🎓 CISSP Practice - Full CISSP Exam Simulation (125 questions, 3 hours)

Correct Answer: D

Visibility is the ability to collect, normalize, and interpret relevant security data in real time. Because the SIEM could not parse the JSON logs, the malicious traffic was effectively invisible to the SOC, allowing the fraud to proceed unnoticed. None of the other choices describe the root cause; non-repudiation is about proof of action, asset identification is inventory-focused, and patching is unrelated to log-format support.

Correct Answer: C

TLS 1.3 encrypts most of the handshake, breaking legacy “pass-through-then-re-encrypt” proxies. Modern SWGs implement TLS 1.3 middlebox compatibility (RFC 8446 Appendix D.4) that rewrites the ClientHello to indicate an earlier version so the proxy can still perform MITM inspection with its own certificate. Downgrading browsers (A) is a temporary hack and reduces security. RSA key exchange (B) is deprecated in TLS 1.3. Bypassing (D) defeats inspection policy.

Correct Answer: A

A true unidirectional diode cannot carry return traffic; therefore the presence of the ransom note implies the “air-gap” is bridged. The immediate operational failure is architectural—either the diode is misconfigured or a covert channel (e.g., USB, RF) exists. While SMB and EternalBlue are plausible attack vectors, the question asks which principle is violated by the diode’s behavior, not the exploit itself.

Correct Answer: C

Only online certificate verification with revocation checking prevents cloned devices with valid-looking certificates from authenticating. A and B protect the firmware but do not detect cloned keys. D is pointless because the CA public key is already public.

Correct Answer: B

The laptop is a pivot point; even brief connectivity allows malware implanted elsewhere to move into the high-value VLAN. This is classic “island hopping,” a core concern in security operations. Zero-trust (C) is a broader philosophy, not the best rebuttal to the specific claim.

Correct Answer: B

Modern 10 G NICs perform MACsec in ASIC with cut-through; the added latency is <40 ns when offloaded, well under the 100 ns budget. Confidentiality-only (A) is non-standard and breaks integrity; longer GCM (C) increases latency; application crypto (D) adds CPU context switches and jitter, harming determinism more than MACsec.

Correct Answer: C

An immutable hash in OTP eFuses plus a secure bootloader provides an inexpensive root-of-trust: the device refuses to run any image whose hash does not match the fused value. RSA (A) is computationally heavy for the M0 and still needs trusted key storage; AES-CBC (B) provides confidentiality but no integrity/authenticity; a ROM symmetric key (D) cannot be revoked if leaked and offers no authenticity of origin.

Correct Answer: D

RSA signatures must use a random padding scheme (e.g., PSS); deterministic output leaks that the same message was signed, violating semantic security and enabling some attacks. A is about hash functions. B is a non-issue for signatures. C is unrelated.

Correct Answer: B

Mapping certificates to a single identity store (LDAP/AD) allows the same account to be used everywhere while the relying systems enforce authentication strength appropriate to the zone. RADIUS only handles network admission, not application logins. Shadow accounts and trusts double the attack surface, and hourly sync creates windows of inconsistency.

Correct Answer: B

The question describes the need to confirm that remediation measures neutralize the identified vulnerabilities. This is precisely “re-testing” (B), sometimes called “fix validation.” Regression testing (A) would ensure new code did not break existing functionality, while a post-implementation review (C) is broader and not attack-focused. User-acceptance testing (D) is concerned with business requirements, not security controls.

Correct Answer: A

While object-lock preserves the bytes, moving logs to Glacier Deep Archive can delay retrieval for weeks, impeding a regulator’s request for timely access. This violates the spirit of “readily producible” evidence. Confidentiality is not at issue (Glacier encrypts), hash collision is theoretical, and non-repudiation is unrelated to storage tier.

Correct Answer: B

SDP “hiding” refers to application services, not the TLS port itself; the controller must expose 443 to begin mutual TLS. Once TLS completes, the controller issues tokens for micro-tunnels. Option A is true but secondary. Whitelisting (C) and SPA (D) are deployment choices, not normative SDP behavior.

Correct Answer: B

A consistent, enterprise-wide classification scheme is the prerequisite for applying appropriate controls in the cloud (Domain 2). Option B builds the inventory and mapping needed to satisfy GDPR (lawful basis, data-minimization) and PCI DSS (scope-reduction). A only perpetuates inconsistent labels and does not address scope. C over-protects, driving unnecessary cost and complexity. D provides integrity assurance but does nothing for classification or jurisdictional requirements.

Correct Answer: C

AWS Console logins from EC2 IPs usually indicate the user launched an in-browser VPC endpoint (AWS Systems Manager Session Manager, AWS CloudShell, or AppStream). The identical externalId and valid IdP signature mean the role assumption is legitimate. Suppressing or blocking would break valid workflows; instead verify proxy routing and, if confirmed, tune the rule to exclude corporate EC2 proxy ranges.

Correct Answer: A

Mounting secrets as memory-only tmpfs volumes keeps them out of the container’s environment block and off the union filesystem, while still allowing the application to read them as files. Option B protects data at rest but not at runtime, Option C still leaves secrets in a file that might be committed or logged, and Option D is manual and non-scalable.

