CCSP ISC Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

ExplanationCross-site scripting (XSS) is an attack where a malicious actor is able to send untrusted data to a user's browser without going through any validation or sanitization processes, or perhaps the code is not properly escaped from processing by the browser. The code is then executed on the user's browser with their own access and permissions, allowing the attacker to redirect the user's web traffic, steal data from their session, or potentially access information on the user's own computer that their browser has the ability to access. Missing function-level access control exists where an application only checks for authorization during the initial login process and does not further validate with each function call. An injection attack is where a malicious actor sends commands or other arbitrary data through input and data fields with the intent of having the application or system execute the code as part of its normal processing and queries. Cross-site request forgery occurs when an attack forces an authenticated user to send forged requests to an application running under their own access and credentials.

The EU passed Directive 95/46 EC in 1995, which established data privacy as a human right. The other years listed are incorrect.

An injection attack is where a malicious actor sends commands or other arbitrary data through input and data fields with the intent of having the application or system execute the code as part of its normal processing and queries. This can trick an application into exposing data that is not intended or authorized to be exposed, or it can potentially allow an attacker to gain insight into configurations or security controls. Missing function-level access control exists where an application only checks for authorization during the initial login process and does not further validate with each function call. Cross-site request forgery occurs when an attack forces an authenticated user to send forged requests to an application running under their own access and credentials. Cross-site scripting occurs when an attacker is able to send untrusted data to a user's browser without going through validation processes.

The Infinity Paradigm of the International Data Center Authority (IDCA) takes a macro-level approach to data center design. The IDCA does not use a specific, focused approach on specific components to achieve tier status. Building Industry Consulting Services International (BICSI) issues certifications for data center cabling. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publishes a broad range of fire safety and design standards for many different types of facilities. The Uptime Institute publishes the most widely known and used standard for data center topologies and tiers.

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) are the most commonly used data formats for the Representational State Transfer (REST) API and are typically implemented with caching for increased scalability and performance. Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) are both standards for exchanging encoded data between two parties, with XML being for more general use and SAML focused on authentication and authorization data. HTML is used for authoring web pages for consumption by web browsers

With multitenancy, multiple customers share the same physical hardware and systems. With the nature of a cloud environment and how it writes data across diverse systems that are shared by others, the process of eDiscovery becomes much more complicated. Administrators cannot pull physical drives or easily isolate which data to capture. They not only have to focus on which data they need to collect, while ensuring they find all of it, but they also have to make sure that other data is not accidently collected and exposed along with it. Measured service is the aspect of a cloud where customers only pay for the services they are actually using, and for the duration of their use. Portability refers to the ease with which an application or service can be moved among different cloud providers. Broad network access refers to the nature of cloud services being accessed via the public Internet, either with or without secure tunneling technologies. None of these concepts would pertain to eDiscovery.

The store phase occurs immediately after the create phase, and as data is committed to storage structures, the first opportunity for security controls to be implemented is realized. During the create phase, the data is not yet part of a system where security controls can be applied, and although the use and share phases also entail the application of security controls, they are not the first phase where the process occurs.

A community cloud is owned and maintained by similar organizations working toward a common goal. In this case, the universities would all have very similar needs and calendar requirements, and they would not be financial competitors of each other. Therefore, this would be an ideal group for working together within a community cloud. A public cloud model would not work in this scenario because it is designed to serve the largest number of customers, would not likely be targeted toward specific requirements for individual customers, and would not be willing to make changes for them. A private cloud could accommodate such needs, but would not meet the criteria for a group working together, and a hybrid cloud spanning multiple cloud providers would not fit the specifics of the question.

Broad network access to cloud services, although it is an integral aspect of cloud computing, would not being a specific benefit to an organization with cyclical business needs. The other options would allow for lower costs during periods of low usage as well as provide the ability to expand services quickly and easily when needed for peak periods. Measured service allows a cloud customer to only use the resources it needs at the time, and resource pooling allows a cloud customer to access resources as needed. On-demand self-service enables the cloud customer to change its provisioned resources on its own, without the need to interact with the staff from the cloud provider.

The goal with any cloud-hosting setup is for the cloud customer to be able to perform most or all its functions for service provisioning and configuration without any need for support from or interaction with the cloud provider beyond the automated tools provided. To fulfill the tenants of on-demand self-service, required interaction with the cloud provider--either half time, full time, or a commensurate amount of time based on the contract--would be in opposition to a cloud's intended use. As such, these answers are incorrect.

GitHub is a software development platform that serves as a code repository and versioning system. It is solely used for software development and would not be appropriate for applying baselines to systems. Puppet is an open-source configuration management tool that runs on many platforms and can be used to apply and maintain baselines. The Software Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) was developed by Microsoft for managing systems across large groups of servers. Chef is also a system for maintaining large groups of systems throughout an enterprise.

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a software architectural scheme that applies the components, connectors, and data conduits for many web applications used on the Internet. It uses and relies on the HTTP protocol and supports a variety of data formats. Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) are both standards for exchanging encoded data between two parties, with XML being for more general use and SAML focused on authentication and authorization data. Secure Shell client (SSH) is a secure method for allowing remote login to systems over a network.

DNSSEC is an extension to the regular DNS protocol that utilizes digital signing of DNS query results, which can be verified to come from an authoritative source. This verification mitigates the ability for a rogue DNS server to be used to spoof query results and to direct users to malicious sites. DNSSEC provides for the verification of the integrity of DNS queries. It does not provide any protection from snooping or data exposure. Although it may help lessen account hijacking by preventing users from being directed to rogue sites, it cannot by itself eliminate the possibility.

