PCNSA Decryption and Monitoring Practice Question
A company wants to decrypt all SSL/TLS traffic from internal users except traffic to financial sites. The firewall is placed as a forward proxy. Which policy configuration ensures that traffic to financial sites is not decrypted?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse security policies with decryption policies, or mistakenly think that a 'decrypt' action with an exemption list is equivalent to a 'no-decrypt' policy, when in fact Palo Alto Networks requires a separate decryption policy with the 'no-decrypt' action for explicit exclusion.
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
✓
Create a decryption policy with action 'no-decrypt' for traffic to financial sites, and a catch-all decryption policy with action 'decrypt' for all other traffic.
It uses a specific 'no-decrypt' action in a decryption policy for financial sites, which explicitly excludes them from SSL/TLS decryption. A catch-all policy with 'decrypt' then ensures all other internal user traffic is decrypted. This approach directly aligns with the forward proxy requirement to decrypt all traffic except the specified financial sites.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a decryption policy and use the 'exclude cache' option for financial sites.
Why it's wrong here
The 'exclude cache' option is not related to bypassing decryption.
- ✗
Create a security policy that allows financial sites without decryption; then create a decryption policy with action 'no-decrypt' for those sites.
Why it's wrong here
Security policies do not control decryption actions.
- ✗
Create a decryption policy with action 'decrypt' and a source zone of internal; then create a decryption exemption for financial URLs.
Why it's wrong here
Decryption exemption is for certificate authentication, not for bypassing decryption.
- ✓
Create a decryption policy with action 'no-decrypt' for traffic to financial sites, and a catch-all decryption policy with action 'decrypt' for all other traffic.
Why this is correct
This ensures financial traffic is not decrypted while all other traffic is decrypted.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCNSA question from scratch — 516 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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 PCNSA practice question is part of Courseiva's free Palo Alto Networks 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 PCNSA exam.