Matthew is the security administrator for a consulting firm and must enforce access controls that restrict users’ access based upon their previous activity. For example, once a consultant accesses data belonging to Acme Cola, a consulting client, they may no longer access data belonging to any of Acme’s competitors. What security model best fits Matthew’s needs?
Referring to the figure shown here, what is the earliest stage of a fire where it is possible to use detection technology to identify it?
Ralph is designing a physical security infrastructure for a new computing facility that will remain largely unstaffed. He plans to implement motion detectors in the facility but would also like to include a secondary verification control for physical presence. Which one of the following would best meet his needs?
Harry would like to retrieve a lost encryption key from a database that uses m of n control, with m = 4 and n = 8. What is the minimum number of escrow agents required to retrieve the key?
Fran’s company is considering purchasing a web-based email service from a vendor and eliminating its own email server environment as a cost-saving measure. What type of cloud computing environment is Fran’s company considering?
Bob is a security administrator with the federal government and wishes to choose a digital signature approach that is an approved part of the federal Digital Signature Standard under FIPS 186-4. Which one of the following encryption algorithms is not an acceptable choice for use in digital signatures?
Harry would like to access a document owned by Sally and stored on a file server. Applying the subject/object model to this scenario, who or what is the subject of the resource request?
Michael is responsible for forensic investigations and is investigating a medium-severity security incident that involved the defacement of a corporate website. The web server in question ran on a virtualization platform, and the marketing team would like to get the website up and running as quickly as possible. What would be the most reasonable next step for Michael to take?
Helen is a software engineer and is developing code that she would like to restrict to running within an isolated sandbox for security purposes. What software development technique is Helen using?
What concept describes the degree of confidence that an organization has that its controls satisfy security requirements?
What type of security vulnerability are developers most likely to introduce into code when they seek to facilitate their own access, for testing purposes, to software they developed?
In the figure shown here, Sally is blocked from reading the file due to the Biba integrity model. Sally has a Secret security clearance, and the file has a Confidential classification. What principle of the Biba model is being enforced?
Tom is responsible for maintaining the security of systems used to control industrial processes located within a power plant. What term is used to describe these systems?
Sonia recently removed an encrypted hard drive from a laptop and moved it to a new device because of a hardware failure. She is having difficulty accessing encrypted content on the drive despite the fact that she knows the user’s password. What hardware security feature is likely causing this problem?
Chris wants to verify that a software package that he downloaded matches the original version. What hashing tool should he use if he believes that technically sophisticated attackers may have replaced the software package with a version containing a backdoor?
For questions 16–19, please refer to the following scenario:
Alice and Bob would like to use an asymmetric cryptosystem to communicate with each other. They are located in different parts of the country but have exchanged encryption keys by using digital certificates signed by a mutually trusted certificate authority.
If Alice wishes to send Bob an encrypted message, what key does she use to encrypt the message?
When Bob receives the encrypted message from Alice, what key does he use to decrypt the message?
Which one of the following keys would Bob not possess in this scenario?
Alice would also like to digitally sign the message that she sends to Bob. What key should she use to create the digital signature?
What name is given to the random value added to a password in an attempt to defeat rainbow table attacks?
Which one of the following is not an attribute of a hashing algorithm?
What type of fire suppression system fills with water when the initial stages of a fire are detected and then requires a sprinkler head heat activation before dispensing water?
Susan would like to configure IPsec in a manner that provides confidentiality for the content of packets. What component of IPsec provides this capability?
Which one of the following cryptographic goals protects against the risks posed when a device is lost or stolen?
What logical operation is described by the truth table shown here?
How many bits of keying material does the Data Encryption Standard use for encrypting information?
In the figure shown here, Harry’s request to write to the data file is blocked. Harry has a Secret security clearance, and the data file has a Confidential classification. What principle of the Bell-LaPadula model blocked this request?
Florian and Tobias would like to begin communicating using a symmetric cryptosystem, but they have no prearranged secret and are not able to meet in person to exchange keys. What algorithm can they use to securely exchange the secret key?
Under the Common Criteria, what element describes the security requirements for a product?
Which one of the following is not one of the basic requirements for a cryptographic hash function?
How many possible keys exist for a cipher that uses a key containing 5 bits?
What cryptographic principle stands behind the idea that cryptographic algorithms should be open to public inspection?
Referring to the figure shown here, what is the name of the security control indicated by the arrow?
Which one of the following does not describe a standard physical security requirement for wiring closets?
In the figure shown here, Sally is blocked from writing to the data file by the Biba integrity model. Sally has a Secret security clearance, and the file is classified Top Secret. What principle is preventing her from writing to the file?
Match each of these following numbered architecture security concepts with the appropriate lettered description:
Architectural security concepts
Descriptions
What is the minimum number of independent parties necessary to implement the Fair Cryptosystems approach to key escrow?
