CAS-005 CompTIA SecurityX Certification Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

To meet the requirements of only allowing internally signed applications, preventing unauthorized software installations, and logging attempts to run unauthorized software, configuring application control with blocked hashes and enterprise-trusted root certificates is the best solution. This approach ensures that only applications signed by trusted certificates are allowed to execute, while all other attempts are blocked and logged. It effectively prevents unauthorized software installations by restrictingexecution to pre-approved applications.

When dealing with false positives and false negatives reported by a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system, the goal is to enhance the accuracy of the alerts and ensure that actual threats are identified correctly. The following sources of information best support the analysis process:

A. Third-party reports and logs: Utilizing external sources of information such as threat intelligence reports, vendor logs, and other third-party data can provide a broader perspective on potential threats. These sources often contain valuable insights and context that can help correlate events more accurately, reducing the likelihood of false positives and false negatives.

B. Trends: Analyzing trends over time can help inunderstanding patterns and anomalies in the data. By observing trends, the security team can distinguish between normal and abnormal behavior, which aids in fine-tuning the SIEM configurations to better detect true positives and reduce false alerts.

Other options such as dashboards, alert failures, network traffic summaries, and manual review processes are also useful but are more operational rather than foundational for understanding the root causes of reporting errors in SIEM configurations.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Adversary emulation simulates specific advanced persistent threat (APT) behaviors and techniques to test an organization’s security posture. In SecurityX CAS-005, this is part of red-teaming and purple-teaming strategies for realistic resilience testing.

Reliability factors (B) relate to operational uptime, not threat simulation.

Honeypots (C) attract attackers but do not directly emulate specific adversaries.

Internal reconnaissance (D) is one phase of an attack simulation, not the full emulation of advanced threat actors.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) digitally signs outbound messages with the organization’s private key, enabling recipients to verify integrity and authenticity using the corresponding public key in DNS.

SPF validates sending server IPs, not message integrity.

DMARC builds policy enforcement on top of SPF and DKIM results.

TLS secures the transport channel, not the message content itself.

To improve the vulnerability management process in an environment where new devices/IPs are added and dropped regularly, the company should perform regular discovery scanning throughout the IT landscape using the vulnerability management tool. Here’s why:

Accurate Asset Inventory: Regular discovery scans help maintain an up-to-date inventory of all assets, ensuring that the vulnerability management process includes all relevant devices and IPs.

Consistency in Reporting: By continuously discovering and scanning new and existing assets, the company can generate consistent and comprehensive vulnerability reports that reflect the current state of the network.

Proactive Management: Regular scans enable the organization to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities on new and existing assets, reducing the window of exposure to potential threats.

Encrypting patient data at rest is a critical requirement for healthcare providers to ensure compliance with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The primary business requirement fulfilled by this practice is the protection of patient privacy while supporting the portability of medical information. By encrypting data at rest, healthcare providers safeguard sensitive patient information from unauthorized access, ensuring that privacy is maintained even if the storage media are compromised. Additionally, encryption supports the portability of patient records, allowing for secure transfer and access across different systems and locations while ensuring that privacy controls are in place.

A central logging server ensures logs are collected in a tamper-proof manner and only ingested (not modified). This prevents attackers from altering logs locally.

Key concepts:

Logs should be centrally stored to prevent tampering.

Enabling log forwarding to a secure SIEM improves integrity.

Other options:

A (File monitoring tool) helps detect file changes but doesn’t prevent log tampering.

B (Changing log solutions) does not inherently improve security.

D (Log rotation and encryption) is best practice but does not prevent modification before transmission.

The scenario describes a sophisticated attack where the threat actor used steganography within LDAP to exfiltrate data. Given that thehardware and OS firmware were validated and found uncompromised, the attack vector likely exploited a network communication channel. To mitigate such risks, enforcing allow lists for authorized network ports and protocols is the most effective strategy.

Here’s why this option is optimal:

Port and Protocol Restrictions: By creating an allow list, the organization can restrict communications to only those ports and protocols that are necessary for legitimate business operations. This reduces the attack surface by preventing unauthorized or unusual traffic.

Network Segmentation: Enforcing such rules helps in segmenting the network and ensuring that only approved communications occur, which is critical in preventing data exfiltration methods like steganography.

Preventing Unauthorized Access: Allow lists ensure that only predefined, trusted connections are allowed, blocking potential paths that attackers could use to infiltrate or exfiltrate data.

Other options, while beneficial in different contexts, are not directly addressing the network communication threat:

B. Measuring and attesting to the entire boot chain: While this improves system integrity, it doesn’t directly mitigate the risk of data exfiltration through network channels.

C. Rolling thecryptographic keys used for hardware security modules: This is useful for securing data and communications but doesn’t directly address the specific method of exfiltration described.

D. Using code signing to verify the source of OS updates: Ensures updates are from legitimate sources, but it doesn’t mitigate the risk of network-based data exfiltration.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Phishing simulations are a proven method for reinforcing security awareness, meeting compliance training requirements, and improving user incident reporting. In CAS-005, social engineering testing is a recommended component of organizational security culture programs.

DoS attacks (A) and penetration tests (B) assess technical security, not user awareness.

Fake ransomware (D) can cause unnecessary alarm and operational disruption.

