300-710 Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower (300-710 SNCF) Questions and Answers

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (FTDv) appliances support High Availability (HA) configurations in specific virtual environments. The supported environments for HA setups include:

ESXi: VMware ' s ESXi is a widely supported platform for deploying FTDv appliances in HA configurations.

AWS: Amazon Web Services (AWS) supports FTDv appliances and allows for HA configurations to ensure redundancy and reliability in cloud deployments.

These environments provide the necessary infrastructure and capabilities to support the high availability requirements for FTDv appliances.

When reconfiguring an existing Cisco FTD from transparent mode to routed mode, an additional action that must be taken to maintain communication between the two network segments is toupdate the IP addressing so that each segment is a unique IP subnet. This is because in routed mode, the FTD device acts as a router hop in the network and requires each interface to be on a different subnet. In transparent mode, the FTD device acts as a layer 2 firewall and does not require different subnets for each interface1.

The other options are incorrect because:

Configuring a NAT rule so that traffic between the segments is exempt from NAT is not necessary to maintain communication between the two network segments. NAT is used to translate IP addresses between different networks, but it does not affect the routing of packets. Moreover, NAT is optional in routed mode and can be disabled if not needed2.

Deploying inbound ACLs on each interface to allow traffic between the segments is not required to maintain communication between the two network segments. ACLs are used to control access to network resources based on source and destination addresses, protocols, and ports. They do not affect the routing of packets. Furthermore, ACLs are optional in routed mode and can be configured as needed3.

Assigning a unique VLAN ID for the interface in each segment is not relevant to maintain communication between the two network segments. VLANs are used to create logical groups of hosts that share the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location or connection. They do not affect the routing of packets. Besides, VLANs are not supported in routed mode and can only be used in transparent mode4.

Interface → outside

Source Host → any

Packet 1 source → 209.165.201.2

Packet 2 source → 209.165.201.1

Packet 4 ICMP message → echo reply

Unused Options:

209.165.202.1

209.165.202.2

The capture must run on the FTDv outside interface, where the client’s translated address is 209.165.201.2. Selecting any as the source-host criterion captures both the outbound echo requests and the inbound ICMP responses. The first request therefore appears as 209.165.201.2 to 209.165.202.2. When the initial traceroute probe expires at R1, the router generates an ICMP time-exceeded response using its interface address 209.165.201.1. A later probe reaches Server1, which returns an ICMP echo reply from 209.165.202.2 to 209.165.201.2. The completed-answer exhibit in List B places several IP addresses inconsistently; the mapping above follows the displayed topology and actual ICMP traceroute packet flow. Cisco FTD capture and Packet Tracer guidance

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If users report that Cisco Duo 2FA fails when attempting to connect to the VPN on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) device, and the VPN troubleshooting log in FMC shows an error indicating that the Cisco Duo AAA server has been marked as failed, the root cause is likely missing Duo trust certificates on the FTD device. Trust certificates are essential for establishing a secure and trusted connection between the FTD and the Duo authentication service.

Steps:

Obtain the necessary Duo trust certificates.

Install the certificates on the FTD device.

Verify the configuration to ensure that the FTD device can properly communicate with the Duo AAA server.

This resolves the authentication failure by ensuring that the FTD device can trust the Duo server.

A passive interface is specifically designed to monitor copied network traffic received from a switch SPAN or mirror port. Because the Secure Firewall Threat Defense device is not physically placed in the traffic path, it receives a copy of the packets for inspection but does not retransmit them. This provides network and intrusion visibility without affecting production traffic. The trade-off is that a passive deployment cannot directly block, shape, or modify the monitored traffic because the original packets continue through the switch independently. An inline deployment, by comparison, places paired interfaces directly in the forwarding path and can drop malicious traffic. Routed and transparent describe firewall forwarding modes and are not the appropriate SPAN-based IPS interface type. Therefore, a SPAN-port monitoring deployment requires a passive interface. Cisco passive-interface documentation

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Cisco Firepower uses FlexConfig objects to send NetFlow data. Here ' s the key point:

NetFlow_Set_Parameters object: Defines the parameters of the NetFlow data being exported (e.g., version, sampling rate).