In what state does a processor’s scheduler place a process when it is prepared to execute but the CPU is not currently available?
Alan is reviewing a system that has been assigned the EAL1 evaluation assurance level under the Common Criteria. What is the degree of assurance that he may have about the system?
Which one of the following components is used to assign classifications to objects in a mandatory access control system?
What type of software program exposes the code to anyone who wishes to inspect it?
Adam recently configured permissions on an NTFS filesystem to describe the access that different users may have to a file by listing each user individually. What did Adam create?
Betty is concerned about the use of buffer overflow attacks against a custom application developed for use in her organization. What security control would provide the strongest defense against these attacks?
Which one of the following terms is not used to describe a privileged mode of system operation?
James is working with a Department of Defense system that is authorized to simultaneously handle information classified at the Secret and Top Secret levels. What type of system is he using?
Kyle is being granted access to a military computer system that uses System High mode. What is not true about Kyle’s security clearance requirements?
Gary intercepts a communication between two individuals and suspects that they are exchanging secret messages. The content of the communication appears to be the image shown here. What type of technique may the individuals use to hide messages inside this image?
Which one of the following terms accurately describes the Caesar cipher?
In the ring protection model shown here, what ring contains the operating system’s kernel?
In an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environment where a vendor supplies a customer with access to storage services, who is normally responsible for removing sensitive data from drives that are taken out of service?
Which one of the following is an example of a code, not a cipher?
Which one of the following systems assurance processes provides an independent third-party evaluation of a system’s controls that may be trusted by many different organizations?
Process _____________ ensures that any behavior will affect only the memory and resources associated with a process.
Harold is assessing the susceptibility of his environment to hardware failures and would like to identify the expected lifetime of a piece of hardware. What measure should he use for this?
What type of fire extinguisher is useful only against common combustibles?
Gary is concerned about applying consistent security settings to the many mobile devices used throughout his organization. What technology would best assist with this challenge?
Alice sent a message to Bob. Bob would like to demonstrate to Charlie that the message he received definitely came from Alice. What goal of cryptography is Bob attempting to achieve?
Rhonda is considering the use of new identification cards for physical access control in her organization. She comes across a military system that uses the card shown here. What type of card is this?
Gordon is concerned about the possibility that hackers may be able to use the Van Eck radiation phenomenon to remotely read the contents of computer monitors in his facility. What technology would protect against this type of attack?
In the diagram shown here of security boundaries within a computer system, what component’s name has been replaced with XXX?
Sherry conducted an inventory of the cryptographic technologies in use within her organization and found the following algorithms and protocols in use. Which one of these technologies should she replace because it is no longer considered secure?
What action can you take to prevent accidental data disclosure due to wear leveling on an SSD device before reusing the drive?
Tom is a cryptanalyst and is working on breaking a cryptographic algorithm’s secret key. He has a copy of an intercepted message that is encrypted, and he also has a copy of the decrypted version of that message. He wants to use both the encrypted message and its decrypted plaintext to retrieve the secret key for use in decrypting other messages. What type of attack is Tom engaging in?
A hacker recently violated the integrity of data in James’s company by modifying a file using a precise timing attack. The attacker waited until James verified the integrity of a file’s contents using a hash value and then modified the file between the time that James verified the integrity and read the contents of the file. What type of attack took place?
What standard governs the creation and validation of digital certificates for use in a public key infrastructure?
What is the minimum fence height that makes a fence difficult to climb easily, deterring most intruders?
Johnson Widgets strictly limits access to total sales volume information, classifying it as a competitive secret. However, shipping clerks have unrestricted access to order records to facilitate transaction completion. A shipping clerk recently pulled all of the individual sales records for a quarter and totaled them up to determine the total sales volume. What type of attack occurred?
What physical security control broadcasts false emanations constantly to mask the presence of true electromagnetic emanations from computing equipment?
In a software as a service cloud computing environment, who is normally responsible for ensuring that appropriate firewall controls are in place to protect the application?
Alice has read permissions on an object, and she would like Bob to have those same rights. Which one of the rules in the Take-Grant protection model would allow her to complete this operation?
As part of his incident response process, Charles securely wipes the drive of a compromised machine and reinstalls the operating system (OS) from original media. Once he is done, he patches the machine fully and applies his organization’s security templates before reconnecting the system to the network. Almost immediately after the system is returned to service, he discovers that it has reconnected to the same botnet it was part of before. Where should Charles look for the malware that is causing this behavior?
Which one of the following computing models allows the execution of multiple concurrent tasks within a single process?
Alan intercepts an encrypted message and wants to determine what type of algorithm was used to create the message. He first performs a frequency analysis and notes that the frequency of letters in the message closely matches the distribution of letters in the English language. What type of cipher was most likely used to create this message?
