PCNSA Decryption and Monitoring Practice Question
A security engineer notices that HTTPS traffic to a critical business application is being decrypted and re-encrypted, causing performance issues. The application uses a certificate from a public CA. The engineer wants to minimize decryption overhead while still inspecting for threats. Which decryption policy configuration best achieves this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume 'No Decrypt' means no inspection at all, but with certificate status check enabled, the firewall still validates the certificate chain and revocation status, providing security without decryption overhead.
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 rule with action 'No Decrypt' and enable 'Forward Trust Certificate' and 'Forward Untrust Certificate' with certificate status check.
Setting the action to 'No Decrypt' with a Forward Trust Certificate and Forward Untrust Certificate enabled, along with certificate status check, allows the firewall to validate the server certificate and forward the original encrypted traffic without decrypting it. This minimizes decryption overhead while still performing certificate inspection to detect threats like revoked or untrusted certificates, which is ideal for traffic from a public CA where decryption is not required for threat detection.
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 rule with action 'Decrypt' and a custom URL category for the application.
Why it's wrong here
Decrypting all traffic adds overhead and is not minimized.
- ✗
Create a decryption policy rule with action 'No Decrypt' and disable certificate status check.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling status check trusts all certificates, including potentially compromised ones.
- ✓
Create a decryption policy rule with action 'No Decrypt' and enable 'Forward Trust Certificate' and 'Forward Untrust Certificate' with certificate status check.
Why this is correct
This allows trusted certificates to pass without decryption, reducing overhead while still validating certificates.
- ✗
Create a decryption policy rule with action 'Decrypt' and source zone set to 'Untrust'.
Why it's wrong here
Decrypting from untrust zone increases overhead and does not specifically address the application.
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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.