SY0-601 CompTIA Security+ Exam 2023 Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

An incident response plan is a set of procedures and guidelines that defines how an organization should respond to a security incident. An incident response plan typically includes the following phases: preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned.

If the help desk has received calls from users in multiple locations who are unable to access core network services, it could indicate that a network outage or a denial-of-service attack has occurred. The network team has identified and turned off the network switches using remote commands, which could be a containment measure to isolate the affected devices and prevent further damage.

The next action that the network team should take is to initiate the organization’s incident response plan, which would involve notifying the appropriate stakeholders, such as management, security team, legal team, etc., and following the predefined steps to investigate, analyze, document, and resolve the incident.

The other options are not correct because:

A. Disconnect all external network connections from the firewall. This could be another containment measure to prevent external attackers from accessing the network, but it would also disrupt legitimate network traffic and services. This action should be taken only if it is part of the incident response plan and after notifying the relevant parties.

B. Send response teams to the network switch locations to perform updates. This could be a recovery measure to restore normal network operations and apply patches or updates to prevent future incidents, but it should be done only after the incident has been properly identified, contained, and eradicated.

C. Turn on all the network switches by using the centralized management software. This could be a recovery measure to restore normal network operations, but it should be done only after the incident has been properly identified, contained, and eradicated.

According to CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Objectives 1.5 Given a scenario, analyze indicators of compromise and determine the type of malware:

“An incident response plan is a set of procedures and guidelines that defines how an organization should respond to a security incident. An incident response plan typically includes the following phases: preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned.”

References: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/security#examdetails https://www.comptia.org/content/guides/comptia-security-sy0-601-exam-objectives

Running a vulnerability scan is the final step to be performed prior to promoting a system to production. This allows any remaining security issues to be identified and resolved before the system is put into production. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, 4th Edition, Chapter 3

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers offer a la carte services, including cloud backups, VM elasticity, and secure networking. With IaaS, businesses can rent infrastructure components such as virtual machines, storage, and networking from a cloud service provider. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, pages 233-234

Bluesnarfing is a hacking technique that exploits Bluetooth connections to snatch data from a wireless device. An attacker can perform bluesnarfing when the Bluetooth function is on and your device is discoverable by other devices within range. In some cases, attackers can even make calls from their victim’s phone1.

A - a mantrap can trap those personnal with bad intension(preventive), and kind of same as detecting, since you will know if someone is trapped there(detective), and it can deter those personnal from approaching as well(deterrent) B - security guards can sure do the same thing as above, preventing malicious personnal from entering(preventive+deterrent), and notice those personnal as well(detective)

To observe the continued network-based transaction between a callback domain and the malware running on an enterprise PC while reducing the risk of lateral spread and the risk that the adversary would notice any changes, the best technique to use is to emulate the malware in a heavily monitored DMZ segment. This is a secure environment that is isolated from the rest of the network and can be heavily monitored to detect any suspicious activity. By emulating the malware in this environment, the activity can be observed without the risk of lateral spread or detection by the adversary. References: https://www.sans.org/blog/incident-response-fundamentals-why-is-the-dmz-so-important/

A captive portal is a web page that requires visitors to authenticate or agree to an acceptable use policy before allowing access to the network. By capturing visitors' MAC addresses and names, potential malicious activity can be traced back to a specific person.

A bug bounty is a technique that compensates researchers for finding vulnerabilities in software or systems. A bug bounty program is an initiative that offers rewards, usually monetary, to ethical hackers who report security flaws to the owners or developers of the software or system. Bug bounty programs are often used by companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, Microsoft, and others to improve the security of their products and services

Bug bounty programs compensate researchers, often financially, for finding vulnerabilities in software, websites, or other technology. These programs provide an additional layer of security testing and incentivize researchers to report vulnerabilities instead of exploiting them.

Geofencing is a location-based technology that allows an organization to define and enforce logical access control policies based on physical location and proximity. Geofencing can be used to grant or restrict access to systems, data, or facilities based on an individual's location, and it can be integrated into a user's device or the infrastructure. This makes it a suitable solution for the pilot project to test the adaptive, user-based authentication method that includes granting logical access based on physical location and proximity.

The administrator is most likely trying to avoid VM sprawl, which occurs when too many VMs are created and managed poorly, leading to resource waste and increased security risks. The listed actions can help establish policies, resource allocation, and categorization to prevent unnecessary VM creation and ensure proper management. Reference: CompTIA Security+ Certification Exam Objectives, Exam SY0-601, 3.6 Given a scenario, implement the appropriate virtualization components.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a security solution that protects web applications from various types of attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and others. It is typically deployed in front of web servers to inspect incoming traffic and filter out malicious requests.

To protect the company’s website from malicious web requests over SSL, a decryption certificate is needed to decrypt the SSL traffic before it reaches the WAF. This allows the WAF to inspect the traffic and filter out malicious requests.

