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Systems and Application Security

Practise Systems Security Certified Practitioner SSCP Systems and Application Security practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

72 questions16 easy37 medium19 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Systems and Application Security

Systems and Application Security questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common Systems and Application Security exam traps

  • Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Question index

All Systems and Application Security questions (72)

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1

A cloud security team wants to continuously monitor for misconfigured cloud resources that could expose data. Which tool category is specifically designed for this purpose?

Medium
2

A company is implementing application whitelisting on all endpoints. Which of the following is a primary consideration for maintaining operational efficiency?

Easy
3

An organization uses Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in the public cloud. Which of the following security responsibilities is the customer responsible for?

Easy
4

A system administrator is applying CIS Benchmarks to a Windows server. Which TWO hardening measures are typically recommended by CIS? (Select TWO.)

Easy
5

An organization using PaaS (Platform as a Service) for application hosting wants to ensure the application code is secure. Which of the following is the customer's responsibility under the shared responsibility model?

Hard
6

An organization is migrating a legacy application to a PaaS cloud environment. According to the shared responsibility model, which security control is the organization still responsible for?

Hard
7

A cloud security team is using Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) to identify misconfigurations. Which of the following scenarios is MOST likely to be detected by CSPM?

Hard
8

Which Windows feature provides mandatory integrity controls and helps prevent unauthorized changes to system settings by requiring administrator approval?

Easy
9

A security analyst notices that a Linux server has an unusual number of failed login attempts for the root account. To strengthen authentication security while preserving administrative access, which of the following configurations would be most effective?

Hard
10

A company uses virtualization extensively. The security team discovers that developers have created many unmanaged virtual machines that are not tracked in the configuration management database (CMDB). Which risk is MOST directly associated with this situation?

Medium
11

A system administrator is configuring a Linux server to ensure that only authorized users can execute commands with superuser privileges. Which file should be edited to control sudo access?

Medium
12

A system administrator is hardening a Linux server. After installing the OS, which of the following steps should be taken to ensure that only authorized users can execute commands with elevated privileges?

Medium
13

A Linux server is being hardened. The security team wants to enforce mandatory access control policies that confine processes to limited access to files and resources. Which technology should be implemented?

Medium
14

A company deploys a web application and wants to protect against SQL injection and XSS attacks. Which security control is specifically designed to inspect HTTP traffic and block such attacks?

Medium
15

A Linux administrator needs to configure access controls so that a specific user can run certain commands with root privileges without entering a password. Which configuration file should be modified?

Medium
16

An organization is experiencing VM sprawl, with many unmanaged virtual machines running in the environment. Which of the following is the most significant security risk associated with VM sprawl?

Medium
17

A security architect is reviewing cloud security for a SaaS application used by the company. According to the shared responsibility model, which security controls are PRIMARILY the customer's responsibility?

Hard
18

A company is migrating to the cloud and wants to understand the shared responsibility model. For an IaaS deployment, which THREE are customer responsibilities? (Select THREE.)

Medium
19

To prevent VM escape attacks in a virtualized environment, which of the following is the most critical security measure?

Medium
20

A security engineer is hardening a Windows server. Which TWO actions should be taken to reduce the attack surface? (Select TWO.)

Medium
21

During a security assessment, it is discovered that a Linux server has unnecessary services running, including Telnet and FTP. The server is also missing critical security patches. Which of the following is the MOST effective approach to harden this server according to industry best practices?

Medium
22

In Linux, which command is used to change file permissions to restrict access so that only the owner can read and write, and the group and others have no access?

Easy
23

Which of the following OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities involves an attacker sending malicious data to an interpreter as part of a command or query?

Easy
24

During a vulnerability scan, a security team discovers that several virtual machine snapshots contain outdated software with known vulnerabilities. Which risk is most directly associated with this scenario?

Hard
25

An organization is hardening a Linux server. Which TWO of the following are effective steps to reduce the attack surface?

Medium
26

A cloud security team is implementing a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tool. What is the primary purpose of a CSPM solution?

Medium
27

A company is migrating to a PaaS cloud environment. According to the shared responsibility model, which THREE security responsibilities remain with the customer? (Select THREE.)

Hard
28

A Linux administrator is hardening a server. Which TWO commands are used to manage file permissions? (Select TWO.)

Easy
29

A security analyst is reviewing Linux server logs after a suspected breach. Which auditing tool should be used to examine detailed records of system calls and file access events?

Medium
30

A company uses Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for its production workloads. According to the shared responsibility model, which of the following security tasks is the customer responsible for?

Hard
31

An organization uses VMware ESXi in a production environment. Which of the following is the most effective mitigation against VM escape attacks?

Hard
32

Which of the following is a primary security concern when using VM snapshots in a virtualized environment?

Easy
33

A security engineer is hardening a Linux server. Which TWO actions are recommended to reduce the attack surface? (Select TWO.)

Medium
34

An organization is hardening a new Windows server for production use. Which of the following is the most effective method to ensure that only approved applications can run?

Easy
35

A security analyst is hardening a new Windows server. Which configuration would MOST effectively reduce the attack surface by limiting the software that can execute?

Easy
36

A security engineer is evaluating cloud security tools. Which TWO of the following are primarily used to protect cloud workloads? (Select two.)

Hard
37

An organization is hardening its Windows servers. Which built-in Windows feature can be used to enforce application whitelisting, ensuring only approved executables run?

