Can you answer this sample Security+ question on virtualization?

Q. What type of virtualization allows an operating system kernel to run multiple isolated instances of a guest virtual machine?

A. Container virtualization
B. Sandboxing virtualization
C. Full virtualization
D. Hypervisor virtualization

More, do you know why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect answers are incorrect? The answer and an explanation are available here.

Can you answer this sample Security+ question on change management?

Q. A network administrator needs to update the operating system on switches used within the network. Assuming the organization is following standard best practices, what should the administrator do first?

A. Submit a request using the baseline configuration process.

B. Submit a request using the incident management process.

C. Submit a request using the change management process.

D. Submit a request using the application patch management process.

More, do you know why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect answers are incorrect? Answer and explanation are available here. 

Can you answer this sample Security+ question on cipher suites? 

Q. Lisa is setting up a secure webserver. She needs the server’s cryptography to support perfect forward secrecy. Of the following choices, what cipher suite should she ensure is used by the server?

A. TLS_DH_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256

B. TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

C. TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

D. SSL_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256

Do you know the answer? More, do you know why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect answers are incorrect? The answer is available here.

AUPs and Mandatory Vacations

Companies frequently develop policies such as mandatory vacation rules and acceptable use policies (AUPs) to define and clarify issues related to personnel. Do you know the differences between an AUP and a mandatory vacation? You should if you plan to take the Security+ exam.

Check out this sample Security+ question. Can you answer it correctly? 

Q. A security manager needs to identify a policy that will reduce the risk of personnel within an organization colluding to embezzle company funds. Which of the following is the BEST choice?

A. AUP

B. Training

C. Mandatory vacations

D. Time-of-day restrictions

More, do you know why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect answers are incorrect? Answer and explanation available here.

Personnel Policies

Companies frequently develop policies to specifically define and clarify issues related to personnel. This includes personnel behavior, expectations, and possible consequences. Personnel learn these policies when they are hired and as changes occur. Some of the policies directly related to personnel are acceptable use, mandatory vacations, separation of duties, job rotation, and clean desk policies.

Mandatory Vacation

Mandatory vacation policies help detect when employees are involved in malicious activity, such as fraud or embezzlement. As an example, employees in positions of fiscal trust, such as stock traders or bank employees, are often required to take an annual vacation of at least five consecutive workdays.

For embezzlement actions of any substantial size to succeed, an employee would need to be constantly present in order to manipulate records and respond to different inquiries. On the other hand, if an employee is forced to be absent for at least five consecutive workdays, the likelihood of any illegal actions succeeding is reduced because someone else would be required to answer the queries during the employee’s absence.

Mandatory vacations aren’t limited to only financial institutions, though. Many organizations require similar policies for administrators. For example, an administrator may be the only person required to perform sensitive activities such as reviewing logs. A malicious administrator can overlook or cover up certain activities revealed in the logs. However, a mandatory vacation would require someone else to perform these activities, which increases the chance of discovery.

Of course, mandatory vacations by themselves won’t prevent fraud. Most companies will implement the principle of defense in depth by using multiple layers of protection. Additional policies may include separation of duties and job rotation to provide as much protection as possible.

Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy

An acceptable use policy (AUP) defines proper system usage. It often describes the purpose of computer systems and networks, how users can access them, and the responsibilities of users when accessing the systems. Many organizations monitor user activities, such as what web sites they visit, and data they send out via email. The AUP typically includes statements informing users that systems are in place monitoring their activities. For example, a proxy server logs all websites that a user visits.

In some cases, the AUP might include privacy statements informing users what computer activities they can consider private. Many users have an expectation of privacy when using an organization’s computer systems and network that isn’t justified. The privacy policy statement helps to clarify the organization’s stance.

The AUP often includes definitions and examples of unacceptable use. For example, it may prohibit employees from using company resources to access peer-to-peer (P2P) sites or social media sites.

Many organizations require users to read and sign a document indicating they understand the acceptable use policy when they’re hired and in conjunction with annual security training. In many cases, organizations post the policy on an intranet site and sign it electronically. Other methods, such as logon banners or emails, help reinforce an acceptable use policy.

Remember this

Mandatory vacation policies require employees to take time away from their job. These policies help to deter fraud and discover malicious activities while the employee is away.

So, can you answer this sample question?

Q. A security manager needs to identify a policy that will reduce the risk of personnel within an organization colluding to embezzle company funds. Which of the following is the BEST choice?