Correct Answer: B

The QR code data itself is public, but its value relies on secrecy of the issuance process (i.e., the ability to counterfeit depends on knowing valid codes). The violation is disclosure of authentic identifiers—an issue of confidentiality, not integrity (data is unchanged) or availability (service is up).

Correct Answer: B

ISO 27034 expects continuous, measurable implementation of security controls within the application lifecycle. An enforced IDE plugin with metrics provides ongoing evidence that secure-coding rules are embedded in day-to-day engineering, not merely documented (A) or trained once (C). Pen-test absence (D) is circumstantial and could result from scope limitations or tester skill.

Correct Answer: A

SOC 2 + right-to-audit + encryption (A) gives verifiable, ongoing assurance when physical audits are impractical. Force-majeure waiver (B) is unenforceable and does not demonstrate due diligence. Insurance (C) is only financial recovery, not assurance. PCI-DSS (D) is irrelevant to PHI.

Correct Answer: A

DESFire EV3 operates at 13.56 MHz and is backward-compatible with most existing prox reader wiring; by simply updating firmware and adding a key diversification scheme, the reader can perform a challenge-response that proves the badge holds a secret, not just a UID. Cloned UIDs without the key will fail. Adding a PIN (B) helps but does not bind the badge to the user and is subject to tailgating. BLE (C) and facial recognition (D) are forklift upgrades that scrap the existing badge investment.

Correct Answer: A

IAM Identity Center permission sets can be configured with 2-hour session duration and no persistent credentials; upon console/CLI expiry the access is gone, eliminating standing privileges. Config rule (C) is reactive and race-prone; individual IAM users (B) and root (D) create permanent attack surface.

Correct Answer: A

The Inform function requires that policies, processes, and procedures be documented and communicated; absence of documentation violates this regardless of control implementation. Tone at the top (B) is present but undocumented. Due care (C) is broader and less specific. Transparency (D) is secondary to operational evidence.

Correct Answer: B

A packet with SYN and FIN both set is nonsensical in normal TCP operation and is characteristic of a “Christmas-tree” or “X-mas” scan (flags lit up like a Christmas tree). The goal is to probe how the target TCP stack responds to illegal flag combinations, thereby inferring open/closed ports. A pure SYN flood (A) would not set FIN. Session hijack (C) requires an existing connection, and low-rate DoS (D) manipulates timing, not flags.

Correct Answer: C

PCI-DSS requires that “personnel who conduct the internal vulnerability scans have organizational independence.” A dotted-line report (A) or GPO restrictions (B) do not remove the conflict of interest inherent in the same AD forest. Using a local account (D) still leaves control of the scanning platform inside the same team. Retaining an external managed service (C) provides true third-party independence that satisfies both DSS v4.0 requirement 11.3.1 and the QSA’s expectation.

Correct Answer: B

Duplicate submissions of the same underlying flaw inflate bounty costs and skew metrics. Defect duplication rate (B) measures how often the same vulnerability is reported multiple times. MTTD (A) gauges detection speed, false positives (C) measure incorrect findings, and patch latency (D) measures fix speed—none capture the “same bug, many reports” problem.

Correct Answer: A

If the switch (or any dual-homed device) has IPv6 routing enabled and an interface in both the sensor VLAN and the Wi-Fi VLAN, it can forward packets between them even when the firewall rule is “any any allow” inside only one zone. The attacker simply routes through the switch, bypassing intended segmentation. Shared flood domain (D) would require L2 adjacency, which is less common if VLANs are configured. SLAAC privacy (B) and ND rules (C) do not create cross-VLAN reachability.

Correct Answer: A

When a browser uses an IP literal, the TLS ClientHello either omits the SNI extension or contains the IP as SNI value. A proxy that inspects SNI can drop such handshakes, forcing the user through the proxy where policy is enforced. Certificate pinning (B) is for integrity of specific sites. OCSP (C) and session resumption (D) do not control IP-literal bypass.

Correct Answer: C

Even truncated PANs plus tokens can be replayed in certain contexts (PCI DSS SAQ guidance). “Confidential” reflects the need for encryption at rest and key protection. A ignores residual risk. B underestimates token replay. D over-classifies; full PAN is “Restricted,” but tokens are not PANs.

Correct Answer: B

Schrems II (B) invalidated Privacy Shield and cast doubt on SCCs absent “supplementary measures” for U.S. government surveillance risk, directly impacting the CISO’s plan. Due care/diligence (A) is too generic. Safe-harbour (C) is obsolete. NIST baselines (D) are technical and do not address cross-border transfer law.

Correct Answer: C

The risk assessment report (C) explicitly shows the hospital follows ISO 27005 scoping, risk identification, analysis, and treatment steps. A balanced scorecard (A) is too high-level, a CIO attestation (B) lacks objective evidence, and a CVE list (D) addresses only vulnerability management, not enterprise risk.

Correct Answer: A

A board-level appetite statement must cover all material risk categories, not just IT. Tolerance tables translate risk into business terms. B is too tactical; C is useful but not the only dimension; D standardizes scoring but does not articulate appetite.

Correct Answer: A

An offline root signs only the subordinate CA certificates; day-to-day validity information is provided by OCSP/CRL produced by the online issuing-CA or a responder, so the root never comes online. B violates the offline principle. C creates an unmanageable CRL and still requires periodic root signatures. D makes the root technically online even if access is restricted.

