156-315.81 Checkpoint Check Point Certified Security Expert R81.20 Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The traffic is handled by the Accelerated Path. According to the R81.x Security Gateway Architecture (Logical Packet Flow)1, the Accelerated Path is the fastest path for processing packets, as it bypasses most of the inspection and uses SecureXL to accelerate the traffic. The Accelerated Path is used for connections that are established, compliant with the security policy, and do not require any content inspection or NAT1.

The Application Control blade inspects the traffic based on the application identity, which is determined by the Application Control Software Blade in the Medium Path1. However, once the application identity is established, the connection can be offloaded to SecureXL and handled by the Accelerated Path2. This way, the Application Control blade can improve performance and reduce CPU consumption2.

The other paths are not used for this traffic because:

The Slow Path is used for packets that are not compliant with the security policy, require stateful inspection or NAT, or are not supported by SecureXL1. This path involves the most inspection and processing, and is therefore the slowest3.

The Fast Path is used for packets that are trusted and do not require any inspection or NAT. This path bypasses both SecureXL and the Firewall kernel, and uses a kernel module called simfast to forward the packets directly to the network interface driver4. This path is not enabled by default, and requires manual configuration of rules to define which traffic can use it4.

The Medium Path is used for packets that require content inspection, such as IPS, Anti-Virus, Anti-Bot, URL Filtering, or Application Control1. This path uses SecureXL to accelerate some parts of the inspection, but still involves some processing by the Firewall kernel3. This path is only used for the first few packets of a connection until the application identity is established, and then the connection can be offloaded to the Accelerated Path2.

References: : Control SecureXL / CoreXL Paths - Check Point CheckMates : What is CoreXL & SecureXL – jermsmit.com : R81.x Security Gateway Architecture (Logical Packet Flow) : SecureXL and Application Control Layer - Check Point CheckMates

You plan to automate creating new objects using new R81 Management API. You decide to use GAIA CLI for this task.

The first step to run management API commands on GAIA’s shell is mgmt_login. This command allows you to login to the management server and obtain a session ID, which is required for running other management API commands. You can also specify the user name and password as parameters, or enter them interactively. The session ID is stored in the file $CPDIR/tmp/.api_session by default, unless you specify a different file name. References: R81 Management API Reference Guide, page 15.

High Availability (HA) is a deployment scenario where two or more Security Management Servers are configured to work together as a cluster. One server acts as the Primary server and handles all management operations, while another server acts as the Secondary server and serves as a backup. If the Primary server fails, the Secondary server takes over and becomes active. The cluster members communicate using a Virtual IP (VIP) address, which is used by SmartConsole to connect to the active server. If the Primary server is temporarily down, the administrator does not need to do anything, as SmartConsole will automatically connect to the VIP address and reach the Secondary server that has become active. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

References: 6: High Availability Administration Guide

The back end database for Check Point R81 Management uses PostgreSQL, which is an open source relational database management system2. MongoDB, MySQL, and DBMS are not used by Check Point R81 Management. References: 2: Check Point Software, Getting Started, Database.

 DLP and Geo Policy are examples of Shared Policies. Shared Policies are policies that can be applied to multiple gateways or clusters, regardless of their Access Control policy. Shared Policies allow administrators to manage common security settings across different gateways or clusters, such as Data Loss Prevention, Geo Protection, Threat Prevention, HTTPS Inspection, etc. References: R81 Security Management Administration Guide, page 31.

The recommended way to have a redundant Sync connection between the cluster nodes is to use a group of bonded interfaces connected to different switches. In the SmartConsole / Gateways & Servers -> select Cluster Properties / Network Management, you should define a dedicated sync interface, only one interface per node.

 In the R81 SmartConsole, Permissions and Administrators are defined on the Manage and Settings tab. The Manage and Settings tab allows administrators to configure various settings and options for the SmartConsole, such as global properties, network objects, services, users and user groups, permissions, licenses, certificates, etc. To define Permissions and Administrators, the administrator can go to the Manage and Settings tab and select Permissions and Administrators from the left pane. This will open a window where the administrator can create, edit, or delete administrators and roles, assign permissions and access profiles, enable multi-domain support, etc.

The other options are incorrect because:

The Security Policies tab allows administrators to create, edit, or delete security policies for different blades, such as Access Control, Threat Prevention, Identity Awareness, Mobile Access, etc. It also allows administrators to install policies on selected gateways or servers.