A. AUP

B. Training

C. Mandatory vacations

D. Time-of-day restrictions

You can read the answer and the full explanation here.

Networking Configuration and the N10-006 Net+ Exam

Can you spot incorrect networking configuration settings such as an incorrect IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, or DNS server setting?

You should if you plan to take the N10-006 Network+ exam. You can expect to see networking configuration settings questions as performance-based questions and/or multiple choice questions. 

Note: I recently added some new questions including new performance-based questions to the Network+, CASP, and Security+ practice test banks. The "What's New" page lists additions for all the test banks on the gcgapremium.com site.

Check out this partial networking configuration diagram. It shows four users (Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Marge) and some servers, all in separate subnets.

Is Bart's Networking Configuration Correct?

Bart is complaining that he can't connect to any servers in the network. You need to find out why so you check his networking configuration as shown in the following graphic.

 Is this correct?

If not, what is wrong with this picture?

The answer is below.

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Network+ Study Resources

Check out these resources if you're studying for the Network+ exam. Online practice test questions and flashcards.

• Over 290 practice test questions
• Over 200 flashcards

Free Networking Components Online Course

• Online course covering networking components related to the N10-006 exam.

CompTIA Network+ N10-006 Practice Test Questions (Get Certified Get Ahead) Paperback

• Includes over 300 realistic practice test questions and a comprehensive list of relevant acronyms

CompTIA Network+ N10-006 Practice Test Questions (Get Certified Get Ahead) Kindle Edition

• Includes over 300 realistic practice test questions, over 200 flash cards, and a comprehensive list of relevant acronyms.
• Available for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

CompTIA N10-006 Network+ Basic Networking Components (A Get Certified Get Ahead Network+ Kindle Short) Kindle Edition

• Get a solid understanding of the core networking components covered in the CompTIA Network+ N10-006 exam.
• Available for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

You don't have to own a Kindle to use any of the Kindle books. Amazon has created free apps for just about any platform. Download and install any of these free apps and you can then read any Kindle book.

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Networking Configuration and the Network+ Exam

The correct configuration for Bart’s computer is:

• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Default gateway: 10.80.3.1
• DNS: 10.80.5.24

Subnet mask: The currently configured subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.128, which is incorrect. It should match the subnet mask of the default gateway, which is /24 (or 255.255.255.0).

Default gateway: The default gateway is the IP address of the router interface for the network. It is labeled F0/3 and the table shows that F0/3 has an IP address of 10.80.3.1/24.

DNS: The address of the Domain Name System (DNS) server is 10.80.5.10/24, as identified in the diagram.

Can you answer this Security+ practice test question on Linux permissions?

Linux Permissions Sample Question

Question. Lisa does not have access to the project.doc file but she needs access to this file for her job. Homer is the system administrator and he has identified the following permissions for the file:

rwx r-- ---

What should Homer modify to grant Lisa read access to the file?

A. File ownership

B. The FACL

C. Parent directory permissions

D. Group ownership

Answer and explanation available here.

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After receiving queries from several people about Linux permissions, I added this sample question to one of the extra test banks on the gcgapremium.com site.

While Linux or Linux permissions aren't listed directly on the Security+ objectives, CompTIA might add in questions that you may find a little challenging without a little knowledge of Linux permissions.

Don't let the appearance of Linux permissions throw you. Linux does list the permissions a little differently, but they work similarly to NTFS permissions. If you understand NTFS permissions as described in Chapter 2 of the CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-401 Study Guide, these questions shouldn't be too challenging.

Entities within Linux Permissions

There are 3 primary entities that you can assign permissions to within Linux. They are:

• Owner - This is a user that owns the file or directory and the owner is typically granted all permissions for the file or directory.
• Group - The file can also be owned by a named group. Members of this group are granted specific permissions for the file or directory. These permissions are typically less than the permissions applied to the owner
• Everyone else (or all users) - This is sometimes referred to as All Users, but permissions applied here do NOT override the Owner or Group permissions.

Basic Types of Linux Permissions

Linux files and directories have three basic types of Linux permissions. They are:

• Read (r) - view the file
• Write (w) - modify the file
• Execute (x) - run the file (assuming it is an application)
• If a permission is not assigned, you'll set it represented as a dash

The following table shows how these Linux permission types are often displayed in a file access control list (FACL).

