CompTIA SY0-601 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 54

Directory traversal (also known as file path traversal) is a web security vulnerability that allows an attacker to read arbitrary files on the server that is running an application. This might include application code and data, credentials for back-end systems, and sensitive operating system files1. In some cases, an attacker might be able to write to arbitrary files on the server, allowing them to modify application data or behavior, and ultimately take full control of the server1.

Directory traversal in its simplest form uses the …/ pattern, which means to step up one level in the directory structure. By repeating this pattern, an attacker can traverse to the root directory and then access any file or folder on the server. For example, the following request attempts to read the Unix password file /etc/passwd from the server:

http://company.com/get.php?f=/etc/passwd

Some web applications may implement some defenses against directory traversal attacks, such as filtering out …/ patterns or percent-decoding the user input before validating it. However, these defenses can often be bypassed by using variations or encoding techniques. For example, the following requests use different ways to represent …/ or / characters:

http://company.com/…%2F…%2F…%2Fetc%2Fpasswd

http://company.com/…/…/…/%2Fetc%2Fpasswd

http://company.com/%2E%2E/%2E%2E/%2E%2E/etc/passwd

These requests may still result in directory traversal attacks if the web application does not properly handle them12.

A. SQLi. This is not the correct answer, because SQLi stands for SQL Injection, which is an attack that exploits a vulnerability in a web application's database layer, where malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution3. The requests in the question do not contain any SQL statements or commands.

B. CSRF. This is not the correct answer, because CSRF stands for Cross-Site Request Forgery, which is an attack that exploits the trust a web server has in a user's browser, where malicious requests are sent to the web server using the user's credentials4. The requests in the question do not indicate that they are forged or sent by another website.

C. API attacks. This is not the correct answer, because API stands for Application Programming

Interface, which is a set of rules and specifications that allow software components to communicate and exchange data. API attacks are attacks that target the vulnerabilities or weaknesses of APIs, such as authentication, authorization, encryption, rate limiting, or input validation5. The requests in the question do not target any specific API functionality or feature.

D. Directory traversal. This is the correct answer, because directory traversal is an attack that exploits insufficient security validation or sanitization of user-supplied file names, such that characters representing "traverse to parent directory" are passed through to the operating system's file system API12. The requests in the question contain various patterns of …/ or / characters that attempt to access restricted files and directories on the server.

Reference: What is directory traversal, and how to prevent it? - PortSwigger, Directory traversal attack - Wikipedia, What Is SQL Injection (SQLi) and How To Prevent It, What Is Cross-Site Request

Forgery (CSRF)? | Acunetix, API Security Testing – How to Hack an API and Get Away with It (Part 1 of 3).

Benchmarks are predefined sets of configuration standards or best practices for securing information systems and networks. Benchmarks can be used to assess system configurations against the minimum security baseline required by local guidelines or industry regulations. Benchmarks can also provide guidance on how to remediate any deviations or vulnerabilities found during the assessment123 Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 10: Summarizing Risk Management Concepts, page 454; What is a Security Benchmark? - Definition from Techopedia; Security Baselines and Benchmarks - SANS Institute; Security Configuration Benchmarks - CIS

A CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) and encryption are two solutions that can address the CSO's concerns about cloud-based services security. A CASB is a software tool or service that acts as an intermediary between users and cloud service providers, enforcing security policies and providing visibility and control over cloud activities. A CASB can help detect and prevent advanced threats and malware by applying data loss prevention, threat protection, anomaly detection, and encryption capabilities to cloud data and traffic456 Encryption is a process of transforming data into an unreadable format using a secret key or algorithm, making it inaccessible to unauthorized parties.

