PCNSA Decryption and Monitoring Practice Question
An administrator wants to view logs related to decryption failures. Which log type should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'decryption failures' with 'threat events' and select Threat logs, not realizing that decryption errors are session-level actions logged in Traffic logs, not security threat detections.
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
✓
Traffic logs
Traffic logs capture all session-level events, including decryption failures, because they record the action taken by the firewall (e.g., 'decrypt', 'no-decrypt', or 'decrypt-error'). When decryption fails due to issues like certificate validation errors, unsupported cipher suites, or handshake failures, the firewall logs the session as a traffic log entry with a specific reason code. This makes Traffic logs the correct source for troubleshooting decryption failures.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Traffic logs
Why this is correct
Traffic logs include fields for decryption status and failure reason.
- ✗
Threat logs
Why it's wrong here
Threat logs record security threats, not decryption failures.
- ✗
URL Filtering logs
Why it's wrong here
URL Filtering logs show URL categories, not decryption errors.
- ✗
System logs
Why it's wrong here
System logs show administrative events, not per-session decryption failures.
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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.