The suspicious activity reported by the application owner, combined with the recent compromise of the jump box and the use of NTLM authentication, suggests that an attacker is likely using a pass-the-hash attack to gain unauthorized access to the financial application. This type of attack involves stealing hashed passwords from memory and then using them to authenticate as the compromised user without needing to know the user's plaintext password. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, 4th Edition, Chapter 5

Salting is a technique that adds random data to a password before hashing it. This makes the hash output more unique and unpredictable, and prevents attackers from using precomputed tables (such as rainbow tables) to crack the password hash. Salting also reduces the risk of collisions, which occur when different passwords produce the same hash.

References: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/security#examdetails https://www.comptia.org/content/guides/comptia-security-sy0-601-exam-objectives https://auth0.com/blog/adding-salt-to-hashing-a-better-way-to-store-passwords/

This scenario describes an influence campaign, where false information is spread to influence or manipulate people's beliefs or actions. In this case, the misinformation led eligible voters to avoid polling places, which influenced the outcome of the election.

A simulation exercise is designed to create an experience that is as close as possible to a real-world incident response scenario. It involves simulating an attack or other security incident and then having security personnel respond to the situation as they would in a real incident. References: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Objectives: 1.1 Explain the importance of implementing security concepts, methodologies, and practices.

The issue is DNS spoofing, where the DNS resolution has been compromised and is pointing to a malicious IP address. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-601, Chapter 7

An identity provider (IdP) is responsible for authenticating users and generating security tokens containing user information. A service provider (SP) is responsible for accepting security tokens and granting access to resources based on the user's identity.

Detailed Explanation: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) can help prevent employees from stealing data by monitoring and controlling access to sensitive data. DLP can also detect and block attempts to transfer sensitive data outside of the organization, such as via email, file transfer, or cloud storage.

References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide: Exam SY0-601, Chapter 10: Managing Identity and Access, p. 465

Data loss prevention (DLP) is a technology used to actively monitor for specific file types being transmitted on the network. DLP solutions can prevent the unauthorized transfer of sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers, by monitoring data in motion.

References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, 4th Edition, Chapter 2: Technologies and Tools, pp. 99-102.

The log entry shows the IP address for "www.example.com " being changed to a different IP address, which is likely the result of DNS poisoning. DNS poisoning occurs when an attacker is able to change the IP address associated with a domain name in a DNS server's cache, causing clients to connect to the attacker's server instead of the legitimate server. References: CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Objectives: 3.2 Given a scenario, implement secure network architecture concepts.

According to the CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 documents, the correct answer option is A. Create an automated, monthly attestation process that removes access if an employee’s supervisor denies the approval12.

This option ensures that appropriate access is not disrupted but unneeded access is removed in a reasonable time frame by requiring supervisors to approve or deny the exceptions on a regular basis. It also reduces the manual workload of the security team and improves the compliance with the company policy.

Intelligence fusion is a process that involves aggregating and analyzing data from multiple sources, including artificial intelligence, to provide insight on current cyberintrusions, phishing, and other malicious cyberactivity.

References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, 4th Edition, Glossary, p. 767.

The most likely vectors for the unauthorized inclusion of vulnerable code in a software company's final software releases are included third-party libraries and vendors/supply chain. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide by Emmett Dulaney, Chapter 8: Application, Data, and Host Security, Supply Chain and Software Development Life Cycle

The company can use a wildcard certificate to secure its website if it is concerned with convenience and cost. A wildcard certificate can secure multiple subdomains, which makes it cost-effective and convenient for securing the various registered domains.

The retail company should use a wildcard certificate if it is concerned with convenience and cost12. A wildcard SSL certificate is a single SSL/TLS certificate that can provide significant time and cost savings, particularly for small businesses. The certificate includes a wildcard character (*) in the domain name field, and can secure multiple subdomains of the primary domain1

Perfect forward secrecy would ensure that it cannot be used to decrypt all historical data. Perfect forward secrecy (PFS) is a security protocol that generates a unique session key for each session between two parties. This ensures that even if one session key is compromised, it cannot be used to decrypt other sessions.

The “From” line in the email header can be easily spoofed or manipulated by an attacker to make it look like the email is coming from the CIO’s email address. However, this does not mean that the email address is actually valid or that the email is actually sent by the CIO. A better way to check the email address is to hover over it and see if it matches the CIO’s email address exactly. This can help to spot any discrepancies or typos that might indicate a phishing attempt. For example, if the CIO’s email address is cio@company.com, but when you hover over it, it shows cio@compnay.com, then you know that the email is not authentic and likely a phishing attempt.

The CISO is using the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) to evaluate the environment for the new ERP system. The RMF is a structured process for managing risks that involves categorizing the system, selecting controls, implementing controls, assessing controls, and authorizing the system.

References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, 4th Edition, Chapter 4: Risk Management, pp. 188-191.

Shredding may be the most secure and cost-effective way to destroy electronic data in any media that contain hard drives or solid-state drives and have reached their end-of-life1. Shredding reduces electronic devices to pieces no larger than 2 millimeters2. Therefore, shredding is the most secure but least expensive data destruction method for data that is stored on hard drives.