Encryption can help protect cloud data from breaches by ensuring that only authorized users with the correct key can decrypt and access the data. Encryption can be applied to data at rest (stored in the cloud) or data in transit (moving between the cloud and users)789 Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 8: Implementing Secure Protocols, page 360; What is a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)? | McAfee; Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs) - Gartner IT Glossary; What is Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)? - Definition from WhatIs.com; What is Encryption? | Malwarebytes; Encryption - Wikipedia; What is Encryption? How Does Encryption Work? | Kaspersky

Monitoring outbound traffic is a technique that can detect the behavior of malware that allows the unauthorized movement of data from a system. Outbound traffic refers to the data that leaves a system or network and goes to an external destination, such as another network, server, or website.

Monitoring outbound traffic can help identify any suspicious or anomalous patterns, such as large volumes of data being sent to unknown or malicious destinations, which could indicate a malware infection or a data exfiltration attempt. Monitoring outbound traffic can also help prevent malware from communicating with command-and-control servers or downloading additional payloads101112 Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Explaining Digital Forensics Concepts, page 496; Outbound Traffic Monitoring: Why It's Important for Your Network | SolarWinds MSP; How to Monitor Outbound Traffic on Your Network | NetFort Blog; Why You Should Monitor Outbound Traffic on Your Network | CSO Online

chmod is a Linux command that can be used to change or modify the permissions of files and directories. The /etc/shadow file is a system file that stores the encrypted passwords of user accounts in Linux. The /etc/shadow file should have restricted permissions to prevent unauthorized access or modification of the passwords. The recommended permissions for the /etc/shadow file are read/write for root user only (600). If the systems administrator observes that the /etc/shadow file has permissions beyond the baseline recommendation, they can use the chmod command to resolve this issue by setting the appropriate permissions for the file. For example, chmod 600 /etc/shadow would set the permissions of the /etc/shadow file to read/write for root user only. 181920 Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 9: Implementing Identity and Access Management Controls, page 404; chmod - Wikipedia; Linux /etc/shadow file - nixCraft; How to Change File Permissions in Linux - Linuxize

tail is a Linux command that can be used to display the last part of a file. grep is a Linux command that can be used to search for a pattern in a file or input. The pipe symbol (|) is used to connect two commands and pass the output of one command as the input of another command. The best command for the analyst to use on the syslog server to search for recent traffic to the command-and-control website is tail -500 /logfiles/messages | grep www.comptia.com. This command would display the last 500 lines of the /logfiles/messages file and filter them by the pattern www.comptia.com, which is the domain name of the command-and-control website. This way, the analyst can see any syslog messages that contain the domain name of the malicious website and investigate them further. 2122 [23] Reference: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 11: Explaining Digital Forensics Concepts, page 498; tail (Unix) - Wikipedia; grep - Wikipedia; [How To Use grep Command In Linux / UNIX - nixCraft]

A cold aisle and a hot aisle are design strategies for data centers that aim to improve the cooling efficiency and reduce the energy consumption. They involve lining up server racks in alternating rows with cold air intakes facing one side (the cold aisle) and hot air exhausts facing the other side (the hot aisle). This prevents the mixing of hot and cold air and creates a more uniform temperature distribution. The cold aisles receive cold air from the cooling units, while the hot aisles return hot air to the cooling units. This improves the performance and reliability of the IT equipment and lowers the cooling costs. Reference: Hot and Cold-Aisle Containment - Advantages & Disadvantages -AKCP; Hot Aisle Containment vs. Cold Aisle Containment: Which is Better for the Data Center? -Upsite; Aisle Containment Systems FAQ for Hot & Cold Aisle Solutions - Cool Shield; Hot and Cold Aisle Containment Differences - AKCP Monitoring; What is Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle? - Definition from Techopedia

A dynamic code analysis tool is a security tool that can improve vulnerability detection on this environment by testing and analyzing the software during runtime. Dynamic code analysis can identify potential vulnerabilities, errors, or performance issues that may not be visible in the source code or during static analysis, such as memory leaks, buffer overflows, or input validation errors. Dynamic code analysis can also simulate real-world scenarios and user inputs to evaluate the behavior and functionality of the software

A USB data blocker is a device that prevents data transfer between a USB device and a host computer, while still allowing charging. This can prevent data breaches caused by malicious USB chargers or devices that may attempt to access or infect the phone's data.