PCNSE Practice Question: Securing Users and Applications with Authentication
Exhibit
admin@PA-5000> show user user-id dump User-ID Dump IP: 10.10.1.10 User: jdoe@company.com Source: Pre-Login mapping IP: 10.10.1.11 User: (unknown) IP: 10.10.1.20 User: jsmith@company.com Source: Kerberos
Refer to the exhibit. A user at IP 10.10.1.11 is unable to access internal resources that require authentication. The firewall logs show 'no user mapping' for traffic from this IP. Which step should the administrator take first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to configuring authentication policies or static mappings without first verifying the basic connectivity between the User-ID agent and the client, which is the most common root cause of missing user mappings.
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
✓
Verify that the User-ID agent has network access to the client at 10.10.1.11.
The 'no user mapping' error indicates that the firewall cannot correlate the IP address (10.10.1.11) with a username. The first step is to verify that the User-ID agent can reach the client, because without network connectivity, the agent cannot collect user mappings via probing (e.g., WMI, NetBIOS, or terminal services). Option B directly addresses this root cause.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure an authentication policy to trigger captive portal for that IP.
Why it's wrong here
Captive portal would prompt the user to authenticate, but the underlying issue of missing user mapping remains.
- ✓
Verify that the User-ID agent has network access to the client at 10.10.1.11.
Why this is correct
If the User-ID agent cannot communicate with the client or domain controller, no mapping is created.
- ✗
Check the Kerberos keytab file.
Why it's wrong here
The exhibit shows the user at 10.10.1.20 is mapped via Kerberos, but 10.10.1.11 is unknown, so Kerberos may not be configured for that subnet.
- ✗
Manually create a static mapping for IP 10.10.1.11.
Why it's wrong here
Static mapping is a workaround but should not be the first step; the root cause should be investigated.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This PCNSE question is part of Courseiva's 504-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 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.