
While lsass.exe does use named pipes for legitimate purposes, the pipe name 'evil' is not a known Windows component. Standard pipes have specific names like 'lsass' or 'samr'. An arbitrary pipe name indicates potential unauthorized access or a malicious tool interacting with the process.
- ✓
The process is a legitimate lsass.exe that has been compromised via a DLL injection or reflective loading technique.
Why this is correct
A legitimate lsass.exe should not have handles to arbitrary named pipes unless they are part of normal system operation. The presence of an unusual named pipe like 'evil' suggests code injection or a malicious module loaded into the process, allowing an attacker to communicate with it. This is consistent with credential dumping or persistence mechanisms.
- ✗
The process is a masquerading executable placed in the System32 directory by an attacker.
Why it's wrong here
Masquerading typically involves placing a malicious executable in a non-standard location or using a similar name, but here the path is the correct System32 directory and the parent is winlogon.exe, which is expected. The anomaly is the named pipe handle, not the file location or name, so masquerading is not the primary indicator.
- ✗
The process is a child of winlogon.exe, which indicates it is a normal system process and the pipe handle is irrelevant.
Why it's wrong here
Although lsass.exe is normally a child of winlogon.exe, the presence of an unexpected named pipe handle overrides the normalcy of the parent-child relationship. Attackers often inject into legitimate processes to hide their activities, and the pipe could be used for command and control or data exfiltration.
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This GCFA question is part of Courseiva's 292-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 and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official GIAC exam blueprint
This GCFA practice question is part of Courseiva's free GIAC 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 GCFA exam.