CCNA CyberOps Final Exam Online 2019

Hint

Cybercriminals are commonly motivated by money. Hackers are known to hack for status. Cyberterrorists are motivated to commit cybercrimes for religious or political reasons.

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Hacktivists are typically hackers who protest against a variety of political and social ideas. Hacktivists publicly protest against organizations or governments by posting articles and leaking sensitive information. Accessing school database and changing grades is probably made by a few script kiddies. Offers from someone to restore data for a hefty fee is a ransomware attack. Attacking the major power grid is typically conducted by a government.

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The three major categories of elements of a security operations center are people, processes, and technologies. A database engine, a data center, and an Internet connection are components in the technologies category.

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Technologies in a SOC should include the following:Event collection, correlation, and analysis
Security monitoring
Security control
Log management
Vulnerability assessment
Vulnerability tracking
Threat intelligence
Firewall appliances, VPNs, and IPS are security devices deployed in the network infrastructure.

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In a typical SOC, the job of a Tier 2 incident responder involves deep investigation of security incidents.

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The file system has no control over the speed of access or formatting of drives, and the ease of configuration is not file system-dependent.

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Use the Task Manager Performance tab to see a visual representation of CPU and RAM utilization. This is helpful in determining if more memory is needed. Use the Applications tab to halt an application that is not responding.

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Unsuccessful pings usually indicate a network problem which eliminates the virus option. In this case computers in the same classroom would also be on the same network. Port 25 is used used by the email SMTP protocol, not by ping.

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The net command is a very important command. Some common net commands include these:

• net accounts – sets password and logon requirements for users
• net session – lists or disconnects sessions between a computer and other computers on the network
• net share – creates, removes, or manages shared resources
• net start – starts a network service or lists running network services
• net stop – stops a network service
• net use – connects, disconnects, and displays information about shared network resources
• net view – shows a list of computers and network devices on the network

Hint

There are several reasons why Linux is a good choice for the SOC.Linux is open source.
The command line interface is a very powerful environment.
The user has more control over the operating system.
Linux allows for better network communication control.

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The basic best practices for device hardening are as follows:
Ensure physical security.
Minimize installed packages.
Disable unused services.
Use SSH and disable the root account login over SSH.
Keep the system updated.
Disable USB auto-detection.
Enforce strong passwords.
Force periodic password changes.
Keep users from re-using old passwords.
Review logs regularly.

Hint

The file permissions are always displayed in the user, group and other order. In the example displayed, the file has the following permissions:
The dash (-) means that this is a file. For directories, the first dash would be replaced with a “d”.
The first set of characters is for user permission (rwx). The user, sales, who owns the file can read, write and execute the file.
The second set of characters is for group permissions (rw-). The group, staff, who owns the file can read and write to the file.
The third set of characters is for any other user or group permissions (r–). Any other user or group on the computer can only read the file.

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The ps command is used before the kill command to discover the PID for the specific process. The kill command requires root privileges, but listing the processes that use the ps command does not.

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When a host sends information to a distant network, the Layer 2 frame header will contain a source and destination MAC address. The source address will be the originating host device. The destination address will be the router interface that connects to the same network. In the case of host A sending information to host B, the source address is AA:AA:AA:AA:AA:AA and the destination address is the MAC address assigned to the R2 Ethernet interface, BB:BB:BB:BB:BB:BB.

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The transport layer has several responsibilities. Some of the primary responsibilities include the following:
Tracking the individual communication streams between applications on the source and destination hosts
Segmenting data at the source and reassembling the data at the destination
Identifying the proper application for each communication stream through the use of port numbers
Multiplexing the communications of multiple users or applications over a single network
Managing the reliability requirements of applications

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Domain Name Service translates names into numerical addresses, and associates the two. DHCP provides IP addresses dynamically to pools of devices. HTTP delivers web pages to users. FTP manages file transfers.

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The Wireshark capture is a DNS response from the DNS server to PC-A. Because the packet was captured on the LAN that the PC is on, router DG would have encapsulated the response packet from the ISP router into an Ethernet frame addressed to PC-A and forwarded the frame with the MAC address of PC-A as the destination.

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In addition to its roles as router, a typical SOHO wireless router acts as both a wireless access point and an Ethernet switch. RADIUS authentication is provided by an external server. A WLAN controller is used in enterprise deployments to manage groups of lightweight access points. A repeater is a device that enhances an incoming signal and retransmits it.