Differential backup is a type of backup that backs up all data that has changed since the last full backup. This backup method offers faster recovery than a full backup, as it only needs to restore the full backup and the differential backup, reducing the amount of data that needs to be restored. It also uses less storage than a full backup as it only stores the changes made from the last full backup. 

If the systems are running unsecure protocols and the company that developed them is no longer in business, it is likely that there are no patches available to remediate the issue. References:

CompTIA Security+ Certification Exam Objectives 1.6: Given a scenario, implement secure protocols.

CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Sixth Edition, pages 35-36

a backup strategy is a plan that defines how to protect data from loss or corruption by creating and storing copies of data on a different medium or location1. A backup strategy should consider the security and reliability of the backup data and the backup storage234.

Based on these definitions, the best option that is a cost-effective approach to address the security and reliability concerns regarding the on-site backup strategy would be D. Migrate to a cloud backup solution24. A cloud backup solution can provide several benefits, such as:

Enhanced physical security of the backup data by storing it in a remote location that is protected by multiple layers of security measures.

Enhanced durability of the backup data by storing it on highly reliable storage devices that are replicated across multiple availability zones or regions.

Reduced costs of backup storage by paying only for the amount of data stored and transferred, and by using features such as compression, deduplication, encryption, and lifecycle management.

Increased flexibility and scalability of backup storage by choosing from various storage classes and tiers that match the performance and availability requirements of the backup data.

The network analyst should enable Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) to allow users to connect to the wireless access point securely without having to remember passwords. WPS allows users to connect to a wireless network by pressing a button or entering a PIN instead of entering a password.

Based on these definitions, the best security solution to mitigate the risk of future data disclosures from a laptop would be FDE123. FDE would prevent unauthorized access to the data stored on the laptop even if it is stolen or lost. FDE can also use TPM to store the encryption key and ensure that only trusted software can decrypt the data3. HIDS and VPN are not directly related to data encryption, but they can provide additional security benefits by detecting intrusions and protecting network traffic respectively.

The Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) is responsible for handling incidents and ensuring that the incident response plan is followed. References: CompTIA Security+ Study Guide, Exam SY0-601, Chapter 9

Defense in depth is a resiliency technique that involves implementing multiple layers of security controls to protect against different types of threats. In this scenario, the NIPS likely provided protection at a different layer than the boundary firewall, demonstrating the effectiveness of defense in depth. References: CompTIA Security+ Certification Exam Objectives (SY0-601)

A screened subnet is a network segment that can be used for servers that require connections from untrusted networks. It is placed between two firewalls, with one firewall facing the untrusted network and the other facing the trusted network. This setup provides an additional layer of security by screening the traffic that flows between the two networks. References: CompTIA Security+ Certification Guide, Exam SY0-501

WAP stands for wireless access point, which is a device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. WAP placement refers to where and how WAPs are installed in a building or area.

WAP placement should be closely coordinated between the technology, cybersecurity, and physical security departments because it affects several aspects of network performance and security, such as:

Coverage: WAP placement determines how well wireless devices can access the network throughout the building or area. WAPs should be placed in locations that provide optimal signal strength and avoid interference from other sources.

Capacity: WAP placement determines how many wireless devices can connect to the network simultaneously without affecting network speed or quality. WAPs should be placed in locations that balance network load and avoid congestion or bottlenecks.

Security: WAP placement determines how vulnerable wireless devices are to eavesdropping or hacking attacks from outside or inside sources. WAPs should be placed in locations that minimize exposure to unauthorized access and maximize encryption and authentication methods.

Detailed Explanation: Password spraying is an attack where an attacker tries a small number of commonly used passwords against a large number of usernames. The goal of password spraying is to avoid detection by avoiding too many failed login attempts for any one user account. The fact that different usernames are being attacked from the same IP address is a strong indication that a password spraying attack is underway.

A data protection officer (DPO) is a role that oversees the data protection strategy and compliance of an organization. A DPO is responsible for ensuring that the organization follows data protection laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and protects the privacy rights of data subjects. A DPO also acts as a liaison between the organization and data protection authorities, as well as data subjects and other stakeholders.

A DPO would most likely have direct access to the senior management team, as they need to report on data protection issues, risks, and incidents, and advise on data protection policies and practices.

The other options are not correct because:

A. Data custodian is a role that implements and maintains the technical controls and procedures for data security and integrity. A data custodian does not have direct access to the senior management team, as they are more involved in operational tasks than strategic decisions.

B. Data owner is a role that determines the classification and usage of data within an organization. A data owner does not have direct access to the senior management team, as they are more involved in business functions than data protection compliance.

D. Data controller is a role that determines the purposes and means of processing personal data within an organization. A data controller does not have direct access to the senior management team, as they are more involved in data processing activities than data protection oversight.

According to CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Exam Objectives 2.3 Given a scenario, implement secure protocols:

“A data protection officer (DPO) is a role that oversees the data protection strategy and compliance of an organization.”

References: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/security#examdetails https://www.comptia.org/content/guides/comptia-security-sy0-601-exam-objectives https://gdpr-info.eu/issues/data-protection-officer/