CCSP Cloud Security Operations Practice Question
A security engineer is evaluating vulnerability management options for cloud workloads and wants to identify vulnerabilities without installing agents on the operating system. Which approach should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'agentless scanning' with 'network-based scanning,' assuming that any scan without an OS agent must be network-based, but the CCSP exam specifically tests the cloud-native API-driven assessment model as the correct agentless approach for cloud workloads.
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
✓
Agentless scanning using cloud API-based assessment
Agentless scanning leverages cloud provider APIs (e.g., for configuration and asset inventory) to assess the configuration and patch state of cloud workloads without requiring an OS-level agent. This approach directly meets the requirement of identifying vulnerabilities without installing agents on the operating system, as it reads metadata and configuration snapshots from the cloud control plane.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Network-based vulnerability scanning
Why it's wrong here
Network scanning is external and may not cover all vulnerabilities; agentless is more comprehensive.
- ✓
Agentless scanning using cloud API-based assessment
Why this is correct
Agentless scanning leverages cloud APIs to assess vulnerabilities without an agent.
- ✗
Agent-based scanning using a cloud-specific vulnerability scanner
Why it's wrong here
Agent-based scanning requires installing an agent on the operating system, which does not meet the requirement of avoiding agent installation.
- ✗
Container image scanning in a registry
Why it's wrong here
That scans images, not running workloads, and is not broadly agentless for VMs.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CCSP exam.