Fortinet NSE7_SSE_AD-25 Practice Test Questions Answers

Based on the provided exhibits, the reason why the Win7-Pro endpoint can no longer access the internet through FortiSASE is due to exceeding the total vulnerability detected threshold. This threshold is used to determine if a device is compliant with the security requirements to access the network.

Endpoint Compliance:

FortiSASE monitors endpoint compliance by assessing various security parameters, including the number of vulnerabilities detected on the device.

The compliance status is indicated by the ZTNA tags and the vulnerabilities detected.

Vulnerability Threshold:

The exhibit shows that Win7-Pro has 176 vulnerabilities detected, whereas Win10-Pro has 140 vulnerabilities.

If the endpoint exceeds a predefined vulnerability threshold, it may be restricted from accessing the network to ensure overall network security.

Impact on Network Access:

Since Win7-Pro has exceeded the vulnerability threshold, it is marked as non-compliant and subsequently loses internet access through FortiSASE.

The FortiSASE endpoint profile enforces this compliance check to prevent potentially vulnerable devices from accessing the internet.

In recent versions of FortiSASE (starting from version 24.4 and later), the platform has increased its scalability to support larger enterprise environments.

Maximum Hub Support: According to the FortiSASE Mature Administration Guide and the FortiSASE 25.3.148 Feature Release Notes, administrators can now configure a maximum of 12 SPA Service Connections (SPA hubs). Previously, this limit was restricted to 4 hubs.

Scalability for Large Enterprises: This enhancement allows organizations with complex, geographically dispersed networks—such as those with multiple regional datacenters or cloud hubs—to integrate up to 12 distinct FortiGate SD-WAN hubs into their SASE infrastructure.

Service Connection Licensing: Each SPA hub requires a dedicated FortiGate SPA Service Connection license. In MSSP environments using FortiCloud Organizations, a single FortiSASE instance can inherit these licenses from a root OU, supporting up to the same cumulative maximum of 12 service connections.

Routing and Performance: These 12 hubs form the "Private Access" backbone, where FortiSASE security PoPs act as spokes. The use of BGP (either per-overlay or on loopback) ensures that traffic is dynamically routed to the optimal hub based on the destination network and defined SLA priorities.

FortiSASE supports zero trust network access (ZTNA) principles by identifying attributes on the endpoint for security posture checks. ZTNA principles require continuous verification of user and device credentials, as well as their security posture, before granting access to network resources.

Security Posture Check:

FortiSASE can evaluate the security posture of endpoints by checking for compliance with security policies, such as antivirus status, patch levels, and configuration settings.

This ensures that only compliant and secure devices are granted access to the network.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA):

ZTNA is based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," which requires continuous assessment of user and device trustworthiness.

FortiSASE plays a crucial role in implementing ZTNA by performing these security posture checks and enforcing access control policies.

The core of this issue lies in the difference between Certificate Inspection and Deep SSL Inspection within the FortiSASE security framework.

The Limitation of Certificate Inspection: When "Force Certificate Inspection" is enabled in a FortiSASE firewall policy, the system only inspects the SSL handshake—specifically the SNI (Server Name Indication) and certificate headers. It does not decrypt the actual data payload of the HTTPS session.

Antivirus Scanning Requirements: To detect and block malicious files like the EICAR test file when they are downloaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection (such as https://eicar.org), the FortiSASE antivirus engine must be able to "see" inside the encrypted tunnel. This requires Deep Inspection (Full SSL Inspection), where FortiSASE acts as a "man-in-the-middle" to decrypt, scan, and then re-encrypt the traffic.

Exhibit Analysis: The Secure Internet Access policy exhibit clearly shows the toggle for Force Certificate Inspection is enabled (set to "ON"). As specified in the Fortinet technical documentation, enabling this option forces the policy to use Certificate Inspection only, overriding any Deep Inspection settings that might be defined in the Profile Group.

Conclusion: Because the traffic is only undergoing certificate-level inspection, the antivirus engine cannot analyze the encrypted eicar.com-zip file payload, allowing the download to proceed even though an antivirus profile is active in the group.

Zero-trust tags are critical in implementing zero-trust network access (ZTNA) policies. Here are the two key advantages of using zero-trust tags:

Access Control (Allow or Deny):

Zero-trust tags can be used to define policies that either allow or deny access to specific network resources based on the tag associated with the user or device.

This granular control ensures that only authorized users or devices with the appropriate tags can access sensitive resources, thereby enhancing security.

Determining Security Posture:

Zero-trust tags can be utilized to assess and determine the security posture of an endpoint.

Based on the assigned tags, FortiSASE can evaluate the device's compliance with security policies, such as antivirus status, patch levels, and configuration settings.

Devices that do not meet the required security posture can be restricted from accessing the network or given limited access.