The relying party is attached to the application or service that a user is trying to access, and it accepts authentication tokens from the user's own identity provider in order to facilitate authentication and access. The other terms provided are all associated with federated systems, but none is the correct choice in this case.

When a cloud service provider receives an eDiscovery order pertaining to one of their customers, the first action they must take is to notify the customer. This allows the customer to be aware of what was received, as well as to conduct a review to determine if any challenges are necessary or warranted. Taking snapshots of virtual machines, copying data, and escrowing encryption keys are all processes involved in the actual collection of data and should not be performed until the customer has been notified of the request.

Regulated PII pertains to data that is outlined in law and regulations. Violations of the requirements for the protection of regulated PII can carry legal sanctions or penalties. Contractual PII involves required data protection that is determined by the actual service contract between the cloud provider and cloud customer, rather than outlined by law. Violations of the provisions of contractual PII carry potential financial or contractual implications, but not legal sanctions. Legal and jurisdictional are similar terms to regulated, but neither is the official term used.

A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack forces a client that a user has used to authenticate to an application to send forged requests under the user's own credentials to execute commands and requests that the application thinks are coming from a trusted client and user. Although this type of attack cannot be used to steal data directly because the attacker has no way of seeing the results of the commands, it does open other ways to compromise an application. Missing function-level access control exists where an application only checks for authorization during the initial login process and does not further validate with each function call. Cross-site scripting occurs when an attacker is able to send untrusted data to a user's browser without going through validation processes. An injection attack is where a malicious actor sends commands or other arbitrary data through input and data fields with the intent of having the application or system execute the code as part of its normal processing and queries.

Security misconfigurations occur when applications and systems are not properly configured or maintained in a secure manner. This can be due to a shortcoming in security baselines or configurations, unauthorized changes to system configurations, or a failure to patch and upgrade systems as the vendor releases security patches. Insecure direct object references occur when code references aspects of the infrastructure, especially internal or private systems, and an attacker can use that knowledge to glean more information about the infrastructure. Unvalidated redirects and forwards occur when an application has functions to forward users to other sites, and these functions are not properly secured to validate the data and redirect requests, allowing spoofing for malware or phishing attacks. Sensitive data exposure occurs when an application does not use sufficient encryption and other security controls to protect sensitive application data.

The question is describing the Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud offering, and as such, structured and unstructured storage types will be available to the customer. Volume and object are storage types associated with IaaS, and although the other answers present similar-sounding storage types, they are a mix of real and fake names.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publishes a broad range of fire safety and design standards for many different types of facilities. Building Industry Consulting Services International (BICSI) issues certifications for data center cabling. The Uptime Institute publishes the most widely known and used standard for data center topologies and tiers. The International Data Center Authority (IDCA) offers the Infinity Paradigm, which takes a macro-level approach to data center design.

Structured storage is designed, maintained, and implemented by a cloud service provider as part of a PaaS offering. It is specific to that cloud provider and the way they have opted to implement systems, so special care is required to ensure that applications are not designed in a way that will lock the cloud customer into a specific cloud provider with that dependency. Unstructured storage for auxiliary files would not lock a customer into a specific provider. With volume and object storage, because the cloud customer maintains their own systems with IaaS, moving and replicating to a different cloud provider would be very easy.

Platform as a Service would allow software developers to quickly and easily deploy their applications among different hosting providers for testing and validation in order to determine the best option. Although IaaS would also be appropriate for hosting applications, it would require too much configuration of application servers and libraries in order to test code. Conversely, PaaS would provide a ready-to-use environment from the onset. DaaS would not be appropriate in any way for software developers to use to deploy applications. IaaS would not be appropriate in this scenario because it would require the developers to also deploy and maintain the operating system images or to contract with another firm to do so. SaaS, being a fully functional software platform, would not be appropriate for deploying applications into.

Forensics refers to the application of scientific methods and protocols to the investigation of crimes. Although forensics has traditionally been applied to well-known criminal proceedings and investigations, the term equally applies to digital investigations and methods. Although the other answers provide similar-sounding terms and ideas, none is the appropriate answer in this case.

Chillers and cooling systems are internal to a data center and its operations, and as such they are considered an internal redundancy. Power feeds, network circuits, and generators are all external to a data center and provide utility services to them, which makes them an external redundancy.

Data loss prevention (DLP) extends the capabilities for data protection beyond the standard and traditional security controls that are offered by operating systems, application containers, and network devices. DLP is not specifically implemented to counter malicious insiders, and would not be particularly effective in doing so, because a malicious insider with legitimate access would have other ways to obtain data. DLP is a set of practices and controls to manage and minimize risk, comply with regulatory requirements, and show due diligence with the protection of data.

Cryptographic erasure is a secure method to destroy data by destroying the keys that were used to encrypt it. This method is universally available for volume storage on IaaS and is also extremely quick. Shredding, degaussing, and demagnetizing are all physically destructive methods that would not be permitted within a cloud environment using shared resources.

With a Type 1 hypervisor, the hypervisor software runs directly on top of the bare-metal system, without any intermediary layer or hosting system. None of these statements describes a Type 1 hypervisor.

Object storage uses a flat file system to hold storage objects; it assigns files a key value that is then used to access them, rather than relying on directories or descriptive filenames. Typical storage layouts such as tree, directory, and hierarchical structures are used within volume storage, whereas object storage maintains a flat structure with key values.

No matter what form they come in, "services" are obtained or purchased by a cloud customer from a cloud service provider. Services can come in many forms--virtual machines, network configurations, hosting setups, and software access, just to name a few. Hosting and servers--or, with a cloud, more appropriately virtual machines--are just two examples of "services" that a customer would purchase from a cloud provider. "Customers" would never be a service that's purchased.