CompTIA PT0-002 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 27

Patch management is the process of identifying, downloading, and installing security patches for a system in order to address new vulnerabilities and software exploits. In the case of EternalBlue, the vulnerability was addressed by Microsoft in the form of a security patch. Installing this patch on the vulnerable host will provide protection from the vulnerability. Additionally, organizations should implement a patch management program to regularly check for and install security patches for the systems in their environment.

Network segmentation (A) can limit the impact of a compromise by separating different parts of the network into smaller, more isolated segments. However, it does not address the vulnerability itself. Key rotation (B) is the process of periodically changing cryptographic keys, which can help protect against attacks that rely on stolen or compromised keys. However, it is not directly related to the EternalBlue vulnerability.

Encrypted passwords (C) can help protect user credentials in case of a data breach or other compromise, but it does not prevent attackers from exploiting the EternalBlue vulnerability.

Reference: CompTIA PenTest+ Certification Guide, Chapter 1: Pre-engagement Interactions, Page 21.

Rules of engagement (ROE) is a document that outlines the specific guidelines and limitations of a penetration test engagement. The document is agreed upon by both the penetration testing team and the client and sets expectations for how the test will be conducted, what systems are in scope, what types of attacks are allowed, and any other parameters that need to be defined. ROE helps to ensure that the engagement is conducted safely, ethically, and with minimal disruption to the client's operations.

Mimikatz is a credential hacking tool that can be used to extract logon passwords from the LSASS process and pass them to other systems. Once the tester has the hashes, they can then use PsExec, a command-line utility from Sysinternals, to pass the hash to the remote system and authenticate with the new credentials. This provides the tester with persistence on the system, allowing them to access it even after a reboot.

"A penetration tester who has extracted password hashes from the lsass.exe memory process can use various tools to pass the hash and gain access to other systems using the same credentials. One tool commonly used for this purpose is Mimikatz, which can extract plaintext passwords from memory or provide a pass-the-hash capability. After gaining access to a system, the tester can use various tools for persistence, such as PsExec or WMI." (CompTIA PenTest+ Study Guide, p. 186)

A vulnerability scan is a type of penetration testing tool that is used to scan a network for vulnerabilities. A vulnerability scan can detect misconfigurations, missing patches, and other security issues that could be exploited by attackers. In this case, the output shows that 100 hosts had findings due to improper patch management, which means that the tester performed a vulnerability scan.

A vulnerability scan is a type of assessment that helps to identify vulnerabilities in a network or system. It scans systems for potential vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and outdated software. Based on the output from a vulnerability scan, a penetration tester can identify vulnerabilities that may be exploited to gain access to a system. In this scenario, the output from the penetration testing tool shows that 100 hosts contained findings due to improper patch management. This indicates that the vulnerability scan detected vulnerabilities that could have been prevented through proper patch management. Therefore, the most likely test performed by the penetration tester is a vulnerability scan.

Spear phishing is a type of targeted attack where the attacker sends emails that appear to come from a legitimate source, often a company or someone familiar to the target, with the goal of tricking the target into clicking on a malicious link or providing sensitive information. In this case, the penetration tester has already gathered OSINT on the IT system administrator, so they can use this information to craft a highly targeted spear phishing attack to try and gain access to the target system.

This URL will attempt a SQL injection attack using a UNION operator to combine the results of two queries into one table. The attacker can use this technique to retrieve data from other tables in the database that are not normally accessible through the web application.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is designed to monitor, filter or block traffic to a web application. A WAF will monitor incoming and outgoing traffic from a web application and is often used to protect web servers from attacks such as SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and other forms of attacks.

If a WAF detects an attack, it will often reset the TCP connection, causing the connection to be terminated. As a result, a penetration tester may see TCP resets when a WAF is present. Therefore, the most likely reason for the TCP resets returning from the web server is that the web server is using a WAF.