CompTIA PT0-002 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 24

The company that requested the penetration test is responsible for providing the correct and accurate network scope for the test. The network scope defines the boundaries and limitations of the test, such as which IP addresses, domains, systems, or networks are in scope or out of scope. If the company provided an incorrect network scope that included an IP address that belongs to a third party, then it is responsible for this mistake. The penetration testing company, the target host's owner, the penetration tester, and the subcontractor supporting the test are not responsible for this mistake, as they relied on the network scope provided by the company that requested the penetration test.

The output shows the result of a ping command, which sends packets to a host and receives replies. The ping command can be used to determine if a host is alive and reachable on the network. One of the information that the ping command displays is the Time to Live (TTL) value, which indicates how many hops a packet can travel before it is discarded. The TTL value can also be used to guess the operating system of the host, as different operating systems have different default TTL values. In this case, the TTL value is 128, which is the default value for Windows operating systems. Linux and macOS have a default TTL value of 64, while NetBSD has a default TTL value of 255.

The scoping document is a document that defines the objectives, scope, limitations, deliverables, and expectations of a penetration testing engagement. It is an essential document that guides the penetration testing process and ensures that both the tester and the client agree on the terms and conditions of the test. Requiring all testers to review the scoping document carefully would have most effectively prevented this misunderstanding, as it would have informed the new tester about the client's request not to test the production networks. The other options are not effective or realistic ways to prevent this misunderstanding.

A DNS poisoning attack is an attack that exploits a vulnerability in the DNS protocol or system to redirect traffic from legitimate websites to malicious ones. A DNS poisoning attack works by injecting false DNS records into a DNS server or resolver's cache, which is a temporary storage of DNS information. However, if the DNS cache was not refreshed, then the attack would fail, as the target machine would still use the old and valid DNS records from its cache. The other options are not likely causes of the attack failure.

If a penetration tester was able to access the organization's wireless network from outside of the building using Aircrack-ng, then it means that the wireless network was not secured with strong encryption or authentication methods. Aircrack-ng is a tool that can crack weak wireless encryption schemes such as WEP or WPA-PSK using various techniques such as packet capture, injection, replay, and brute force. To remediate this issue, the client should change to Wi-Fi equipment that supports strong encryption such as WPA2 or WPA3, which are more resistant to cracking attacks. Using directional antennae may reduce the signal range of the wireless network, but it would not prevent an attacker who is within range from cracking the encryption. Using WEP encryption is not a good recommendation, as WEP is known to be insecure and vulnerable to Aircrack-ng attacks. Disabling Wi-Fi may eliminate the risk of wireless attacks, but it would also eliminate the benefits of wireless connectivity for the organization.

The image shows the output of the netstat -antu command, which displays active internet connections for the TCP and UDP protocols. The output shows that there are four established TCP connections and two listening UDP connections on the host. The established TCP connections have high numbered ports as their local addresses, such as 49152, 49153, 49154, and 49155. These ports are in the range of ephemeral ports, which are dynamically assigned by the operating system for temporary use by applications or processes. The foreign addresses of these connections are also high numbered ports, such as 4433, 4434, 4435, and 4436. These ports are not well-known or registered ports for any common service or protocol. The combination of high numbered ports for both local and foreign addresses suggests that these connections are suspicious and may indicate a backdoor or a covert channel on the host. Therefore, the penetration tester should investigate these connections next to determine their nature and purpose. The other options are not appropriate actions for the penetration tester at this stage.

The arp command is used to manipulate or display the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) cache, which is a table that maps IP addresses to physical addresses (MAC addresses) on a network. The -s option is used to add a static ARP entry to the cache, which means that it will not expire or be overwritten by dynamic ARP entries. The syntax for adding a static ARP entry is arp -s <IP address> <physical address>. Therefore, the command arp -s 192.168.1.63 60-36-DD-A6-C5-33 would add a static ARP entry for the IP address 192.168.1.63 and the physical address 60-36-DD-A6-C5-33 to the local cache of the attacker machine. This would allow the attacker machine to communicate with the target machine without relying on ARP requests or replies. The other commands are not valid or useful for establishing a static ARP entry.

Network segmentation is the practice of dividing a network into smaller subnetworks or segments based on different criteria, such as function, security level, or access control. Network segmentation can enhance the security of a network by isolating sensitive or critical systems from less secure or untrusted systems, reducing the attack surface, limiting the spread of malware or intrusions, and enforcing granular policies and rules for each segment. To be PCI compliant, which is a set of standards for protecting payment card data, the company should have implemented network segmentation to separate the servers that perform financial transactions from other parts of the network that may be less secure or more exposed to threats. The other options are not specific requirements for PCI compliance, although they may be good security practices in general.

Nmap is a tool that can perform network scanning and enumeration by sending packets to hosts and analyzing their responses. The command Nmap -p 445 -n -T4 -open 172.21.0.0/16 would scan for SMB port 445 over a /16 network with the following options:

-p 445 specifies the port number to scan.

-n disables DNS resolution, which can speed up the scan by avoiding unnecessary queries.

-T4 sets the timing template to aggressive, which increases the speed of the scan by sending packets faster and waiting less for responses.

-open only shows hosts that have open ports, which can reduce the output and focus on relevant results. The other commands are not optimal for scanning SMB port 445 over a /16 network when stealth is not a concern and the task is time sensitive.