Courseiva

CCNA Security Services Questions

15 questions · Security Services topic · All types, answers revealed

1
MCQeasy

An administrator needs to understand where the boundary of customer responsibility lies when deploying compute instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. According to the OCI shared-responsibility model, which responsibility falls solely on the customer?

A.Guest operating system patching and configuration on the compute instances
B.Hypervisor patching and firmware updates on the physical host
C.Redundancy and cooling of the physical networking hardware
D.Physical security of the data center hosting the compute instances
AnswerA

Guest OS patching and configuration sits entirely with the customer, since OCI's shared-responsibility model places everything above the hypervisor under tenant control. Oracle secures the physical hosts, network fabric and virtualisation layer, but the operating system running inside your compute instances — its patches, hardening and settings — remains your sole obligation.

Why this answer

In the OCI shared-responsibility model, the customer is responsible for the guest operating system, including patching and configuration, on compute instances. Oracle manages the physical infrastructure, hypervisor, and data center security, but the customer controls and secures the OS and applications running on the instances.

Exam trap

1Z0-1085-26 often tests the boundary of responsibility — candidates may incorrectly assume Oracle patches the guest OS, but Oracle only patches the hypervisor and physical infrastructure.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because hypervisor patching and firmware updates on the physical host are Oracle's responsibility under the shared-responsibility model. Option C is wrong because redundancy and cooling of physical networking hardware are part of Oracle's data center management. Option D is wrong because physical security of the data center is solely Oracle's responsibility.

2
MCQmedium

A developer is building an application on a Compute instance that must read objects from an Object Storage bucket. The security policy forbids storing API keys or auth tokens on the instance. The instance runs in a compartment called app-prod, and the bucket lives in a different compartment called data-prod. Which approach allows the instance to access the bucket without embedding credentials?

A.Add the instance to a group in the default identity domain and grant that group read access to the bucket
B.Create a dynamic group with a matching rule for the instance, and write a policy allowing that dynamic group to read objects in the data-prod compartment
C.Generate a customer secret key for a service user and store it in the instance metadata as a custom tag
D.Create an auth token for a local user and reference it from an environment variable set in the instance startup script
AnswerB

Dynamic groups match resources such as instances by their attributes, so the instance becomes a principal that can be granted permissions without any stored secret. A policy granting that dynamic group read access on the bucket in data-prod authorizes the calls. The instance then uses its instance principals through the metadata service, and no credentials are written to disk.

Why this answer

Instance principals let a Compute instance authenticate to OCI APIs using certificates delivered through the instance metadata service, with no secret stored by the developer. A dynamic group with a matching rule identifies the instance as a principal, and a policy grants that dynamic group read access to objects in the target compartment. This satisfies least privilege and the prohibition on embedded credentials.

Exam trap

The trap here is assuming that any group can authorize a compute instance, when only a dynamic group with matching rules can act as the principal for instance principals authentication.

3
MCQhard

; You need to access a private database instance in an OCI VCN that has no public IP addresses assigned, without setting up a traditional VPN or an inbound bastion host with an open SSH port. Which service should you configure?

A.Dynamic Routing Gateway
B.OCI Bastion
D.Site-to-Site VPN
AnswerB

OCI Bastion creates a session-based, time-limited connection through the service's own managed endpoint, so no public IP, VPN or permanently open SSH port is needed. This satisfies the constraint of reaching the private database without exposing inbound access.

Why this answer

OCI Bastion is a fully managed service that provides secure, time-limited SSH access to private resources in a VCN without requiring a public IP, VPN, or an always-on bastion host with an open SSH port. You create a bastion in a public subnet and use it to create sessions to targets in private subnets.

Exam trap

The trap is choosing a connectivity service (DRG, NAT, VPN) when the requirement is secure, on-demand administrative access to a private resource without a persistent tunnel or open SSH port.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because a Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) provides connectivity between a VCN and external networks such as on-premises or other VCNs, not ad-hoc secure access to a private database. Option C is wrong because a NAT Gateway allows private subnet resources to initiate outbound internet traffic; it does not provide inbound access for administrators to reach a private database. Option D is wrong because a Site-to-Site VPN establishes a persistent encrypted tunnel between on-premises networks and a VCN, which the scenario explicitly says it wants to avoid.

4
MCQmedium

Your organization has strict compliance requirements and needs to ensure that no compute instance in a specific production compartment can ever have a public IP address attached. Which OCI service should you use to enforce this rule automatically?