NetFlow_Add_Destination object: Specifies the IP address and port of the flow collector (in this case, your Cisco Stealthwatch appliance) where the NetFlow data should be sent.

Secure Firewall Management Center evaluates access control entries sequentially from the lowest sequence number to the highest and stops processing after the first match. Because host 10.236.131.1 is contained within network 10.236.131.0/24, the specific host exception must appear before the broader subnet block. Sequence 1 must therefore allow 10.236.131.1, and sequence 2 must block 10.236.131.0/24. If the subnet block were placed first, traffic to 10.236.131.1 would match that entry and never reach the subsequent host allow entry. Cisco recommends placing more specific entries above general entries for exactly this reason. In an access list object, Allow identifies traffic to which the associated service applies, while Block excludes it from that service; it does not necessarily mean the firewall drops the packet. Cisco access-list object documentation

Encrypted Visibility Engine provides visibility into encrypted TLS sessions by fingerprinting characteristics of the TLS handshake and associating them with known client applications or processes. The SSL/TLS policy supplies the encrypted-traffic handling framework used with the access control policy. Application detection must also be enabled so that the system can identify and classify applications represented by EVE fingerprints. Cisco Success Network is a telemetry and product-support capability and is unrelated to encrypted-session classification. Identity policy configuration maps users to network activity but is not an EVE prerequisite. Although current Vulnerability Database content provides fingerprinting intelligence, merely scheduling VDB updates does not complete the policy configuration described in the question. Therefore, configuring the SSL/TLS policy and enabling application detectors are the required actions. Cisco Encrypted Visibility Engine documentation

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When configuring a custom widget on a dashboard within Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), it is mandatory to provide a title for the system to display the information correctly. The title helps in identifying and organizing the widget on the dashboard.

Steps:

Navigate to the dashboard section in FMC.

Add a new custom widget.

Configure the widget settings and provide a title.

Save and apply the widget to the dashboard.

Providing a title ensures that the widget is correctly displayed and easily identifiable on the dashboard.

The Cisco Threat Response browser plugin provides contextual investigation capabilities that can be launched from Secure Firewall Management Center. It allows an administrator to investigate an observable, such as a suspicious IP address, against Cisco threat-intelligence and integrated security sources without manually transferring the value to another interface. Secure Network Analytics analyzes network telemetry and behavior but is not the browser-based lookup mechanism described. Cisco ISE supplies identity, authorization, and network-access context, while Secure Endpoint provides endpoint telemetry and file or process investigation. Neither is the direct web-page investigation tool requested. Cisco documentation describes contextual cross-launch functionality for looking up suspicious source addresses in Cisco or third-party cloud-hosted intelligence services. Therefore, the Threat Response browser plugin is the correct selection. Cisco event investigation using web resources

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The show bgp neighbors NEIGHBOR-IP advertised-routes command displays the prefixes that the Secure Firewall Threat Defense device is advertising to a specific BGP neighbor. It must be executed against the managed threat defense device through the Advanced Troubleshooting interface. The ordinary show route command displays routes installed in the local routing table, not the specific prefixes advertised to a neighbor. Route injection is a configuration capability and does not provide the required verification output. Cisco’s command reference confirms that the advertised-routes keyword displays all routes advertised to the specified BGP peer, including the network, next hop, metric, weight, and AS path. Therefore, option A directly verifies the routes being shared with the upstream router. Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Command Reference

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In the integration between Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco Firewall Management Center (FMC), realms are used to define the Active Directory (AD) configuration. Realms in FMC specify the AD servers, domain, and other authentication settings necessary to authenticate and authorize users.

Steps to configure realms:

In FMC, navigate toSystem > Integration > Realms and Directory.

