PCNSA Decryption and Monitoring Practice Question
During SSL decryption, which three factors can cause the firewall to fail to decrypt a session or to bypass decryption?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates think a faulty hardware accelerator (Option C) directly causes decryption failure, but Palo Alto Networks firewalls fall back to software decryption if hardware acceleration fails, so it does not result in a bypass or failure to decrypt.
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 decryption rule has a schedule that is not currently active.
A decryption rule with a schedule that is not currently active will not apply, causing the firewall to bypass decryption for the matching traffic. The firewall checks the schedule before attempting decryption, and if the schedule is inactive, the rule is effectively disabled, leading to a bypass.
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 decryption rule has a schedule that is not currently active.
Why this is correct
A rule with a schedule that is out of window will not match, so decryption will not apply.
- ✗
The SSH protocol is being used instead of SSL/TLS.
Why it's wrong here
SSH is not decrypted by SSL/TLS decryption; it would require SSH decryption, but it doesn't cause a 'failure to decrypt' – it simply doesn't match.
- ✗
The firewall's decryption hardware accelerator is faulty.
Why it's wrong here
A faulty accelerator might degrade performance but does not cause individual sessions to bypass decryption.
- ✓
The server certificate is signed by a CA not trusted by the firewall.
Why this is correct
If the decryption profile allows untrusted certificates, the session may be allowed without decryption.
- ✓
The session uses a cipher that is not listed in the decryption profile's allowed ciphers.
Why this is correct
If the cipher is not in the allowed list, the firewall cannot decrypt the session.
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About these practice questions
This PCNSA question is part of Courseiva's 516-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.