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PCNSA Practice Question: A small company runs a Palo Alto Networks PA-220…
A small company runs a Palo Alto Networks PA-220 firewall with three zones: trust (internal users), untrust (internet), and dmz (public-facing services). They host a web server on IP 10.0.1.10 in the dmz zone, serving HTTPS content. The administrator created a security policy rule that allows traffic from untrust to dmz with source 'any', destination 10.0.1.10, service HTTPS, and action allow. No security profiles are applied to this rule. Users outside the company can access the web server successfully. However, the administrator notices from log reports that certain application-based attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, are reaching the web server undetected. The firewall has the required threat prevention licenses installed. What is the best course of action to improve security posture?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume threat prevention profiles alone can inspect encrypted traffic, but without decryption, the firewall cannot see the application-layer payload, making profiles ineffective against HTTPS-based attacks.
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
✓
Add a decryption policy to decrypt HTTPS traffic for inspection.
The traffic is HTTPS, which is encrypted. Without decryption, the firewall cannot inspect the payload for application-based attacks like SQL injection or XSS, even with threat prevention licenses. Adding a decryption policy allows the firewall to decrypt the traffic, apply threat prevention profiles, and detect these attacks.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Add a decryption policy to decrypt HTTPS traffic for inspection.
Why this is correct
Decryption allows the firewall to see the plaintext content of HTTPS sessions, enabling security profiles to detect and block application-layer attacks.
- ✗
Change the rule's security profile group to include threat prevention profiles.
Why it's wrong here
Even with a full security profile group, the firewall cannot inspect the encrypted payload of HTTPS traffic without decryption.
- ✗
Move the web server to the trust zone and adjust routing.
Why it's wrong here
Moving the server to trust would expose internal resources to the internet and break the purpose of the DMZ, while also potentially affecting accessibility.
- ✗
Enable vulnerability protection profile on the existing rule.
Why it's wrong here
While vulnerability protection helps, without decryption the profile cannot inspect encrypted HTTPS traffic, so attacks would still bypass.
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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.