A.Security Zones
B.Cloud Guard
C.Web Application Firewall
D.Vault Service
AnswerA

Security Zones enforce immutable, compartment-level policies that automatically deny any action violating the specified security policy, including attaching a public IP to a compute instance. Because the rule is recipe-based and cannot be overridden or disabled by users, it satisfies the compliance requirement for guaranteed, continuous enforcement in the production compartment.

Why this answer

OCI Security Zones enforce maximum security policies (recipes) by automatically validating and preventing misconfigurations, such as blocking public IP addresses on compute instances or ensuring buckets are private.

5
MCQmedium

A developer needs to store database connection strings and API tokens securely so that applications can retrieve them dynamically without hardcoding credentials. Which OCI service is designed specifically for this purpose?

A.Object Storage with customer-managed keys
B.Key Management Service Master Keys
C.Vault Secrets
D.Identity and Access Management Dynamic Groups
AnswerC

Vault Secrets stores credentials such as connection strings and API tokens in encrypted vaults, letting applications retrieve them programmatically at runtime. This directly satisfies the requirement to avoid hardcoding credentials, unlike plain Object Storage or config files, because secrets are centrally managed, audited and rotated without redeployment.

Why this answer

OCI Vault Secrets is the service specifically designed to securely store and manage sensitive data such as database connection strings, API tokens, passwords, and certificates. It provides a centralized secrets management system with automatic rotation, versioning, and fine-grained access control via IAM policies. Applications can retrieve secrets dynamically through the OCI SDK, CLI, or REST API, eliminating hardcoded credentials.

This directly addresses the developer's need for secure, dynamic retrieval of credentials.

Exam trap

1Z0-1085-26 often tests the distinction between encryption key management (KMS) and secrets management (Vault Secrets), causing candidates to confuse storing keys with storing secrets.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Object Storage with customer-managed keys is designed for storing unstructured data like files and backups, not for managing secrets; while encryption protects data at rest, it lacks secret lifecycle features like rotation and dynamic retrieval. Option B is wrong because Key Management Service Master Keys are used to create and manage encryption keys for data at rest, not to store arbitrary secrets like connection strings or API tokens; KMS keys are for cryptographic operations, not secret storage. Option D is wrong because IAM Dynamic Groups are used to grant permissions to OCI resources (e.g., compute instances) based on matching rules, not to store or retrieve secrets; they are part of identity management, not secrets management.

6
MCQmedium

A company wants to centrally manage and audit access to their OCI tenancy. They need to ensure that all user actions are logged and that they can detect suspicious activities. Which OCI service should they use?

A.Identity and Access Management (IAM)
B.Audit
C.Logging
D.Cloud Guard
AnswerB

OCI Audit automatically records all API calls and actions performed on resources in the tenancy. It provides a comprehensive log that can be used for security auditing, compliance, and detecting suspicious activities. The logs are immutable and retained for 90 days by default, and can be exported for longer retention. This meets the requirement for centralized access auditing.

Why this answer

The Audit service is the correct choice because it automatically logs all API calls and user actions in the tenancy, providing a centralized audit trail. Cloud Guard, Logging, and IAM serve different purposes: Cloud Guard detects security issues, Logging aggregates logs, and IAM manages access. Only Audit provides the comprehensive record needed for auditing and detecting suspicious activities.

Exam trap

The trap here is confusing Audit with Logging or Cloud Guard; Audit is the service that records all user actions, while the others consume or analyze those logs.

7
MCQhard

A financial services company runs a web application on OCI behind a public load balancer. Auditors require that all inbound traffic be inspected for common web exploits such as cross-site scripting and that malicious source IPs be blocked automatically for a period of time. The security team also wants to keep management overhead low by using managed rule sets. Which OCI service should be deployed in front of the application?

A.OCI Web Application Firewall
B.OCI Cloud Guard
C.OCI Bastion
D.OCI Network Firewall
AnswerA

OCI WAF inspects HTTP and HTTPS requests at Layer 7 and ships with managed rule sets that detect common web exploits including cross-site scripting and SQL injection. It can automatically add offending client IPs to an access-control block list for a configurable duration, which directly matches the automatic blocking requirement. It reduces operational burden because Oracle maintains and updates the managed rule sets.

Why this answer

The scenario requires inline inspection of HTTP traffic with managed application-layer rule sets and automatic temporary blocking of malicious clients. OCI Web Application Firewall is purpose-built for that: it attaches to a load balancer or edge endpoint, evaluates requests against Oracle-managed and custom rules, and can add offending IPs to a block list for a set duration. Network-layer and posture services cannot perform those application-layer actions.

Exam trap

The trap here is assuming that a network-layer firewall with intrusion prevention signatures covers application-layer exploits such as cross-site scripting, when that inspection belongs to the web application firewall.