Add a new realm and configure the AD settings.

Ensure the realm settings match the AD environment for seamless integration.

Realms are essential for integrating AD with FMC, allowing the firewall to use AD for user authentication and policy enforcement.

The capture shows that the client repeatedly transmits a TCP SYN but does not receive the SYN-ACK required to advance the connection state. This indicates that the return portion of the TCP three-way handshake is not reaching the expected ingress interface or is not being processed there. The outside interface must therefore be configured or connected so that the returning SYN-ACK packets arrive through the interface where the firewall expects them. An access rule does not instruct an interface to generate TCP acknowledgement messages; ACK and SYN-ACK packets are produced by the communicating endpoints. Likewise, permitting communication “with the DMZ” does not address the missing return-handshake packet shown in the capture. Correcting the return path through the outside interface allows the firewall to observe both directions, establish state, and forward the subsequent packets.

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4, 1, 2, 3

Explanation

To collect 24 hours ' worth of data using a packet capture on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) appliance without prematurely stopping due to buffer size limitations, the engineer should increase the packet capture buffer size. The default buffer size is 32 MB, which is insufficient for extended captures.

Steps:

Access the packet capture configuration on the FTD device.

Increase the buffer size to 1 GB, which provides a significantly larger capacity for capturing packets over a 24-hour period.

Setting the buffer size to 1 GB should accommodate a substantial amount of traffic and prevent the capture from stopping prematurely.

To determine if a host is infected with malware, the network administrator can look at the Indications of Compromise (IOC) feature in Cisco FMC. The IOC feature analyzes network and endpoint data collected by Firepower sensors and AMP for Endpoints connectors, and identifies hosts that exhibit signs of compromise or infection. The IOC feature uses predefined rules based on Cisco Talos intelligence and other sources to detect IOCs on hosts. One of these rules is CnC Connected, which indicates that a host has communicated with a command-and-control (CnC) server that is known to be associated with malware activity2.

To view the IOC information for a host, the network administrator can navigate to Analysis > Hosts > Indications of Compromise in Cisco FMC, and select a host from the table. The IOC Details page will show the IOC events for that host, including the CnC Connected event, along with other information such as severity, timestamp, source, destination, protocol, and rule name. The network administrator can also view more details about each IOC event by clicking on it2.

The other options are incorrect because:

Analysis > Files > Malware Events shows information about files that have been detected as malware by Firepower sensors or AMP for Endpoints connectors. This does not show information about hosts that are infected with malware or have communicated with CnC servers3.

Analysis > Hosts > Host Attributes shows information about hosts that have been discovered by Firepower sensors, such as IP address, MAC address, operating system, applications, users, vulnerabilities, and so on. This does not show information about IOCs or CnC connections on hosts4.

Analysis > Files > Network File Trajectory shows information about files that have traversed your network and have been detected by Firepower sensors or AMP for Endpoints connectors. This allows you to track where a file came from, where it went, and what happened to it along the way. This does not show information about hosts that are infected with malware or have communicated with CnC servers5.

The content keyword is used to specify a string or pattern to search for in the payload or stream of a packet. The string must be enclosed in quotation marks and can use modifiers such as nocase, depth, offset, and so on. The string can also use hexadecimal notation by using a pipe symbol (|) before and after the hexadecimal characters. For example, content: " |45 5* 26 27 4 0A| " will match any payload or stream that contains the hexadecimal bytes 45 5 26 27 4 0A followed by any number of bytes2

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/620/configuration/guide/fpmc-config-guide-v62/firepower_management_center_high_availability.html

The casebook and pivot menu are widgets available in Cisco Threat Response. Casebook - It is used to record, organize, and share sets of observables of interest primarily during an investigation and threat analysis. You can use a casebook to get the current verdicts or dispositions on the observables.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/ces/user_guide/esa_user_guide_13-5-1/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_ces_13-5-1/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_13-0_chapter_0110001.pdf

