PCNSA Decryption and Monitoring Practice Question
A firewall is configured for inbound inspection decryption. Which certificate must be installed on the firewall for this to work?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse inbound inspection decryption with SSL forward proxy decryption, where the firewall uses its own certificate or a CA-signed certificate, leading them to incorrectly choose Option C or D.
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 server's certificate and private key.
Inbound inspection decryption requires the firewall to act as a TLS proxy, intercepting and decrypting traffic destined for a protected server. To do this, the firewall must possess the server's certificate and its corresponding private key, allowing it to terminate the TLS connection from the client and re-encrypt traffic to the server. Without the private key, the firewall cannot decrypt the session.
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 client's certificate.
Why it's wrong here
Client certificates are used for client authentication.
- ✓
The server's certificate and private key.
Why this is correct
Inbound inspection needs the server's private key to decrypt traffic.
- ✗
A trusted CA certificate from the enterprise PKI.
Why it's wrong here
This is required for forward proxy decryption, not inbound inspection.
- ✗
The firewall's own self-signed certificate.
Why it's wrong here
Self-signed certificates are not trusted by clients.
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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.