8
MCQeasy

A security officer wants to monitor security risks across multiple OCI tenancies and compartments from a single consolidated dashboard. Which OCI service should they configure?

A.OCI Cloud Guard
B.OCI Bastion
C.OCI Web Application Firewall
D.OCI Vault
AnswerA

OCI Cloud Guard aggregates security findings across tenancies and compartments into one dashboard, satisfying the consolidated monitoring constraint. It detects misconfigurations and risky activity via detectors and responder recipes, reporting centrally through the Cloud Guard console. This cross-tenancy visibility is precisely what the security officer requires.

Why this answer

OCI Cloud Guard is a cloud security posture management service that helps customers monitor, assess, identify, and maintain a strong security posture on OCI by detecting misconfigured resources and insecure user activities.

9
MCQmedium

A security administrator is configuring a bastion host in OCI to provide secure SSH access to private compute instances. The administrator wants to use OCI Bastion service to minimize exposure. Which statement accurately describes the OCI Bastion service?

A.It requires a public IP address on the target private instances to establish the session.
B.It supports SSH and RDP sessions, and sessions are created with a specified time-to-live (TTL) after which they are automatically terminated.
C.It is a managed service that requires deploying a bastion host compute instance in a public subnet.
D.It can only be used to access resources within the same compartment as the bastion.
AnswerB

This is correct because OCI Bastion service supports both SSH and RDP session types. When creating a session, you specify a maximum TTL, and the session is automatically terminated after that period. This enhances security by limiting the duration of access. The service also provides auditing of sessions. This meets the administrator's requirement for secure, temporary access.

Why this answer

OCI Bastion service is a managed, serverless service that provides secure SSH and RDP access to private instances without public IPs. Sessions have a configurable TTL and are automatically terminated. It does not require deploying a bastion host, and it can be used across compartments with proper policies.

This makes it an ideal solution for secure administrative access.

Exam trap

The trap here is thinking the Bastion service requires a compute instance; it is fully managed and serverless, so no infrastructure deployment is needed.

10
MCQhard

An enterprise application deployed on OCI is experiencing frequent Layer 7 HTTP flood attacks and SQL injection attempts. Which OCI service provides comprehensive protection against these web vulnerabilities?

A.Cloud Guard
B.Virtual Cloud Network Security Lists
C.Network Security Groups
D.OCI Web Application Firewall
AnswerD

OCI Web Application Firewall inspects Layer 7 HTTP traffic, filtering malicious requests and blocking SQL injection payloads before they reach the application. It directly addresses both the HTTP flood and injection constraints named in the stem, unlike network-layer defences that cannot parse application content.

Why this answer

OCI Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a cloud-based, PCI-compliant security service that protects applications from malicious internet traffic, including cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and HTTP floods.

11
MCQeasy

A cloud administrator is configuring a new tenancy and wants each business unit to have its own isolated set of users and groups while still being centrally billed and governed. The administrator also wants to give a specific group permission to manage only the networking resources inside one of those units. Which OCI IAM construct should be used to create that isolated container of users and groups?

A.Dynamic groups
B.Federation with an external identity provider
C.Compartments
D.Identity domains
AnswerD

Identity domains are the OCI IAM construct that provides an isolated container for users, groups, and identity-provider configuration within a tenancy. Each domain has its own namespace, so business units can be separated while the tenancy remains centrally billed. Policies can then grant a group in that domain access scoped to specific compartments or resources.

Why this answer

Identity domains provide the isolated user and group namespace inside a tenancy, which is what allows separate business units to have their own identities while sharing tenancy-level billing and governance. Policies authored at the tenancy level can then reference groups from a specific domain and scope their permissions to chosen compartments or resources, satisfying both isolation and least privilege.

Exam trap

The trap here is confusing compartments, which isolate resources, with identity domains, which isolate users and groups.

12
MCQeasy

According to the OCI shared-responsibility model, who is responsible for managing user accounts, password policies, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) configurations?

A.Oracle
B.Both Oracle and the customer jointly via shared IAM consoles
C.The customer
D.Third-party identity auditor
AnswerC

The customer configures identity controls within OCI Identity and Access Management, including user accounts, password policies and MFA enforcement. Oracle secures the underlying cloud infrastructure, but identity governance remains a tenant responsibility, satisfying the stem's requirement for account, credential and authentication management ownership.

Why this answer

Under the OCI shared-responsibility model, Oracle secures the cloud infrastructure (physical data centers, hardware, hypervisor, and the core IAM service itself), while the customer is responsible for everything they put in the cloud — including managing their own user accounts, password policies, and MFA configurations. Identity management of the customer's users is a customer-side responsibility.