Secure Firewall Management Center must trust the certificate presented by the Cisco ISE pxGrid server. Therefore, the certificate authority certificate that signed the pxGrid node’s server certificate must be exported from ISE and imported into Management Center as a trusted CA object. If primary and secondary pxGrid nodes are deployed, Cisco requires their certificates to be signed by the same trusted certificate authority. Depending on the integration design, the engineer might also need the monitoring-node CA certificate and a pxGrid client certificate with its private key for Management Center. However, the question specifically asks which certificate establishes trust with the pxGrid server node. SAML and domain-controller certificates are unrelated, and a certificate cannot simultaneously be self-signed and signed by a third-party CA. Cisco ISE and Secure Firewall certificate integration

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To capture packets that are dropped by Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) and troubleshoot the issue of traffic from the inside network to a webserver not getting through, the administrator should use the command to capture packets dropped by the accelerated security path (ASP) engine. The correct command is:

capture CAP type asp-drop all headers-only

This command captures all packets dropped by the ASP engine, which includes packets that are being blocked by access control policies, NAT issues, or other security checks.

Steps:

Access the FTD CLI.

Run the commandcapture CAP type asp-drop all headers-onlyto capture dropped packets.

Analyze the captured data to identify the cause of the drops.

This command provides detailed information on why packets are being dropped, helping the administrator resolve the issue.

To connect to a Secure Endpoint private cloud instance from Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), the network engineer requires the SSL certificate for the Secure Endpoint private cloud instance. This SSL certificate is necessary to establish a secure, trusted connection between the FMC and the private cloud instance.

Steps:

Obtain the SSL certificate from the server administrator.

Import the SSL certificate into the FMC.

Configure the connection to the Secure Endpoint private cloud instance using the provided hostname and SSL certificate.

This ensures a secure and authenticated connection to the private cloud instance.

The default action setting in a Cisco FTD Access Control Policy determines how the system handles and logs traffic that is not handled by any other access control configuration. The default action can block or trust all traffic without further inspection, or inspect traffic for intrusions and discovery data3.

The Trust All Traffic option allows all traffic from an undefined application to pass without Snort inspection. This option also disables Security Intelligence filtering, file and malware inspection, and URL filtering for all traffic handled by the default action. This option is useful when you want to minimize the performance impact of access control on your network3.

The other options are incorrect because:

The Inherit from Base Policy option inherits the default action setting from the base policy. The base policy is the predefined access control policy that you use as a starting point for creating your own policies. Depending on which base policy you choose, the inherited default action setting can be different3.

The Network Discovery Only option inspects all traffic for discovery data only. This option enables Security Intelligence filtering for all traffic handled by the default action, but disables file and malware inspection, URL filtering, and intrusion inspection. This option is useful when you want to collect information about your network before you configure access control rules3.

The Intrusion Prevention option inspects all traffic for intrusions and discovery data. This option enables Security Intelligence filtering, file and malware inspection, URL filtering, and intrusion inspection for all traffic handled by the default action. This option provides the most comprehensive protection for your network, but also has the most performance impact3.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/601/configuration/guide/fpmc-config-guide-v601/fpmc-config-guide-v60_chapter_01011010.pdf

To integrate a third-party security intelligence feed with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) using Threat Intelligence Director (TID), the following actions are necessary:

Upgrade to version 6.6:The FMC must be running at least version 6.6 to support Threat Intelligence Director. Version 6.2.3 does not support the necessary features for this integration.

Add the URL of the TAXII server:Threat Intelligence Director uses TAXII (Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information) to pull threat intelligence data from third-party sources. The URL of the TAXII server must be added to the TID configuration in FMC.

Steps:

Upgrade FMC to version 6.6 or later.

In FMC, navigate toIntegration > Threat Intelligence Director.

Add a new TAXII server by entering the URL of the TAXII server.

These actions enable the integration of third-party threat intelligence feeds, enhancing the security capabilities of the FMC.