The Logs and Monitor tab allows administrators to view, filter, analyze, or export logs and reports for different blades, such as Access Control, Threat Prevention, Identity Awareness, Mobile Access, etc. It also allows administrators to monitor the status and performance of gateways and servers.

The Gateways and Servers tab allows administrators to add, edit, or delete gateways and servers that are managed by the Security Management Server or the Multi-Domain Security Management Server. It also allows administrators to view the details and configuration of each gateway or server.

The command ‘api status’ is used to check the status of the Management API server on the Management Server. The command will show if the API server is running, the port number, and the API version. The other commands are not valid or do not check the Management API server status. References: How To’s - Interact with Check Point Management API on Gaia R81, section “Check API Status”.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation: The “MAC magic” value, also known as the “Cluster Global ID”, is a mechanism that identifies different clusters on the same network segment. It is used to prevent MAC address conflicts and ensure proper load balancing among cluster members. The “MAC magic” value is a hexadecimal number that is appended to the virtual MAC address of the cluster interface. By default, the “MAC magic” value is set to 1 for all clusters, but it must be changed manually if there is more than one cluster connected to the same VLAN. Otherwise, the clusters will not be able to communicate with each other or with external hosts.

The “MAC magic” value does not need to be modified under the other conditions listed in the question. The firewall cluster can use either Broadcast or Multicast for CCP traffic without affecting the “MAC magic” value. The number of members in a firewall cluster also does not affect the “MAC magic” value, as long as they belong to the same cluster and have the same Cluster Global ID.

References: Verifying Magic Mac - R81.20 - Check Point CheckMates; What is Magic MAC? - Check Point CheckMates; Check Point R81 CLI Reference Guide, page 17; R81 ClusterXL Administration Guide, page 9-10

Check Point ClusterXL Active/Active deployment is used when there is Load Sharing solution set up. Load Sharing is a ClusterXL mode that allows distributing the network traffic between all cluster members, while still providing high availability in case of failures. Load Sharing can be configured as either Unicast or Multicast, depending on the network topology and switches support. References: R81 ClusterXL Administration Guide, page 9.

 The Check Point WatchDog daemon (cpwd) invokes and monitors critical processes and attempts to restart them if they fail. The cpwd daemon is responsible for starting processes such as cpd, cpm, fwm, fwd, and others. The cpd daemon is the Check Point Management daemon that handles communication between SmartConsole applications and Security Management Servers. The cpm daemon is the Check Point Management Server daemon that handles database operations and policy installation. The fwm daemon is the Firewall Management daemon that handles communication between Security Gateways and Security Management Servers. References: : Check Point Software, Getting Started, WatchDog Daemon; : Check Point Software, Getting Started, Processes.

 The default port for the Gaia WebUI Portal is HTTPS 443. This is the standard port for secure web communication over SSL/TLS. Changing the port may cause inconsistency with the settings on the SmartConsole and is not recommended unless necessary. To change the port, you can use the CLISH command set web ssl-port  and save the configuration. References: 13

 The correct syntax to add a new host named “emailserver1” with IP address 10.50.23.90 using GAiA Management CLI is mgmt_cli add host name "emailserver1" ip-address 10.50.23.90. The name and ip-address parameters are required and must be enclosed in double quotes. The other options are missing the double quotes or have incorrect parameter names1. References: 1: Check Point Software, Getting Started, Adding a Host.

 The most likely reason why you are not seeing any data type information in your logs even though you have enabled Full Log as a tracking option to a security rule is that Data Awareness is not enabled on your Security Gateway. Data Awareness is a feature that allows you to monitor and control data types that are transferred over HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, POP3, or IMAP protocols. Data Awareness can identify over 700 data types, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, medical records, etc., and provide visibility into the data usage patterns of your users. Data Awareness can also enforce data loss prevention (DLP) policies to prevent sensitive data from leaving your network or entering your network from untrusted sources. To enable Data Awareness on your Security Gateway, you need to activate the Data Awareness Software Blade in SmartConsole and install the policy on the Security Gateway. 

https://resources.checkpoint.com/datasheet/certified-security-expert-ccse-r8120-course-overview

Dynamic log distribution is a feature that allows you to configure the Security Gateway to distribute logs between multiple active Log Servers to support a better rate of Logs and Log Servers redundancy. This means that each log is sent to only one Log Server and the load is balanced between the primary Log Servers. If all the primary Log Servers are disconnected, the logs are distributed between the backup Log Servers. If no Log Servers are connected, the gateway writes the logs locally. This feature improves the performance and reliability of logging and reduces the network traffic and disk space consumption. You can enable this feature on the SmartConsole -> Gateways & Servers -> Logs -> Dynamic Log Distribution1.

