PCNSE Secure Access and VPN Practice Question
Which TWO conditions are required for a successful GlobalProtect connection using certificate authentication?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse certificate authentication with SSL/TLS certificate validation for the portal/gateway, thinking the client needs the firewall's root CA, or they mistakenly believe the firewall must store the client's public key, when in fact it only needs the CA's public key to verify the certificate signature.
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 client certificate must be issued by a CA trusted by the firewall.
Certificate authentication requires the firewall to validate the client certificate against a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). The firewall maintains a list of trusted CA certificates; if the client certificate is not signed by one of these CAs, the authentication fails. This ensures the client certificate is genuine and issued by an authority the firewall trusts.
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 client certificate must be issued by a CA trusted by the firewall.
Why this is correct
Correct. The firewall trusts the CA to validate the client certificate.
- ✓
The GlobalProtect portal must have a certificate for SSL.
Why this is correct
Correct. The portal uses SSL/TLS to secure the web interface.
- ✗
The user's browser must have the firewall's root CA certificate.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The GlobalProtect client does not use browser for cert validation.
- ✗
The firewall must have the client certificate's public key.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The firewall trusts the CA, not individual client public keys.
- ✗
The client must have a valid username and password.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Certificate authentication does not require username/password.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCNSE question from scratch — 504 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.