Ref Line	Owner	Group	Users
1	rwx	rw-	---
2	rwx	rw-	r--
3	rw-	rw-	rw---

Looking at the above table, you can see that the following permissions will be assigned to the different entities:

• Line 1: rwx rw- ---
  • Owner has read, write, and execute permissions rwx
  • Group has read and write permissions rw-
  • Other users have zero permissions ---
• Line 2: rwx rw- r--
  • Owner has read, write, and execute permissions rwx
  • Group has read and write permissions rw-
  • Other users have read permissions r--
• Line 3:
  • Owner has read and write permissions rw-
  • Group has read and write permissions rw-
  • Other users have read and write permissions rw-

Linux Permissions using Octal Notation

You might also see permissions listed in octal notation format. In other words, instead of seeing letters such as rwx rw- ---, you might see numbers such as 760.

Octal notation uses only three bits with each bit having a value of 0 or 1. With three bits, you can represent eight numbers (0 through 8). The following table shows the octal value based on the value of each of the bits.

Octal Value	Read (r) 2^2	Write (w) 2^1	Execute (x) 2^0	Permission
0	0	0	0	---
1	0	0	1	--x
2	0	1	0	-w-
3	0	1	1	-wx
4	1	0	0	r--
5	1	0	1	r-x
6	1	1	0	rw-
7	1	1	1	rwx

All of these values are not used for Linux permissions. For example, while an octal 1 is possible, it isn't feasible to grant execute permission without also granting read permission.

I've bolded the more commonly used permissions within the table and the following graphic combines the different concepts.

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Answer and explanation for practice test question available here.

Security+ and Privilege Escalation

Can you define privilege escalation?

More, can you correctly answer this sample CompTIA Security+ question?

Privilege Escalation Sample Question

Your organization was recently attacked and forensic analysts are investigating the attack. They have created the following forensic diagram of the network.

   

Analysts are focused on several specific entries in the database server security log.

Entry #	Keywords	Source	Event ID	Task Category
1	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4624	Logon
2	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4672	Special Logon
3	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4624	Logon
4	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4624	Logon
5	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4648	Logon
6	Audit Failure	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4673	Sensitive Privilege Use
7	Audit Success	Microsoft Windows security auditing	4673	Sensitive Privilege Use

Assuming the analysts are correct, what is the MOST likely description of this attack?

A. Password attack

B. Pharming attack

C. Privilege escalation attack

D. Phishing attack

Based on the title of the post, I'm betting you know the correct answer is privilege escalation.

However, the actual questions on the Security+ exam aren't labeled so obviously. In order to answer them, you need to know why the correct answer is correct, and why the incorrect answers are incorrect.

More, if you know how to eliminate incorrect answers, you can discover the correct answer even if it's not very familiar to you.

Full answer and explanation available here.

Understanding Privilege Escalation

Privilege escalation occurs when a user or process accesses elevated rights and permissions. When attackers first compromise a system, they often have minimal privileges. However, privilege escalation tactics allow them to get more and more privileges.

For example, imagine hacker Harry is attacking a web server over the Internet. He might only have guest or anonymous access to the system initially, and he can’t do much with this access. He uses different techniques during the attack to gain more and more privileges. If he can escalate his privileges high enough, he will have full administrative or root access to the system.

Malware frequently tries to gain access to elevated privileges through the logged-on user. For example, if a user logs on with administrative privileges, the malware can elevate its privileges through the user account.

Many organizations require administrators to have two accounts. They use one account for regular use and one for administrative use. The only time they would log on with the administrator account is when they are performing administrative work. This reduces the time the administrative account is in use, and reduces the potential for privilege escalation if the user’s system is infected with malware.

Privilege Escalation and APTs

An advanced persistent threat (APT) is a group that has both the capability and intent to launch sophisticated and targeted attacks. There is a lot of evidence that they exist and are active, and privilege escalation is a core method of establishing a foothold within a network.

A lot of documentation indicates that many APTs start with a phishing attack. They try to lure unsuspecting users into opening an attachment or clicking a malicious link. The attachment installs malware onto the users system. Similarly, the malicious link attempts a drive-by download to install malware.

If the phishing attack is successful, the malware establishes a backdoor on the user's system. The attacker than uses this backdoor to perform reconnaissance on the user's system and network by embedding commands in what looks like harmless web pages.

Attackers systematically look for and exploit vulnerabilities gaining more and more privileges on the network. Of course, if a user is logged on as an administrator, this makes it much easier gain elevated privileges.

Full answer and explanation available here.