PCNSE Core Concepts and Architecture Practice Question
A security engineer is troubleshooting a traffic drop issue on a Palo Alto Networks firewall. The traffic is allowed by the security policy, but the session is being terminated. Which two features could cause this behavior? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume only security policy rules control traffic flow, forgetting that additional security features like DoS Protection and Zone Protection Profiles can override an allow action by terminating sessions based on rate limits or attack signatures.
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
✓
DoS Protection
A DoS Protection profile can terminate sessions that exceed configured thresholds for rate, connection count, or other attack-related criteria, even if the security policy explicitly allows the traffic. When the firewall detects that a session matches a DoS Protection rule and the traffic rate or concurrent session count surpasses the defined threshold, it will drop the session to mitigate the attack, overriding the allow action from the security policy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
DoS Protection
Why this is correct
DoS Protection can actively terminate sessions exceeding thresholds.
- ✗
User-ID
Why it's wrong here
User-ID maps users to IPs and does not drop traffic.
- ✗
SSL Decryption
Why it's wrong here
SSL Decryption does not drop traffic; it decrypts or bypasses.
- ✗
URL Filtering
Why it's wrong here
URL Filtering blocks based on URL category but does not terminate existing sessions.
- ✓
Zone Protection Profile
Why this is correct
Zone Protection can drop traffic based on flood protection or packet-based attacks.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSE 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 PCNSE exam.