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The correct access list syntax requires that the deny source IP address (192.168.2.0) statement come before the permit statement so that only traffic sourced from the 192.168.2.0 LAN is denied. Then the access list must be applied on interface G0/2 in the outbound direction.

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Confidential and secure transfers of data with VPNs require data encryption.

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The only filter that can be applied with a standard ACL is the source IP address. An extended ACL is used to filter on such traffic as the source IP address, destination IP address, type of traffic, and type of message.

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SNMP is an application layer protocol that allows administrators to manage devices on the network by providing a messaging format for communication between network device managers and agents.

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Worms are self-replicating pieces of software that consume bandwidth on a network as they propagate from system to system. They do not require a host application, unlike a virus. Viruses, on the other hand, carry executable malicious code which harms the target machine on which they reside.

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A Trojan horse is software that does something harmful, but is hidden in legitimate software code. A denial of service (DoS) attack results in interruption of network services to users, network devices, or applications. A brute-force attack commonly involves trying to access a network device. A buffer overflow occurs when a program attempts to store more data in a memory location than it can hold.

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The type of end user interaction required to launch a virus is typically opening an application, opening a web page, or powering on the computer. Once activated, a virus may infect other files located on the computer or other computers on the same network.

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An access attack tries to gain access to a resource using a hijacked account or other means. The five types of access attacks include the following:password – a dictionary is used for repeated login attempts
trust exploitation – uses granted privileges to access unauthorized material
port redirection – uses a compromised internal host to pass traffic through a firewall
man-in-the-middle – an unauthorized device positioned between two legitimate devices in order to redirect or capture traffic
buffer overflow – too much data sent to a memory location that already contains data

Hint

The following methods are used by hackers to avoid detection:Encryption and tunneling – hide or scramble the malware content
Resource exhaustion – keeps the host device too busy to detect the invasion
Traffic fragmentation – splits the malware into multiple packets
Protocol-level misinterpretation – sneaks by the firewall
Pivot – uses a compromised network device to attempt access to another device
Rootkit – allows the hacker to be undetected and hides software installed by the hacker

Hint

A network tap is used to capture traffic for monitoring the network. The tap is typically a passive splitting device implemented inline on the network and forwards all traffic, including physical layer errors, to an analysis device.

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The Simple Network Management Protocol is used by network devices to send and log messages to a syslog server in order to monitor traffic and network device events. The syslog service must be enabled on the server or a syslog server application must be installed in order to receive such traffic.

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An inline frame or iFrame is an HTML element that allows the browser to load a different web page from another source.

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A firewall is typically a second line of defense in a layered defense-in-depth approach to network security. The firewall typically connects to an edge router that connects to the service provider. The firewall tracks connections initiated within the company going out of the company and denies initiation of connections from external untrusted networks going to internal trusted networks.

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One of the components in AAA is authorization. After a user is authenticated through AAA, authorization services determine which resources the user can access and which operations the user is allowed to perform.

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One key difference between TACACS+ and RADIUS protocols is that TACACS+ provides flexibility by separating authentication and authorization processes. RADIUS, on the other hand, combines authentication and authorization as one process.

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The task to ensure that only authorized personnel can open a file is data confidentiality, which can be implemented with encryption. AES and 3DES are two encryption algorithms. HMAC can be used for ensuring origin authentication. MD5 and SHA-1 can be used to ensure data integrity.

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The SSH protocol uses an asymmetric key algorithm to authenticate users and encrypt data transmitted. The SSH server generates a pair of public/private keys for the connections. Encrypting files before saving them to a storage device uses a symmetric key algorithm because the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt files. The router authentication with CHAP uses a symmetric key algorithm. The key is pre-configured by the network administrator. A VPN may use both an asymmetric key and a symmetric encryption algorithm. For example in an IPSec VPN implementation, the data transmission uses a shared secret (generated with an asymmetric key algorithm) with a symmetric encryption algorithm used for performance.

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Asymmetric algorithms can use very long key lengths in order to avoid being hacked. This results in the use of significantly increased resources and time compared to symmetric algorithms.

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Diffie-Hellman (DH) is an asymmetric mathematical algorithm that is too slow for encrypting large amounts of data. The longer key length and complexity of DH make it ideal for generating the keys used by symmetric algorithms. Symmetric algorithms typically encrypt the data, whereas DH creates the keys they use.

Hint

Digitally signing code provides several assurances about the code:
The code is authentic and is actually sourced by the publisher.
The code has not been modified since it left the software publisher.
The publisher undeniably published the code. This provides nonrepudiation of the act of publishing.