The Double DES (2DES) encryption algorithm was never used as a viable alternative to the original DES algorithm. What attack is 2DES vulnerable to that does not exist for the DES or 3DES approach?
Grace would like to implement application control technology in her organization. Users often need to install new applications for research and testing purposes, and she does not want to interfere with that process. At the same time, she would like to block the use of known malicious software. What type of application control would be appropriate in this situation?
Warren is designing a physical intrusion detection system for his data center and wants to include technology that issues an alert if the communications lines for the alarm system are unexpectedly cut. What technology would meet this requirement?
John and Gary are negotiating a business transaction, and John must demonstrate to Gary that he has access to a system. He engages in an electronic version of the “magic door” scenario shown here. What technique is John using?
Raj is selecting an encryption algorithm for use in his organization and would like to be able to vary the strength of the encryption with the sensitivity of the information. Which one of the following algorithms allows the use of different key strengths?
Referring to the fire triangle shown here, which one of the following suppression materials attacks a fire by removing the fuel source?
Howard is choosing a cryptographic algorithm for his organization, and he would like to choose an algorithm that supports the creation of digital signatures. Which one of the following algorithms would meet his requirement?
Laura is responsible for securing her company’s web-based applications and wishes to conduct an educational program for developers on common web application security vulnerabilities. Where can she turn for a concise listing of the most common web application issues?
The Bell-LaPadula and Biba models implement state machines in a fashion that uses what specific state machine model?
The ___________ of a process consist(s) of the limits set on the memory addresses and resources that the process may access.
What type of motion detector senses changes in the electromagnetic fields in monitored areas?
Which one of the following fire suppression systems uses a suppressant that is no longer manufactured due to environmental concerns?
Which one of the following statements is correct about the Biba model of access control?
In Transport Layer Security, what type of key is used to encrypt the actual content of communications between a web server and a client?
Beth would like to include technology in a secure area of her data center to protect against unwanted electromagnetic emanations. What technology would assist her with this goal?
In a virtualized computing environment, what component is responsible for enforcing separation between guest machines?
Rick is an application developer who works primarily in Python. He recently decided to evaluate a new service where he provides his Python code to a vendor who then executes it on their server environment. What type of cloud computing environment is this service?
A software company developed two systems that share information. System A provides information to the input of System B, which then reciprocates by providing information back to System A as input. What type of composition theory best describes this practice?
Tommy is planning to implement a power conditioning UPS for a rack of servers in his data center. Which one of the following conditions will the UPS be unable to protect against if it persists for an extended period of time?
Which one of the following humidity values is within the acceptable range for a data center operation?
Chris is designing a cryptographic system for use within his company. The company has 1,000 employees, and they plan to use an asymmetric encryption system. How many total keys will they need?
What term is used to describe the formal declaration by a designated approving authority (DAA) that an information technology (IT) system is approved to operate in a specific environment?
Object-oriented programming languages use a black box approach to development, where users of an object do not necessarily need to know the object’s implementation details. What term is used to describe this concept?
Todd wants to add a certificate to a certificate revocation list. What element of the certificate goes on the list?
Alison is examining a digital certificate presented to her by her bank’s website. Which one of the following requirements is not necessary for her to trust the digital certificate?
Which one of the following is an example of a covert timing channel when used to exfiltrate information from an organization?
Which one of the following would be a reasonable application for the use of self-signed digital certificates?
Mike has been tasked with preventing an outbreak of malware like Mirai. What type of systems should be protected in his organization?
A component failure in the primary HVAC system leads to a high temperature alarm in the data center that Kim manages. After resolving the issue, what should Kim consider to prevent future issues like this?
As part of his team’s forensic investigation process, Matt signs drives and other evidence out of storage before working with them. What type of documentation is he creating?
Lauren implements ASLR to help prevent system compromises. What technique has she used to protect her system?
During a system audit, Casey notices that the private key for her organization’s web server has been stored in a public Amazon S3 storage bucket for more than a year. What should she do?
Joanna wants to review the status of the industrial control systems her organization uses for building control. What type of systems should she inquire about access to?
After scanning all of the systems on his wireless network, Mike notices that one system is identified as an iOS device running a massively out-of-date version of Apple’s mobile operating system. When he investigates further, he discovers that the device is an original iPad and that it cannot be updated to a current secure version of the operating system. What should Mike recommend?
During a third-party vulnerability scan and security test, Danielle’s employer recently discovered that the embedded systems that were installed to manage her company’s new buildings have a severe remote access vulnerability. The manufacturer has gone out of business, and there is no patch or update for the devices. What should Danielle recommend that her employer do about the hundreds of devices that are vulnerable?
Alex’s employer creates most of their work output as PDF files. Alex is concerned about limiting the audience for the PDF files to those individuals who have paid for them. What technology can he use to most effectively control the access to and distribution of these files?
Match the following numbered security models with the appropriate lettered security descriptions:
Security models
Descriptions