The logs show that the user connected fromToronto (104.18.16.29)andLos Angeles (95.67.137.12)within minutes. The sudden location change is a typical trigger forgeoblocking in a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), leading to theHR System being denied.

A compromised account (B)would show failed login attempts or unusual activities, but all other access attempts were allowed.

Business hours restriction (C)is unlikely since the user was granted access earlier.

Approved subnet issues (D)would affect all applications, not just HR System access.

The question states that security scanning and quality assurance (QA) in the CI/CD pipeline have been completed with no issues, indicating that the code in the test branch is ready for production. According to the CompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 study guide (Domain 2: Security Operations, 2.3), in a secure CI/CD pipeline, once code passes automated security scans, QA, and other checks (e.g., unit testing, peer reviews), the next step is to merge the tested branch into the main branch for deployment to production.

Option B:Threat modeling is typically performed earlier, during design or development, not after passing CI/CD checks.

Option C:Unit testing is part of the CI/CD pipeline and should already be completed.

Option D:Peer reviews are conducted before or during the test phase, not after QAand security scans are clear.

Option A:Merging the test branch to the main branch is the logical next step to prepare for production deployment.

The immediate action after discovering ransomware is toisolate the affected serversto prevent further spread of the malware to other systems in the network. Paying the ransom is not recommended as it does not guarantee data recovery and encourages criminal behavior. Notifying law enforcement is necessary, but containment must happen first to limit damage. Requesting server restoration should only occur after containment and a thorough investigation to ensure no remnants of ransomware remain.

To create a collection of use cases for detecting known threats and include them in a centralized library for use across multiple companies withdifferent vendors, Sigma rules are the best option. Here’s why:

Vendor-Agnostic Format: Sigma rules are a generic and open standard for writing SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) rules. They can be translated to specific query languages of different SIEM systems, making them highly versatile and applicable across various platforms.

Centralized Rule Management: By using Sigma rules, the cybersecurity architect can create a centralized library of detection rules that can be easily shared and implemented across different detection and monitoring systems used by the acquired companies. This ensures consistency in threat detection capabilities.

Ease of Use and Flexibility: Sigma provides a structured and straightforward format for defining detection logic. It allows for the easy creation, modification, and sharing of rules, facilitating collaboration and standardization across the organization.

Vendor lock-in occurs when a client is overly dependent on a vendor, limiting flexibility. Risks include:

Option B:Vendors changing offerings (e.g., features, pricing) can disrupt the client, a key lock-in risk.

Option D:Decreased quality of service may result from reliance on a single vendor without alternatives.

Option A:Seamless data movement is a benefit, not a risk.

Option C:Sufficient service is neutral or positive, not a risk.

Option E:Multicloud is hindered by lock-in, not a risk of it.

Option F:Increased interoperability contradicts lock-in’s limitations.

Encrypting patient data at rest ensures that sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access, thereby maintaining patient privacy. Additionally, encryption supports data portability by allowing secure transfer and storage of data across different systems and devices without compromising confidentiality. This practice is crucial for healthcare providers to comply with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which mandates the protection of patient information.​

To ensure always-on VPN access is enabled and restricted to company assets, the network engineer needs to generate device certificates using the specific template settings required for the company's VPN solution. These certificates ensure that only authorized devices can establish a VPN connection.

Why Device Certificates are Necessary:

Authentication: Device certificates authenticate company assets, ensuring that only authorized devices can access the VPN.

Security: Certificates provide a higher level of security compared to username and password combinations, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

Compliance: Certificates help in meeting security policies and compliance requirements by ensuring that only managed devices can connect to the corporate network.

Other options do not provide the same level of control and security for always-on VPN access:

B. Modify signing certificates for IKE version 2: While important for VPN protocols, it does not address device-specific authentication.

C. Create a wildcard certificate: This is not suitable for device-specific authentication and could introduce security risks.

D. Add the VPN hostname as a SAN entry: This is more related to certificate management and does not ensure device-specific authentication.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Using X.509 certificates for authentication with HTTPS encrypts credentials in transit and provides server identity verification. In SecurityX CAS-005 objectives, securing internal web services with TLS and mutual authentication is a primary method to reduce credential interception or reuse.

802.1X EAP-TTLS is for network access control, not web authentication.

DNS security (DNSSEC) ensures DNS integrity, not web session encryption.

IDS rules help detect, but not prevent, credential exposure.

Implementing a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution and integrating it with applications is the best way to manage the situation and decrease risks. Here’s why:

Reduced Password Fatigue: SSO allows users tolog in once and gain access to multiple applications and systems without needing to remember and manage multiple passwords. This reduces the likelihood of users writing down passwords.

Improved Security: By reducing the number of passwords users need to manage, SSO decreases the attack surface and potential for password-related security breaches. It also allows for the implementation of stronger authentication methods.

User Convenience: SSO improves the user experience by simplifying the login process, which can lead to higher productivity and satisfaction.

Forward secrecy (FS) ensures that past encrypted data remains secure even if encryption keys are compromised in the future. Itgenerates ephemeral session keys that are not reused.

Other options:

A (Tokenization) replaces sensitive data with tokens but does not prevent key compromise.

B (Key stretching) makes brute-force attacks harder but does not ensure secrecy after compromise.

D (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals – SAE) is used in WPA3 but is not related to past communication security.