In a local SPAN configuration, the source is the switch interface whose traffic must be copied, while the destination is the interface connected to the passive monitoring device. Therefore, switch interface Gi0/1 must be configured as the SPAN source, and switch interface Gi0/3, which connects to the Cisco Secure IPS sensor, must be the destination. Both commands must also reference the same SPAN session number. Option D satisfies all these requirements. Options B and C omit the mandatory session number, while Option A incorrectly assigns Gi0/3 as both the source and destination. A SPAN destination cannot simultaneously be a source in the same session. The passive IPS receives the mirrored packets for inspection but does not retransmit or directly block them. Cisco SPAN configuration documentation

The Untrusted reputation level represents URLs associated with malicious, undesirable, or demonstrably unsafe behavior and is therefore the appropriate selection for the access control rule. Questionable applies to URLs that exhibit suspicious characteristics but lack sufficient evidence to be classified as definitively malicious. Neutral identifies sites without a strong positive or negative reputation, while Favorable indicates generally acceptable sites with a positive reputation history. Secure Firewall Management Center combines URL categories with reputation values to provide more precise web-control decisions. Selecting Untrusted enables the rule to match the highest-risk URLs covered by the requirement without unnecessarily treating merely unknown or neutral sites as confirmed threats. Cisco documents URL reputation as the risk component used with URL categories in category-and-reputation-based filtering. Cisco Secure Firewall URL filtering

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To configure URL filtering for a Cisco FTD device in Cisco FMC, and to meet the requirements of the question, the engineer must do the following:

On the HTTP Responses tab of the access control policy editor, set the Interactive Block Response Page to system-provided. This will enable the system to display a warning page to the users when they try to access a blocked URL, and give them the option to continue or cancel. The system-provided page is a default page that contains a generic message and a logo1.

Configure an access control rule that matches an URL object for http://www.badadultsite.com; and set the action to Interactive Block. This will apply the interactive block action to the specific URL that is defined in the URL object. The interactive block action will trigger the interactive block response page that was configured in the previous step1.

The other options are incorrect because:

On the HTTP Responses tab of the access control policy editor, setting the Block Response Page to Custom will not affect the interactive block action. The block response page is used when the action is set to Block, not Interactive Block1.

Configuring the default action for the access control policy to Interactive Block will apply the interactive block action to all URLs that are not matched by any access control rule. This will not meet the requirement of blocking no other websites1.

Configuring an access control rule that matches the Adult URL category and sets the action to Interactive Block will apply the interactive block action to all URLs that belong to the Adult category. This will not meet the requirement of blocking only http://www.badadultsite.com1.

If a task to generate troubleshooting files in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) is completed successfully but removed before the files are downloaded, the following steps can be taken to determine the filename and obtain the generated troubleshooting files without regenerating them:

Go to expert mode on Secure FMC:

Access expert mode on the FMC via SSH or the console.

List the contents of the directory/var/commonto locate the generated troubleshooting files. Use the commandls /var/common.

Use the System Monitoring Audit logs:

In FMC, navigate toSystem > Monitoring > Audit.

Find the line containing the " Generate Troubleshooting Files " string to determine the correct filename.

These actions help identify and retrieve the generated troubleshooting files without the need to regenerate them, saving time and resources.

Transparent firewall mode forwards traffic at Layer 2, so the participating physical interfaces must be assigned to at least one bridge group. This allows the device to inspect traffic while remaining logically transparent to the connected switch stacks. Bridge Protocol Data Units should also be exempted from advanced inspection. BPDUs are essential for spanning-tree operation, and delaying or blocking them during inspection restarts can produce topology instability or an interruption. A BVI provides Layer 3 addressing for device-originated traffic or management but is not inherently required merely to inspect transit traffic. Jumbo-frame configuration is unnecessary unless the network explicitly uses jumbo frames, and separate data and management routes do not establish transparent forwarding. Cisco specifically recommends using an EtherType ACL to trust BPDUs on each bridge-group member interface. Cisco transparent firewall configuration

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https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/623/fdm/fptd-fdm-config-guide-623/fptd-fdm-intrusion.html

An EtherChannel interface is a logical interface that consists of a bundle of individual Ethernet links that act as a single network link. An EtherChannel interface can increase the bandwidth and reliability of a network connection5.