The other options are incorrect because they do not describe the dynamic log distribution feature. Option B is wrong because the Management High Availability does not store the logs dynamically on the member with the most available disk space, but rather synchronizes the logs between the members using the cpd process2. Option C is wrong because the dynamic log distribution feature does not synchronize the logs between the primary and secondary management server, but rather distributes the logs between the Log Servers. Option D is wrong because the dynamic log distribution feature does not save disk space in case of a firewall cluster, but rather distributes the logs between the Log Servers. The firewall cluster members do not store local logs, but rather send them to the Log Servers3.

CoreXL is a technology that improves the performance of the Security Gateway by utilizing multiple CPU cores for processing traffic. CoreXL creates multiple instances of the firewall kernel (fwk) that run in parallel on different CPU cores. The number of kernel instances can be configured using the cpconfig command on the Security Gateway3. The minimum number of CPU cores required to enable CoreXL is 2, as one core is reserved for SND (Secure Network Distributor) and one core is used for running a kernel instance4. If the Security Gateway has only one CPU core, CoreXL cannot be enabled. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

References: 3: CoreXL Administration Guide 4: [CoreXL Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)]

The Check Point installation history feature provides the following:

Policy Installation Date: The date and time when the policy was installed on the Security Gateway.

View install changes: The ability to view the differences between two policy versions that were installed on the Security Gateway.

Install specific version: The ability to install a specific policy version from the installation history on the Security Gateway3. References: Check Point R81 SmartConsole Guide

 SecureXL does not use the TCP acknowledgment number as an attribute for identifying connections. SecureXL is a technology that accelerates the performance of the firewall by offloading some of the traffic processing from the firewall kernel to a more efficient path. SecureXL identifies connections by five attributes: source address, destination address, source port, destination port, and protocol1. These attributes are also known as the 5-tuple or the connection key. SecureXL uses these attributes to match packets to existing connections and apply the appropriate security policy and actions. SecureXL does not need to inspect the TCP sequence or acknowledgment numbers, as they are irrelevant for the connection identification and security enforcement2. The TCP sequence and acknowledgment numbers are used by the TCP protocol to ensure reliable and ordered delivery of data between endpoints

What are types of Check Point APIs available currently as part of R81.20 code?

The types of Check Point APIs available currently as part of R81.20 code are:

Management API: This API allows you to automate and orchestrate various management tasks, such as creating and modifying objects, installing policies, generating reports, etc. The Management API can be accessed via CLI, Web Services, or GUI clients.

Threat Prevention API: This API allows you to interact with the Threat Prevention software blades, such as Anti-Virus, Anti-Bot, Threat Emulation, etc. The Threat Prevention API can be used to query and update indicators, upload files for emulation, retrieve verdicts and reports, etc.

Identity Awareness Web Services API: This API allows you to integrate external identity sources with the Identity Awareness software blade, which provides identity-based access control for network traffic. The Identity Awareness Web Services API can be used to send identity and session information to the Security Gateway, query identity information from the Security Gateway, etc.

OPSEC SDK API: This API allows you to develop custom applications that can communicate with Check Point products using the OPSEC protocol. The OPSEC SDK API supports various OPSEC services, such as LEA, CPMI, SAM, ELA, UFP, etc. References: R81 Management API Reference Guide, page 7; [R81 Threat Prevention API Reference Guide], page 7; [R81 Identity Awareness Administration Guide], page 105; [OPSEC SDK R81 Documentation Package].

Using fw monitor, the inspection point notation E and i means that E shows the packet after the VPN encryption, and i shows the packet before the inbound firewall VM. E (for example, eth4:E) is the Post-Outbound inspection point, which captures packets after they are encrypted by VPN Outbound. i (for example, eth4:i) is the Pre-Inbound inspection point, which captures packets before they are inspected by the in-bound FireWall VM2. References: Check Point R81 CLI Reference Guide

Based on the image provided by the user, we can infer that rule 1 and object webserver are locked by another administrator. This is because they have red lock icons next to them, which indicate that they are being edited by another administrator in another session. The lock icons prevent other administrators from modifying these objects until the changes are published or discarded by the original administrator. The lock icons also show the name of the administrator who locked the objects when hovered over with the mouse cursor.