Correct Answer: B

Setting set-UID root on vi grants any user root when exiting the shell (“:shell”). The four-minute window is enough for an attacker to plant a cron job or add an SSH key and then remove the bit to cover tracks. AIDE would miss in-memory or credential changes. Treat as potential compromise and escalate for timeline analysis, auditd review, and volatile capture.

Correct Answer: B

A targeted assessment (B) provides the evidence needed to judge residual risk before the company is legally and financially committed. Accepting the SOC-2 (A) ignores the competitor’s compliance history and the limited scope of SOC-2. Calculating ALE (C) is premature without understanding the actual control gaps. Drafting an MOU (D) is a post-deal activity and does not inform the current risk decision.

Correct Answer: B

The secure destruction policy (B) must explicitly cover provider-side backups and snapshots; otherwise data remains recoverable. Retention schedule (A) already exists (1 year). Version-control baseline (C) and key escrow (D) are unrelated to residual snapshots.

Correct Answer: D

The experiment measures how long it takes the human sensor network to detect and report a phish—i.e., MTTD for that vector. It is not measuring who clicked (A), overall efficacy (B), or awareness (C).

Correct Answer: C

For Confidential data on SSDs, destruction (shred to < 5 mm) provides the highest assurance because overwrite and vendor secure-erase may be circumvented by spare-area remapping. B is acceptable for lower classifications but not for Confidential without additional verification. A is insufficient on flash media. D is not recognised sanitisation—key loss ≠ data destruction.

Correct Answer: B

KYBER provides confidential key exchange even against future quantum adversaries, and AES-256 is currently considered quantum-resistant (Grover’s halves the key space to 128-bit, still safe). A keeps classical key exchange vulnerable. C only protects the IKE/IPsec tunnel, not object-level storage. D still uses classical key exchange for the initial TLS handshake.

Correct Answer: A

802.11w cryptographically protects de-authentication and disassociation frames, making forged EAPOL-Logoff frames impossible. Option B stops credential theft but does not prevent the forced re-auth itself. Option C is segmentation, not a Wi-Fi-layer control. Option D still allows the attacker to force re-authentication and see the EAP identity in clear text.

Correct Answer: B

Effectiveness is outcome-based: reducing fraudulent access. Disabling compromised accounts quickly stops attacker lateral movement. MTTA (A) is responsiveness, not containment; block-list size (C) is activity, not impact; automation ratio (D) is efficiency, not effectiveness.

Correct Answer: A

ECDSA on a low-power device (e.g., ARM Cortex-M with crypto accelerator) gives strong non-repudiation with 64-byte signatures, far smaller than RSA and feasible for 4 KB payloads. HMAC (B) lacks non-repudiation. AES-GCM (C) provides only confidentiality+integrity, not third-party verifiability. Gateway-level signing (D) removes device-level non-repudiation.

Correct Answer: B

Classification is tied to the asset’s value and legal protection, not location or format. A, C, and D erroneously tie classification to network location or transport encryption level.

Correct Answer: A

Write-Once-Read-Many media is, by definition, non-erasable. Regulatory “right to be forgotten” still applies, so the only compliant path is destruction (shredding/incineration). B is illegal. C is technically impossible. D is ineffective because optical media is not magnetic.

Correct Answer: B

The alert is anomalous but not yet confirmed malicious (no malware, no failed auth). Per PICERL “Identification” phase, the first goal is to classify the event while avoiding disruption that could destroy evidence or business function. Calling the data owner (the CFO) is the least-intrusive, fastest way to determine if the activity is legitimate (e.g., emergency board presentation) without tipping off an intruder or destroying volatile evidence. Isolation (A) would be correct only after confirmation of compromise; imaging (C) is premature; external escalation (D) skips internal verification.

Correct Answer: B

Unauthenticated scans check banner information that can be misleading if the service did not update its version string or if the scanner lacks privileges to confirm the actual file versions. Without credentials, the scanner cannot reliably determine whether the patch is installed, making a false positive the most defensible explanation.

Correct Answer: C

Route Origin Validation (RPKI) is increasingly enforced by regional carriers. If the ROA signed by the SaaS provider only lists ARIN-route origins, APAC carriers with strict ROV filters will drop the anycast announcement, causing the prefix to be unreachable (black-holed) even though the scrubbing nodes are up and the BGP session is stable. Local preference (A) would affect path selection but not cause outright black-holing. TCP-MD5 (B) would break the BGP session entirely, which the stem says is not happening. NO_EXPORT (D) would keep the prefix inside each provider’s AS, but the symptom described is black-holing, not lack of global reachability.

Correct Answer: C

By splitting the key so that the server supplies an ephemeral component that is destroyed after authorization, the mobile device can no longer decrypt SAD, thereby satisfying PCI DSS 3.2. Option A still allows local decryption within 30 s, Option B risks memory dumps, and Option D is a hardware requirement that does not guarantee post-authorization deletion.

Correct Answer: B

A random surrogate identifier prevents disclosure of business-relevant data while still allowing quick inventory sweeps; the CMDB provides the correlation when needed. A eliminates RF risk but slows down inventory. C leaks metadata length and still exposes ciphertext that can be brute-forced. D is impractical and does not protect assets outside the cafeteria.