Hint

With cloud computing, boundaries of enterprise networks are expanded to include locations on the Internet for which the enterprises are not responsible. Malicious software might access the internal network endpoints to attack internal networks.

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With the anomaly-based intrusion detection approach, a set of rules or policies are applied to a host. Violation of these policies is interpreted to be the result of a potential intrusion.

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The SANS Institute describes three components of the attack surface:

• Network Attack Surface – exploitation of vulnerabilities in networks
• Software Attack Surface – exploitation of vulnerabilities in web, cloud, or host-based software applications
• Human Attack Surface – exploitation of weaknesses in user behavior

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The Base Metric Group of CVSS represents the characteristics of a vulnerability that are constant over time and across contexts. It contains two classes of metrics:Exploitability metrics – features of the exploit such as the vector, complexity, and user interaction required by the exploit
Impact metrics – the impacts of the exploit rooted in the CIA triad of confidentiality, integrity, and availability

Hint

Malware could be used by a threat actor to collect stolen encoded data, decode it, and then gain access to corporate data such as a username/password database.

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HTTPS adds extra overhead to the HTTP-formed packet. HTTPS encrypts using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Even though some devices can perform SSL decryption and inspection, this can present processing and privacy issues.

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By default Windows keeps four types of host logs:

• Application logs – events logged by various applications
• System logs – events about the operation of drivers, processes, and hardware
• Setup logs – information about the installation of software, including Windows updates
• Security logs – events related to security, such as logon attempts and operations related to file or object management and access

Hint

NetFlow efficiently provides an important set of services for IP applications including network traffic accounting, usage-based network billing, network planning, security, denial of service monitoring capabilities, and network monitoring.

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The traffic flow shown has a source port of 53 and a destination port of 1025. Port 53 is used for DNS and because the source port is 53, this traffic is responding to a client machine from a DNS server. The IP PROTOCOL is 17 and specifies that UDP is being used and the TCP flag is set to 0.

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After the tcpdump command is issued, the device displays the message, [1] 6337. The message indicates that the process with PID 6337was sent to the background.

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True negative classifications are desirable because they indicate that normal traffic is correctly not being identified as malicious traffic by security measures.

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Volatile data is data stored in memory such as registers, cache, and RAM, or it is data that exists in transit. Volatile memory is lost when the computer loses power.

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NIST describes the digital forensics process as involving the following four steps:

• Collection – the identification of potential sources of forensic data and acquisition, handling, and storage of that data
• Examination – assessing and extracting relevant information from the collected data. This may involve decompression or decryption of the data
• Analysis – drawing conclusions from the data. Salient features, such as people, places, times, events, and so on should be documented
• Reporting – preparing and presenting information that resulted from the analysis. Reporting should be impartial and alternative explanations should be offered if appropriate

Hint

When a threat actor prepares a weapon for an attack, the threat actor chooses an automated tool (weaponizer) that can be deployed through discovered vulnerabilities. Malware that will carry desired attacks is then built into the tool as the payload. The weapon (tool plus malware payload) will be delivered to the target system. By using a zero-day weaponizer, the threat actor hopes that the weapon will not be detected because it is unknown to security professionals and detection methods are not yet developed.

Hint

The VERIS community database (VCDB) is open and free to the public. The VCDB uses metrics to describe incidents in a structured and repeatable way, thus allowing for data manipulation.

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The Cyber Kill Chain specifies seven steps (or phases) and sequences that a threat actor must complete to accomplish an attack:

• Reconnaissance – The threat actor performs research, gathers intelligence, and selects targets.
• Weaponization – The threat actor uses the information from the reconnaissance phase to develop a weapon against specific targeted systems.
• Delivery – The weapon is transmitted to the target using a delivery vector.
• Exploitation – The threat actor uses the weapon delivered to break the vulnerability and gain control of the target.
• Installation – The threat actor establishes a back door into the system to allow for continued access to the target.
• Command and Control (CnC) – The threat actor establish command and control (CnC) with the target system.
• Action on Objectives – The threat actor is able to take action on the target system, thus achieving the original objective.

Hint

The human resources department may be called upon to perform disciplinary measures if an incident is caused by an employee.

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Important elements of a network profile include:

• Total throughput – the amount of data passing from a given source to a given destination in a given period of time
• Session duration – the time between the establishment of a data flow and its termination
• Ports used – a list of TCP or UDP processes that are available to accept data
• Critical asset address space – the IP addresses or the logical location of essential systems or data