The other options are incorrect because:

Rule 7 was not created by the ‘admin’ administrator in the current session, but by another administrator in another session. This is because it has a blue lock icon next to it, which indicates that it was added by another administrator in another session. The blue lock icon prevents other administrators from deleting this rule until the changes are published or discarded by the original administrator.

8 changes have not been made by administrators since the last policy installation, but in the current session by the ‘admin’ administrator. This is because there is a yellow number 8 next to the Install Policy button, which indicates that there are 8 unpublished changes in the current session by the ‘admin’ administrator. These changes will be published or discarded when the ‘admin’ administrator clicks on Publish or Discard buttons.

The rules 1, 5 and 6 can be edited by the ‘admin’ administrator, but only after unlocking them from another administrator who locked them in another session. This is because they have red lock icons next to them, which indicate that they are being edited by another administrator in another session. The ‘admin’ administrator can unlock these rules by right-clicking on them and selecting Unlock from the menu. However, this will discard the changes made by the original administrator who locked them.

The command “ps aux | grep twd” is used to check the process ID and the processing time of the twd process on the Security Gateway. The ps command displays information about the active processes on the system. The aux option shows all processes for all users, including those without a controlling terminal. The grep command filters the output of the ps command by searching for the pattern “twd”, which is the name of the process that handles VPN traffic encryption and decryption1. The output of the command shows the process ID, CPU usage, memory usage, start time, and other details of the twd process2. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

References: 1: [Check Point Processes and Daemons] 2: [How to troubleshoot VPN issues with cpview utility]

After verifying that API Server is not running, you can start the API Server by running the command “api start” in Expert mode. This command will start the API Server process (cpm_api) and enable it to run automatically after reboot. You can also use the command “api enable” to enable the API Server without starting it immediately. The other commands are either incorrect or not related to the API Server. The set api command is used in CLISH mode to configure API settings, such as port, domain, or certificate. The mgmt_cli command is used in Expert mode to execute API commands, such as login, logout, show, set, etc. References: [API Server]

 To verify the CPUSE agent build, you can use either of these methods:

In WebUI Status and Actions page

By running the following command in CLISH: show installer status build The CPUSE agent build indicates the version of the CPUSE agent that is installed on the machine. The CPUSE agent is responsible for downloading, verifying, installing, and removing packages on Gaia OS. It is recommended to keep the CPUSE agent up-to-date to ensure a smooth installation and upgrade process. References: [CPUSE Agent]

The Hit Count feature allows tracking the number of connections that each rule matches, regardless of the Track option set for the rule. When you enable Hit Count, the Security Management Server collects the data from supported Security Gateways and displays it in SmartConsole. You can use the Hit Count feature to optimize your rule base by identifying unused or rarely used rules, or rules that match too many connections. 

https://community.checkpoint.com/t5/General-Topics/Check-Point-Inspection-points-iIoO/td-p/34938

The default order of the "fw monitor" inspection points is:

i (input): this is the first inspection point, where packets enter the firewall.

l (local): this is the second inspection point, where packets are processed locally by the firewall, before being forwarded to the next hop.

o (output): this is the third inspection point, where packets are sent out to their final destination.

O (offload): this is the fourth inspection point, where packets are offloaded to hardware acceleration for faster processing.

When using the Mail Transfer Agent, the debug logs are stored in /var/log/mail.mta.elg. This file contains information about the email messages that are processed by the Mail Transfer Agent, such as sender, recipient, subject, size, action, etc. You can use the command mailq to view the current mail queue and the command maild -d to enable debug mode for the Mail Transfer Agent. References: [Mail Transfer Agent]

 Check Point Support in many cases asks you for a configuration summary of your Check Point system. This is also called cpinfo. Cpinfo is a utility that collects diagnostic data on a Check Point gateway, management server, or log server. It generates a file that contains information such as product version, license details, OS details, network configuration, installed hotfixes, status of Check Point processes, firewall tables, etc. This file can be used by Check Point Support to troubleshoot issues or analyze performance. References: [Cpinfo Utility]

 CPM process stores objects, policies, users, administrators, licenses and management data in a Postgres SQL database. This database is located in $FWDIR/conf and can be accessed using the pg_client command2. The other options are not the correct database type for CPM. References: Check Point R81 Security Management Administration Guide