Correct Answer: B

A salted, one-way transformation of the raw image into a feature vector irreversibly removes the ability to reconstruct the original face, yet the vector can still be used for comparison. AES (A) is reversible if the key is compromised. Tokenisation (C) does not change the biometric data itself. Homomorphic encryption (D) is still largely experimental and slow for 1:N.

Correct Answer: B

Pass-through authentication keeps the on-prem AD as the sole credential validator; password write-back forces password changes made on-prem to be pushed immediately to Azure AD, which in turn invalidates existing SAML tokens and refresh tokens at the SaaS providers. Password hash sync (A) would still allow cached passwords to live for up to 10 min. AD FS (C) does not shorten SaaS-side caches. Device write-back (D) is irrelevant to password lifetime.

Correct Answer: B

XACML obligations let the PEP enforce the “approve within 24 h or deny” rule in real time, while the PIP can consult a database timestamped with NTP to handle clock skew. All decisions are logged centrally for audit. Device-code flow (A) is designed for input-constrained devices, not document COIs, and offers no built-in approval hook. Blockchain (C) is overkill and cannot guarantee block time accuracy. Attribute certificates (D) require a heavyweight PKI and frequent CRL updates that still leave a window where revoked certs are considered valid.

Correct Answer: A

SAML with SP-initiated flow and email-domain-driven IdP discovery allows each customer to keep using its existing IdP (Okta, AD FS, Google) without exposing passwords to the SaaS and without pre-shared secrets. ROPC (B) requires the SaaS to handle passwords, violating the goal. LDAPS (C) and RADIUS (D) both need network-level trust and shared secrets, which the scenario forbids.

Correct Answer: B

A lagging indicator (incidents caused by human error) captures credential leaks that bypass click-through tests, giving the board a risk-based outcome metric. A is useful but still leading; C ignores behavior change; D abandons human controls entirely.

Correct Answer: B

If the DLP engine cannot read the file’s classification label it cannot enforce the “Confidential ≠ Internal” rule. A, C, and D are good practices but are not the root cause of the silent failure.

Correct Answer: B

With IKEv2 the pre-shared key (or the private key of a certificate) is the sole secret used to derive all session keys. If the provider knows the PSK it can derive the keys and decrypt the ESP traffic. The DH public value (A) is public by design; the IV (C) is random but not secret; TLS inspection certs (D) are irrelevant for IPSec.

Correct Answer: C

U2F tokens contain an ECC private key that cannot be extracted, resist replay and phishing, and remain under $8 in volume. SHA-256 TOTP (A) still exposes shared symmetric secrets to extraction. HOTP with EEPROM (B) allows key cloning. SMS (D) is online, not offline, and more expensive.

Correct Answer: B

Dual signing with ECDSA-P256 provides a crypto-agile bridge: the existing RSA-2048 signatures remain verifiable while the stronger ECDSA layer assures long-term authenticity; RSA can be retired later without breaking compatibility. A is an availability killer. C does not strengthen the algorithm, only the storage. D doubles key size but keeps the same algorithmic weakness and may break compatibility with legacy clients that only support 2048-bit keys.

Correct Answer: B

Likelihood for low-frequency, high-impact events is best informed by sector-specific threat intelligence. Historical internal data (A) will be sparse for events that have not yet occurred. C relates to known vulnerabilities, not adversary intent. D measures severity of existing vulnerabilities, not probability of a nation-state attack.

Correct Answer: C

Data residency requires EU data to stay in the EU. Option C achieves this by running a separate instance in-region and using geo-DNS so EU users (and only EU data) stay local, while still giving global users low latency. Private L2VPN (B) still ships data to the U.S. VPN concentrator (D) fails residency and adds latency.

Correct Answer: A

“Economy of mechanism” (keep the design as simple and small as possible) justifies storing only the minimal, signed data object needed to authorise micro-payments while offline. Open design (B) is about publishing algorithms—irrelevant here. Separation of duties (C) addresses split authorization, not offline resilience. Psychological acceptability (D) concerns user convenience, not offline security logic.

Correct Answer: B

TEF is the rate at which a specific threat actor is expected to act against an asset. LEF is the subset of those events that become loss events after accounting for controls and vulnerability. Vuln describes the asset’s susceptibility, and TCap describes the attacker’s strength.

Correct Answer: A

Deduplication collapses identical alerts into a single ticket with a count, freeing analysts to act on the incident rather than wade through noise. A hunting library is proactive, manual approval slows response, and packet retention is forensic storage, none of which address alert volume.

Correct Answer: B

A running hash chain (similar to blockchain linking) provides ordered integrity; periodic signing of the tip keeps asymmetric operations low (1 sign per minute vs 30 000/sec). Individual signing (A) is computationally prohibitive. SHA-3 (C) does not address order. AES-GCM encryption (D) provides confidentiality, not ordered non-repudiation.

Correct Answer: C

The testers have zero internal knowledge (no source, no design); they must discover vulnerabilities solely through external interaction. This is the definition of black-box testing. White-box (A) and crystal-box (D) both imply full source access, while gray-box (B) would supply partial internal detail.

Correct Answer: B

The SoA and independent audit report detail which Annex-A controls are in scope, any non-conformities, and compensating controls, giving the CISO evidence to map to the firm’s risk appetite. ISO 27001 does not prescribe specific controls, so A is false. C is redundant—both ISO and SOC can provide assurance. D ignores efficient reuse of audit artifacts.

