SPLK-1002 Transactions and Event Correlation Practice Question
An organization has a transaction that groups firewall events by source IP to detect port scans. The transaction uses `maxpause=1m`. Some valid scans are being missed because events occasionally have gaps longer than 1 minute due to network latency. Which change would best capture these scans without introducing too many false positives?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often think decreasing `maxpause` or removing it entirely will reduce false positives, but in reality, that would increase missed detections (false negatives) without addressing the root cause of latency gaps.
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
✓
Increase maxpause to 2 minutes
Increasing maxpause to 2 minutes allows the transaction to tolerate longer gaps between events caused by network latency, ensuring that valid port scans are still captured. This change directly addresses the issue without altering the grouping logic or removing the timeout guard, which would otherwise risk false positives or incorrect grouping.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Decrease maxspan to 30 seconds
Why it's wrong here
Shorter maxspan would break transactions earlier, missing more scans.
- ✗
Remove maxpause and use only maxspan
Why it's wrong here
Without maxpause, transactions could remain open too long, increasing false positives and memory usage.
- ✗
Group by destination IP instead of source IP
Why it's wrong here
Changing the grouping field does not address the pause issue.
- ✓
Increase maxpause to 2 minutes
Why this is correct
Longer pause tolerance captures the scans despite latency, while still closing transactions after gaps.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SPLK-1002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Splunk 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 SPLK-1002 exam.