Exam trap

1Z0-1085-26 often tests the misconception that Oracle manages customer identities because it operates the IAM service — in reality, user accounts, password policies, and MFA are customer responsibilities.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Oracle is responsible for the security OF the cloud (infrastructure and service availability), not for configuring the customer's users, passwords, or MFA. Option B is wrong because there is no joint shared IAM console where Oracle and the customer co-manage user accounts — the customer administers its own tenancy's IAM independently. Option D is wrong because a third-party identity auditor is not part of the OCI shared-responsibility model at all; auditing is a customer-initiated activity, not a responsibility assignment.

13
MCQeasy

A system administrator needs to grant a new employee access to manage compute instances in a specific compartment. The employee should not have access to any other resources. Which OCI IAM policy statement should the administrator use?

A.Allow group ComputeAdmins to read instances in compartment Production
B.Allow group ComputeAdmins to manage instances in compartment Production
C.Allow group ComputeAdmins to manage instances in tenancy
D.Allow group ComputeAdmins to manage all-resources in tenancy
AnswerB

This policy grants the group ComputeAdmins the ability to manage instances within the Production compartment only. The 'manage' verb allows full control over instances, and the scope is limited to the specified compartment. This meets the requirement of granting access to manage compute instances without granting access to other resources.

Why this answer

The policy that grants manage rights on instances within the Production compartment is correct because it provides the necessary permissions while scoping access to only that compartment. The other options either grant excessive permissions across the tenancy or insufficient read-only access. This follows the principle of least privilege.

Exam trap

The trap here is choosing a policy that grants broader access than needed, such as managing all resources or instances in the tenancy, which violates least privilege.

14
MCQhard

A healthcare organization stores sensitive patient data in an OCI Object Storage bucket. Compliance requires that all data be encrypted at rest with a key that the organization manages and rotates every 90 days. The organization already uses OCI Vault. Which encryption approach should they implement?

A.Use client-side encryption with a key stored on a compute instance's boot volume.
B.Use Oracle-managed encryption keys and enable automatic rotation.
C.Use customer-managed keys stored in OCI Vault and configure a rotation schedule.
D.Use HTTPS for data in transit and rely on default server-side encryption for data at rest.
AnswerC

Customer-managed keys in OCI Vault allow the organization to create, manage, and rotate keys according to their own policies. They can set a rotation schedule of 90 days and maintain control over key access. Object Storage supports encryption with customer-managed keys, and this meets the compliance requirement for customer-managed encryption with defined rotation.

Why this answer

Customer-managed keys in OCI Vault are the correct solution because they give the organization full control over the encryption keys, including the ability to define and enforce a 90-day rotation schedule. Object Storage integrates with Vault to use these keys for server-side encryption. Oracle-managed keys and client-side keys stored on instances do not provide the required control and rotation capabilities.

Exam trap

The trap here is assuming that default server-side encryption or Oracle-managed keys meet compliance for customer-managed keys; they do not, because the customer lacks control over rotation and access.

15
MCQmedium

Your security team notices that Cloud Guard has generated numerous 'problems' related to overly permissive IAM policies across multiple compartments. Where do these problems originate from?

A.Detector recipes
B.Vault Master Encryption keys
C.Security Zone recipes
D.Responder recipes
AnswerA

Detector recipes define the conditions and rules that Cloud Guard evaluates against resources in each compartment. Overly permissive IAM policies matching those conditions generate the reported problems, so the findings originate from detector recipes rather than responders or targets.

Why this answer

Cloud Guard problems are generated by detector recipes, which define the categories of misconfigurations and security issues that Cloud Guard monitors, such as overly permissive IAM policies. Detector recipes evaluate resources against rules and emit problems when violations are found. Responder recipes only define the automated remediation actions taken after a problem is detected, so they are not the source of the problems themselves.

Exam trap

1Z0-1085-26 often tests the distinction between detector recipes (which find problems) and responder recipes (which fix them) — candidates frequently swap the two because both are 'recipes' in Cloud Guard.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because Vault Master Encryption keys are used for encrypting data in OCI Vault and have no role in generating Cloud Guard problems. Option C is wrong because Security Zone recipes enforce preventive policies that block non-compliant resource creation; they do not produce Cloud Guard problems. Option D is wrong because Responder recipes define the corrective actions (e.g., turning off a bucket, deleting a public IP) that Cloud Guard takes in response to a problem, not the origin of the problem.

Ready to test yourself?

Try a timed practice session using only Security Services questions.