Correct Answer: B

mTLS with TLS 1.3 natively provides mutual authentication, session encryption, and ECDHE-based perfect-forward secrecy using the existing certificates and requires no new tunnel overlay. IPsec tunnel (A) adds extra headers and complexity; DMVPN (C) is designed for site-to-site, not east-west service traffic, and pre-shared keys violate PFS if ever leaked; L2TPv3 (D) is a Layer-2 tunnel rarely used for service mesh and lacks native crypto.

Correct Answer: C

Only option C is a substantive test of operational effectiveness—auditors physically try to violate the policy and observe whether the system blocks them. Interviews (A) and vendor documents (B) are inquiry/inspection procedures that do not prove the control is working. Vulnerability scans (D) test patch state, not access control.

Correct Answer: B

Most public-cloud virtual networks silently discard gratuitous ARP to prevent MAC spoofing between tenants. The HA feature depended on G-ARP to move the floating MAC, so failover failed. Multicast (A) is unrelated to ARP. BGP (C) is Layer-3. Proxy ARP (D) would actually answer ARP, not drop it.

Correct Answer: B

A pepper (secret key) stored outside the authentication DB (ideally in an HSM) means the attacker cannot perform an offline brute-force attack even with the hash and salt. 15-char passphrases (A) help but are not as strong as a secret parameter unknown to the attacker; doubling iterations (C) only linearly increases cost; 30-day expiry (D) increases friction and does little against offline attacks.

Correct Answer: A

The IPS can strip weak ciphers but cannot prevent a man-in-the-middle from downgrading the handshake to SSL 3.0 if both ends still offer it (TLS 1.0 implementations often retain SSL 3.0 for “interop”). POODLE then recovers session cookies or credentials. The VLAN ACLs and packet capture do not stop ciphertext recovery at the endpoints; they only limit lateral movement and provide evidence. 3DES risk (D) is real but requires huge volumes; VLAN hopping (C) is mitigated by the switch configuration; IPS outage (B) is operational, not cryptographic.

Correct Answer: A

A short grace period (jti replay cache) allows the client to receive the new pair while safely invalidating the old one, closing the concurrency window. Binding (C) mitigates theft but not replay from the same device; hourly login (B) hurts UX; implicit grant (D) is deprecated and removes refresh entirely.

Correct Answer: D

AWS CodeBuild can automatically mask secrets retrieved via the Secrets Manager plugin when the build job assumes an IAM role with least privilege. This keeps the plaintext out of logs and avoids custom overwrite code. Option A still risks echoing the variable, Option B relies on developer discipline, and Option C does not natively mask values.

Correct Answer: C

eBPF can read unencrypted parts of QUIC (SNI, length, timing) and apply heuristics (high entropy, long duration) to flag C2 or exfil without full MiTM, preserving end-to-end encryption. Stripping QUIC (A) breaks the protocol and user experience; TCP fallback (B) is unreliable and still needs certificates; blanket block (D) harms performance and does not stop other UDP tunnels.

Correct Answer: A

gMSAs give automatic, cryptographically random 240-byte passwords managed by the domain, eliminating manual expiry management while retaining the ability to use Kerberos SPNs. gMSAs cannot be used interactively, reducing lateral-movement risk, and can be scoped to specific hosts via msDS-HostServiceAccount. This solves both the “never expires” and the “Domain Admin” issues without breaking the billing service.

Correct Answer: D

The provider is both data processor and key custodian, creating a conflict (D) that negates the protective value of encryption against lawful access requests. Insider threat (A) is broader and less specific. Remanence (B) is irrelevant to live data. Lock-in (C) is an economic, not confidentiality, risk.

Correct Answer: A

The box is physical evidence that may contain fingerprints, DNA, or tracking numbers linking to the adversary. CCTV correlation can establish timeline and attribution. Chain-of-custody must start immediately.

Correct Answer: A

Screenshot evidence that is collected and curated by the staff being audited breaks the basic audit principle of independence and reliable evidence (PCI DSS Req. 11.3.4 and ISA 500). Options B, C, and D introduce secondary risk (vendor management, privacy, retention), but the inability to obtain objective, first-hand evidence directly under the QSA’s control is the most fundamental threat to the validity of the assessment.

Correct Answer: C

Asset Security (Domain 2) requires that classification and labeling persist throughout the life-cycle, especially when responsibility shifts to a cloud shared-responsibility model. Option C ensures that EU-privacy obligations remain bound to the data set even when it moves to the PaaS object store. A is useful but reactive; classification must already be in place before migration. B merely adopts the vendor’s taxonomy without guaranteeing alignment to GDPR categories. D removes the data from the architecture instead of securing it in its intended environment.

Correct Answer: B

Dual-key root with algorithms of different mathematical problems (RSA vs ECC) provides crypto-agility without requiring immediate rollover. Single long-lived RSA (A) has no agility. 2048-bit (C) is below current best practice for 25-year roots. Deleting the public key (D) breaks the chain of trust.

Correct Answer: A

A formal rules-of-engagement (RoE) document is the primary safeguard to prevent collateral damage, define scope, and provide legal authorization (sometimes called “get-out-of-jail-free”). Insurance (B) is secondary, certification (C) is not required by CISSP best practice, and timely reporting (D) is good but does not mitigate operational/legal risk during the test.