On a Cisco Firepower 9300 appliance registered with an FMC for high availability, the network administrator must create the EtherChannel interface on the FXOS CLI. The FXOS is the operating system that runs on the Firepower 9300 chassis and provides hardware management functions such as interface configuration, power supply status, fan speed control, and so on6.

To create an EtherChannel interface on the FXOS CLI, the network administrator can follow these steps5:

Connect to the FXOS CLI using SSH or console.

Enter scope eth-uplink command to enter Ethernet uplink mode.

Enter create port-channel command to create an EtherChannel interface.

Enter a port-channel ID (1-48) and a mode (on or active) for the EtherChannel interface.

Enter add interface command to add physical interfaces to the EtherChannel interface.

Enter one or more interface IDs (for example, 1/1) for the physical interfaces.

Enter commit-buffer command to save the changes.

The other options are incorrect because:

The FMC CLI does not provide any commands to create an EtherChannel interface on a Firepower 9300 appliance. The FMC CLI is mainly used for managing FMC settings such as backup, restore, upgrade, troubleshoot, and so on7.

The FTD CLI does not provide any commands to create an EtherChannel interface on a Firepower 9300 appliance. The FTD CLI is mainly used for managing FTD settings such as routing, NAT, VPN, access control, and so on8.

The FMC GUI does not provide any options to create an EtherChannel interface on a Firepower 9300 appliance. The FMC GUI is mainly used for managing FTD policies such as access control, intrusion, file, malware, and so on9.

A screenshot of a computer AI-generated content may be incorrect.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/640/configuration/guide/fpmc-config-guide-v64/transparent_or_routed_firewall_mode_for_firepower_threat_defense.html

In inline IPS mode, to ensure that traffic passes through uninterrupted when VDB (Vulnerability Database) updates are being applied, the " Short Fall Open " setting must be configured. This setting allows traffic to continue to flow through the firewall even if there are issues with the inspection process, such as during updates or if the inspection engine fails.

Steps:

In FMC, navigate to the inline set configuration.

Enable the " Short Fall Open " option.

Deploy the configuration to the FTD device.

This ensures that network traffic is not disrupted during updates or other issues with the inspection process.

When connectivity issues are detected between Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) devices, and initial troubleshooting indicates that heartbeats and events are not being received, the engineer can run the following commands to resolve the issue by re-establishing secure channels and checking process statuses:

manage_procs.pl:This script is used to manage and restart processes on the FTD device. Running this script can help restart any malfunctioning processes and re-establish connectivity between the FMC and FTD.

sudo stats_unified.pl:This command provides detailed statistics and status of the unified system processes. It helps in diagnosing and resolving issues related to the secure channel and event reporting.

Steps:

Access the FTD CLI.

Run the commandmanage_procs.plto restart processes.

Run the commandsudo stats_unified.plto gather detailed process statistics and verify the status.

These commands help resolve connectivity issues by ensuring that all necessary processes are running correctly and secure channels are re-established.

A local SPAN configuration requires a numbered monitoring session with a source interface and a different destination interface. Gi0/1 is the switch interface whose traffic must be copied, while Gi0/3 is connected to the passive Cisco Secure IPS sensor and must therefore be the SPAN destination. Option C correctly associates both commands with session 1 and maps the monitored traffic from Gi0/1 to Gi0/3. Option B incorrectly makes Gi0/3 both the source and destination, which cannot provide the required monitoring path. Options A and D omit the mandatory session 1 portion of the Catalyst SPAN syntax. Because the IPS operates passively, it receives copies of packets on its monitoring interface without becoming an inline forwarding device and without being able to disrupt the production traffic.

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