Easy
38

Which Windows feature allows an administrator to define security policies such as password complexity and account lockout across multiple systems in a domain?

Easy
39

A security auditor discovers that a Linux server has a user who can execute any command as root via sudo without a password. Which file should be reviewed to verify this configuration?

Medium
40

During a security assessment, you discover that a Windows server has the Telnet service running. Which of the following is the BEST action to harden the server against this finding?

Easy
41

A forensic analyst needs to review security events from multiple Windows servers. To ensure that logs are centrally collected and resistant to tampering, which of the following should be implemented?

Hard
42

During a virtualized environment security assessment, which THREE of the following are considered risks associated with virtual machine snapshots? (Select three.)

Medium
43

According to the shared responsibility model in cloud computing, which security responsibility belongs to the customer in a SaaS deployment?

Easy
44

A security analyst is reviewing Linux audit logs with auditd. Which TWO events would be of greatest concern for a server that should not have interactive logins? (Select TWO.)

Hard
45

A company is deploying a web application and wants to protect against OWASP Top 10 attacks. Which THREE controls should be implemented? (Select THREE.)

Hard
46

A security engineer is hardening a Windows workstation. Which TWO configurations reduce the attack surface by limiting execution of unauthorized code? (Select TWO.)

Medium
47

An organization is implementing system hardening. Which of the following actions are recommended by CIS Benchmarks? (Select all that apply.)

Medium
48

A cloud security team is deploying a new web application on an IaaS platform. According to the shared responsibility model, which of the following security tasks is the customer responsible for?

Hard
49

A company uses multiple virtual machines on a single hypervisor. To prevent a VM from escaping its virtualized environment and compromising the hypervisor, which of the following should be implemented?

Medium
50

A security analyst is reviewing application security and identifies risks related to the OWASP Top 10. Which THREE are examples of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities? (Select THREE.)

Medium
51

A Linux system administrator needs to restrict network traffic to a server, allowing only HTTP and HTTPS from the internet. Which tool should be used to configure packet filtering rules?

Medium
52

A web application is vulnerable to SQL injection. Which security control would be MOST effective at detecting and blocking such attacks at the network perimeter?

Easy
53

A security administrator is configuring a Linux server to enforce mandatory access control (MAC). Which of the following tools provides MAC on Linux?

Medium
54

A cloud security architect is designing a solution to protect workloads running in a public cloud. Which THREE of the following are key security controls that should be implemented?

Medium
55

A cloud security team is implementing CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) for their IaaS environment. Which THREE issues is CSPM MOST likely to detect? (Select THREE.)

Medium
56

A security analyst is reviewing security events on a Linux server and needs to ensure that all authentication attempts, including both successful and failed logins, are logged. Which configuration should be used?

Medium
57

A security analyst is reviewing a web application for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. Which THREE of the following are examples of injection flaws?

Hard
58

A security administrator is reviewing Linux audit logs to detect unauthorized file access. Which Linux component is primarily responsible for generating these security audit logs?

Medium
59

An organization uses Linux servers and wants to implement mandatory access control (MAC) to enhance security. Which TWO technologies can be used? (Select TWO.)

Medium
60

During a code review, a developer identifies that a web application directly concatenates user input into SQL queries without sanitization. This vulnerability is classified under which OWASP Top 10 category?

Hard
61

Which of the following tools would best help a security team detect misconfigurations in a cloud environment, such as open storage buckets or overly permissive IAM roles?

Medium
62

An administrator wants to ensure that a Linux web server only allows the www-data user to run specific commands with elevated privileges. Which configuration file should be modified?

Medium
63

A Windows system administrator needs to enforce a security policy that prevents users from installing unauthorized software. Which feature should be configured via Group Policy?

Medium
64

An organization is implementing Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to prevent unauthorized applications from running on company workstations. Which of the following best describes the primary security benefit of this approach?

Medium
65

An organization wants to prevent unauthorized applications from running on Windows workstations. Which Windows feature should be used to enforce application whitelisting?

Easy
66

During a security assessment, an analyst finds that multiple snapshots of a critical virtual machine are stored on the hypervisor host. Some snapshots are several months old. Which risk is MOST likely?

Hard
67

During an application security review, a penetration tester discovers that a web application allows users to view other users' profiles by changing an ID parameter in the URL (e.g., /profile?id=123). Which OWASP Top 10 vulnerability does this represent?

Hard
68

A security analyst is reviewing OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities in a web application. Which TWO are injection-related attacks? (Select TWO.)

Hard
69

An application security team is reviewing code for vulnerabilities. They find that user input is directly concatenated into an SQL query without sanitization. This is an example of which OWASP Top 10 vulnerability?

Medium
70

A company is deploying virtual machines (VMs) in a private cloud environment. To prevent VM escape attacks, which of the following is the most critical security control?

Medium
71

A security analyst is reviewing an OWASP Top 10 vulnerability report. Which vulnerability involves an attacker accessing unauthorized data by modifying URLs or API parameters?

Medium
72

A company is concerned about VM sprawl in its data center. Which of the following is the most effective mitigation strategy?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the Systems and Application Security domain cover on the SSCP exam?
Systems and Application Security questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 72 Systems and Application Security questions in the SSCP question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Systems and Application Security questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
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