Correct Answer: B

With incomplete source, testers must treat the system as a black box and use dynamic testing plus reverse engineering to understand the flaw and verify any compensating controls. White-box (A) is impossible without buildable code, gray-box (C) does not address the module layer, and static binary analysis (D) alone may miss runtime behavior.

Correct Answer: B

Risk-based security prioritizes actionable intelligence. A 45 % false-positive rate erodes developer confidence and wastes scarce resources, leading to “alert fatigue” and ignored true positives. Tool Y’s low noise ratio ensures that each flagged issue is likely real and worth fixing, aligning with the CISSP principle of cost-effective control selection. Tuning (C) is possible but not guaranteed; the question asks which is better “as-is.” Abandoning SAST (D) contradicts defense-in-depth.

Correct Answer: A

Only an on-prem HSM (or cloud HSM) provides FIPS 140-2 Level 3 key storage; m-of-n split-knowledge enforces dual control for key usage, while CA workflow enforces separation of duties for certificate issuance. Software keys (B) fail Level 3, cloud KMS (C) is usually Level 2, and ACME (D) does not govern key generation.

Correct Answer: C

Global tables give multi-region active-active availability; S3 Object Lock with write-through logging provides non-repudiation and prevents loss or rollback. A and D are single-region and can lose data during a regional outage. B offers no strong consistency or durability guarantee for financial records.

Correct Answer: B

Anonymous voting plus data-driven pre-work minimizes groupthink and social-desirability bias, producing more honest self-assessments. A Likert scale (A) still allows inflated scoring, merely with more granularity. While IA presentations (C) and control narratives (D) help, they do not eliminate the pressure to conform that anonymity addresses.

Correct Answer: B

Black-list filtering of “..” is notoriously insufficient; alternate encodings (e.g., “..%252f”, Unicode overlong sequences, or absolute symlinks) can still traverse outside the intended directory. Because the parameter ultimately reaches the OS file system API, the flaw is a classic path traversal / local file inclusion. SSRF (A) requires the app to fetch remote URLs, XXE (C) requires XML parsing with external entities enabled, and IDOR (D) is about access-control on objects, not file-system traversal.

Correct Answer: A

Under most modern privacy laws, any identifier that can be linked back to an individual—even irreversible hashes—remains personal data. Therefore retaining the hashes still triggers deletion obligations. B is wrong because templates remain; C is wrong because salting does not anonymize biometrics; D confuses cost with legal minimization.

Correct Answer: A

PCI DSS req. 11.1 mandates a quarterly wireless scan of all in-scope facilities. An accurate, up-to-date asset inventory (including new pop-up stores) is the trigger that ensures these sites are added to the scan schedule. Without it, the stores were simply overlooked. Encryption choice (B), IDS (C), or SNMP strings (D) are unrelated to scan coverage.

Correct Answer: B

A permissions boundary acts as an IAM “sandbox,” capping the maximum permissions even if credentials leak. Denying ec2:RunInstances would have neutered the attacker immediately. Rotation (A) shortens exposure but does not prevent exploitation within the window. CloudTrail and billing alerts (C) are detective, not preventative. Secure secret storage (D) is good practice but does not constrain what legitimate (or stolen) credentials can do.

Correct Answer: B

The failure to meet the patching SLA is directly captured by the percentage of high-risk findings open longer than SLA (B). MTTR (A) is a time-based average but does not show compliance with policy. Scanning more assets (C) or the average CVSS (D) does not measure remediation performance.

Correct Answer: C

Ethical risk is still risk; mitigation via policy and audit demonstrates due care and maintains public trust. A is an extreme business-negative. B does not prevent reputational damage. D ignores stakeholder trust and could increase liability if misuse occurs.

Correct Answer: B

A true data-diode hardware enforces unidirectional flow at the physical layer (optical or electrical). The fact that the auditor could send commands back proves the diode was misconfigured or was actually a bidirectional bridge, defeating the control. Log integrity, media sanitization, and vulnerability management are not relevant to the failure of enforced one-way traffic.

Correct Answer: A

A modern reverse proxy offloads strong cryptography to the client while speaking legacy crypto only on the trusted backend link. B creates an extra VPN hurdle for users and still leaves internal traffic unencrypted. C ignores compliance. D may be impossible (legacy binaries) and 3DES is also deprecated.

Correct Answer: B

SD-WAN creates an overlay; to guarantee confidentiality when traffic may traverse untrusted networks (e.g., DIA or LTE), the overlay must be encrypted end-to-end with a cipher such as AES-256. Option B provides that persistent encryption regardless of the underlay. QoS (A) and path selection (C) do not address confidentiality. Split tunneling (D) would actually expose traffic.

Correct Answer: B

Combining data without normalizing severity scales produces an apples-to-oranges aggregation that invalidates the metric. Control mapping (A) relates controls to frameworks, threat modeling (C) identifies new risks, and baselining (D) sets reference points, but none address the immediate comparability problem.

Correct Answer: C

On Microsoft NPS (or any AAA server) you can create policy sets that tie an SSID to a specific EAP type. By restricting the corporate SSID policy set to only EAP-TLS, any client attempting TTLS will hit no matching policy and be rejected. Separate WLCs (A) adds cost and complexity without addressing the protocol negotiation. Filter-Id (B) can assign VLANs post-auth but cannot reject the wrong EAP method. EAP chaining (D) is a Cisco proprietary feature that still allows TTLS if the client doesn’t support chaining, so it does not enforce TLS-only.

Correct Answer: A

DevSecOps demands “shift-left” security that is automated, fast, and developer-centric. SAST analyzes source code or compiled artifacts without executing the program and can run in milliseconds inside the CI pipeline, gating the merge via quality gates. DAST (B) occurs too late; manual review (C) is human-intensive and inconsistent; quarterly pen tests (D) are point-in-time and cannot block every pull request.

Correct Answer: C

A federated-linking table isolates the vendor’s internal UUID from every customer’s external identifier, supporting multiple IdPs, mergers, and email changes without altering core tables. Per-customer schemas explode operational cost, DN storage ties the app to LDAP specifics, and email hashing collides when employees change employers.

Correct Answer: B

LoRaWAN 1.1 mandates that the network server increment JoinNonce for every join-accept; the device rejects any JoinNonce value it has already seen, preventing replay. AppNonce (A) is random but not sequential. MIC (C) protects integrity, not replay. AppSKey rotation (D) is after session establishment and does not stop join-accept replay.

Correct Answer: A

Dual-SSID designs are the simplest way to achieve Layer-3 segmentation on a single AP infrastructure. Each SSID is mapped to a unique VLAN; an inline firewall filters inter-VLAN traffic, blocking guests from reaching the medical device subnet. WPA3-Enterprise (B) and 802.1X/EAP-TLS (C) are incompatible with the stated tablet limitation (WPA2-PSK only). WMM power-save (D) affects battery life, not segmentation or security policy.

Correct Answer: B

A service mesh injects sidecars that perform mutual TLS transparently to the workload. A only gives network segmentation, not mutual authentication. C encrypts node-to-node but not pod-to-pod. D terminates TLS at the edge, not inside the cluster.

Correct Answer: D

Mitigation (D) reduces likelihood and impact to a level commensurate with the strategic reward while preserving market entry; residual risk can then be accepted by the board. Accept (A) without first lowering the risk would breach fiduciary duty given the high inherent risk. Avoid (B) is unnecessarily conservative and ignores business strategy. Transfer alone (C) does not satisfy the regulatory requirement that the bank remain ultimately responsible for data protection; insurance is only a financial back-stop, not a control.

Correct Answer: D

1024-bit RSA is within reach of nation-state factorisation; once the modulus is factored, an attacker can sign any malicious firmware. A is wrong because SHA-1 collisions do not break RSA signatures—an attacker still needs to forge the RSA signature. B is a side-channel but much harder to exploit remotely. C is possible but not the most likely given the weak RSA key length.

Correct Answer: A

Risk assessment requires asset-centric, likelihood, and impact data. Mapping bounties to configuration items in the CMDB and adjusting likelihood with real-world exploitability converts raw bug data into risk input. Publicizing researchers (B) is marketing; de-duplication (C) is good hygiene but insufficient for risk scoring; and researchers cannot realistically provide environmental scores (D) without inside knowledge.

Correct Answer: C

Privacy as a component of security requires that personal data be handled according to the legal privacy rules of the jurisdiction in which it is collected. Replicating data across borders without regard to sovereignty laws directly threatens this principle. Layering (A) is about multiple controls, not data residency. Abstraction (B) hides complexity but does not address legal data placement. Least common mechanism (D) is about avoiding shared resources that can create single points of compromise, irrelevant here.

Correct Answer: C

The VLAN ID is an environment attribute that the PEP (Policy Enforcement Point) must assert. Because the user’s device—not the user—must be on the VLAN, the most reliable method is for the network switch or 802.1X service to embed that fact in a security assertion consumed by the PEP. GPS (A) is spoofable and privacy-invasive. Resource classification (B) is irrelevant to the scenario’s constraints. Action “read” (D) is already known by the PEP and does not solve the trust problem.

Correct Answer: B

End-to-end encryption that originates and terminates inside the enterprise’s own SD-WAN appliances guarantees that no intermediate SD-WAN controller or service-provider element ever sees plaintext. Option A only protects application sessions, not the overlay itself. Option C encrypts the physical hop but still allows the SD-WAN controller to hold the tunnel keys. Option D intentionally breaks encryption for inspection, creating the exact “decrypt-then-re-encrypt” point the CISO wants to avoid.

Correct Answer: D

When high- and low-value assets share infrastructure, the organization must protect everything to the highest level or accept under-protection; either choice is inefficient. The scenario does not mention disposal (A), availability (B), or ACL detail (C)—the core issue is misalignment of controls to classification.

Correct Answer: B

OpenSSH supports PKCS#11, allowing the SSH client to invoke the private key on the smart card without exporting it. This preserves non-repudiation and FIPS compliance. A exports the key; C abandons PIV; D misplaces the user’s private key on a server-side HSM, which does not help client authentication.

Correct Answer: A

Immediate containment is achieved by removing the excessive privilege that allows Lambda to access sensitive card data (violating PCI DSS 3.2.1 Req. 7). Snapshots come after the attack surface is closed; concurrency and API Gateway changes do not address the data-exposure vector.

Correct Answer: C

Biba *-property (no write-up) forbids a MEDIUM subject from writing to a HIGH object. Reading LOW (B) is allowed (simple security property). LOW writing code (A) is a subject write to LOW object—allowed. HIGH downloaded to LOW device (D) is a read-down—also allowed.

Correct Answer: A

Whitelist input validation removes attacker-controlled metacharacters, while gVisor adds a second-layer kernel sandbox that confines the process even if injection occurs. Rewriting in Rust (B) is a long-term strategy but not an immediate fix. A WAF (C) is bypassable and does not protect against encoded payloads. Removing seccomp (D) increases, not decreases, risk.

Correct Answer: B

Blocking the secret at the moment of commit (pre-commit hook) prevents exposure entirely and costs virtually nothing. CloudTrail/GuardDuty (A, D) are detective and would still incur cost before remediation. Service quotas (C) limit blast radius but do not prevent unauthorized API calls or data theft.

Correct Answer: C

Active testing (packet injection) empirically proves that no forwarding path exists. Configuration reviews (A) and interviews (D) are useful but cannot guarantee the running state matches the intended design. Diagram observation (B) is purely documentary.

Correct Answer: B

Session-resumption (RFC 8446) reduces full-handshake RSA/ECDSA operations by ≈80 % while keeping mutual authentication and short-lived SVIDs. IPSec (A) still encrypts but does not give per-service identity; loopback cleartext (C) violates the zero-trust “encrypt every hop” principle; JWT without TLS (D) leaks metadata and is replayable if keys rotate slowly.

Correct Answer: C

Signing a Merkle-tree root (or simply signing the hash of the firmware) allows a 256-byte RSA signature to cover a large image; the gateway recomputes the hash/tree and verifies the signature. Blind signatures (A) are for anonymity. RSA-PSS (B) is a padding scheme, not a bandwidth saver. OAEP (D) is for encryption, not signatures.

Correct Answer: D

By lobbying to change the regulation, the CISO is attempting to reject (D) the risk (i.e., eliminate the requirement) rather than avoid, transfer, or accept it. Avoidance (A) would mean exiting the critical-infrastructure sector. Transference (B) would involve insurance. Acceptance (C) would be quietly complying.

Correct Answer: A

Query-complexity analysis (a.k.a. “cost analysis”) quantifies the server work implied by a query and blocks expensive requests regardless of depth, addressing the DoS vector. mTLS (B) is transport-layer, schema-stitching (C) does not limit cost, and reverting to REST (D) negates the architectural benefits.

Correct Answer: A

Classification metadata should be validated whenever content changes. Because the promotion process did not re-check the true sensitivity, keys remained in a “Public” repo. B, C and D are generic access or coding issues; only A addresses the asset-classification gap.

Correct Answer: A

Jurisdiction-based data-locality requirements are essentially data-classification and location questions. Until you know exactly which data elements belong to which country (and can prove where they will reside, be processed and backed up) you cannot determine compliance. Option A is the only choice that creates the evidence needed to decide whether the PaaS architecture itself is lawful. B is useful but does not prove data-location compliance. C does not satisfy most data-locality laws because encrypted personal data is still considered “exported.” D is unrelated to residency obligations.

Correct Answer: B

The canary environment provided rapid telemetry that the defective build introduced faults, prompting automatic rollback—an example of fast feedback and fail-fast culture. Immutable infra (A) refers to replacing rather than patching servers; blue/green (C) is a different deployment pattern; IaC version control (D) is unrelated to runtime defect detection.

Correct Answer: B

Safe reuse demands that any component—internal or external—be free of known, exploitable vulnerabilities before integration. Ignoring 17 high/critical CVEs in shared libraries violates this principle and propagates risk across every consuming microservice. Defense in depth (A) is a broader architecture concept; psychological acceptability (C) relates to usability; complete mediation (D) refers to authorization checks on every access—none are the primary issue here.

Correct Answer: C

Domain 8 stresses secure software design and interfacing with legacy systems. Option C applies the security principles of least privilege, abstraction, and input validation while preserving the investment in the mainframe. A is a dangerous risk acceptance with no compensating control. B only moves the TLS termination point and does not address the excessive authority or protocol mismatch. D is ideal but not always feasible in the real world due to cost, schedule, or lack of source code; CISSP expects “best practical” security, not academic perfection.

Correct Answer: C

The priority is to stop the contractual breach, preserve evidence, and enforce the agreement; suspension and forensics achieve this. A is aggressive and may destroy evidence. B is reactive and does not address the partner’s mis-use. D does nothing about the copy already on the laptop.

Correct Answer: A

Crypto-shredding (changing the media-encryption key) instantly renders all previous data unrecoverable on modern self-encrypting drives and preserves resale value. Degaussing (B) is ineffective on SSDs and destroys the drive. Multi-pass overwrite (C) is unreliable due to over-provisioning and wear-leveling. D is overkill and still leaves no resale value.

Correct Answer: B

The attacker is uploading objects into your bucket, causing Lambda invocations. The root cause is a bucket policy (or ACL) that allowed public writes—detectable by a Config rule evaluating policy JSON. GuardDuty (A) is second-line; CloudWatch (C) is lagging; cost alert (D) is too late and purely financial.