PCDRA Paloalto Networks Palo Alto Networks Certified Detection and Remediation Analyst Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The “Respond to Malicious Causality Chains” feature in a Cortex XDR Windows Malware profile allows the agent to take automatic actions against network connections and processes that are involved in malicious activity on the endpoint. The feature has two modes: Block IP Address and Kill Process1.

The two purposes of “Respond to Malicious Causality Chains” in a Cortex XDR Windows Malware profile are:

Automatically kill the processes involved in malicious activity. This can help to stop the malware from spreading or doing any further damage.

Automatically block the IP addresses involved in malicious traffic. This can help to prevent the malware from communicating with its command and control server or other malicious hosts.

The other two options, automatically close the connections involved in malicious traffic and automatically terminate the threads involved in malicious activity, are not specific to “Respond to Malicious Causality Chains”. They are general security measures that the agent can perform regardless of the feature.

References:

Cortex XDR Agent Security Profiles

Cortex XDR Agent 7.5 Release Notes

PCDRA: What are purposes of “Respond to Malicious Causality Chains” in …

 You can star security events in Cortex XDR in two ways: manually star an alert or an incident, or create an alert-starring or incident-starring configuration. Starring security events helps you prioritize and track the events that are most important to you. You can also filter and sort the events by their star status in the Cortex XDR console.

To manually star an alert or an incident, you can use the star icon in the Alerts table or the Incidents table. You can also star an alert from the Causality View or the Query Center Results table. You can star an incident from the Incident View or the Query Center Results table. You can also unstar an event by clicking the star icon again.

To create an alert-starring or incident-starring configuration, you can use the Alert Starring Configuration or the Incident Starring Configuration pages in the Cortex XDR console. You can define the criteria for starring alerts or incidents based on their severity, category, source, or other attributes. You can also enable or disable the configurations as needed.

References:

Star Security Events

Create an Alert Starring Configuration

Create an Incident Starring Configuration

Live Terminal uses the WebSocket protocol to communicate with the agent on the endpoint. WebSocket is a full-duplex communication protocol that enables bidirectional data exchange between a client and a server over a single TCP connection. WebSocket is designed to be implemented in web browsers and web servers, but it can be used by any client or server application. WebSocket provides a persistent connection between the Cortex XDR console and the endpoint, allowing you to execute commands and receive responses in real time. Live Terminal uses port 443 for WebSocket communication, which is the same port used for HTTPS traffic. References:

Initiate a Live Terminal Session

WebSocket

 If all alerts contained in a Cortex XDR incident have exclusions, the Cortex XDR console will automatically mark the incident as Resolved – False Positive. This means that the incident was not a real threat, but a benign or legitimate activity that triggered an alert. By marking the incident as Resolved– False Positive, the Cortex XDR console removes the incident from the list of unresolved incidents and does not count it towards the incident statistics. This helps the analyst to focus on the true positive incidents that require further investigation and response1.

An exclusion is a rule that hides an alert from the Cortex XDR console, based on certain criteria, such as the alert source, type, severity, or description. An exclusion does not change the security policy or prevent the alert from firing, it only suppresses the alert from the console. An exclusion is useful when the analyst wants to reduce the noise of false positive alerts that are not relevant or important2.

An exception, on the other hand, is a rule that overrides the security policy and allows or blocks a process or file from running on an endpoint, based on certain attributes, such as the file hash, path, name, or signer. An exception is useful when the analyst wants to prevent false negative alerts that are caused by malicious or unwanted files or processes that are not detected by the security policy3.

A BIOC rule is a rule that creates an alert based on a custom XQL query that defines a specific behavior of interest or concern. A BIOC rule is useful when the analyst wants to detect and alert on anomalous or suspicious activities that are not covered by the default Cortex XDR rules4.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, Resolve an Incident1

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, Alert Exclusions2

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, Exceptions3

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, BIOC Rules4

 To create a BIOC rule with XQL query, you must at a minimum filter on the event_type field in order for it to be a valid BIOC rule. The event_type field indicates the type of event that triggered the alert, such as PROCESS, FILE, REGISTRY, NETWORK, or USER_ACCOUNT. Filtering on this field helps you narrow down the scope of your query and focus on the relevant events for your use case. Other fields, such as causality_chain, endpoint_name, threat_event, are optional and can be used to further refine your query or display additional information in the alert. References:

Palo Alto Networks Certified Detection and Remediation Analyst (PCDRA) Study Guide, page 9

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, BIOC Rule Query Syntax

 The ultimate goal of any exploit is to reach the kernel, which is the core component of the operating system that has the highest level of privileges and access to the hardware resources. Application exploits are attacks that target vulnerabilities in specific applications, such as web browsers, email clients, or office suites. Kernel exploits are attacks that target vulnerabilities in the kernel itself, such as memory corruption, privilege escalation, or code execution. Kernel exploits are more difficult to prevent and detect than application exploits, because they can bypass security mechanisms and hide their presence from the user and the system. References:

Palo Alto Networks Certified Detection and Remediation Analyst (PCDRA) Study Guide, page 8

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation, Exploit Protection Overview

Cortex XDR allows you to create two types of exception profiles: agent exception profiles and global exception profiles. Agent exception profiles apply to specific endpoints that are assigned to the profile. Global exception profiles apply to all endpoints in your network. You can use exception profiles to configure different types of exceptions, such as process exceptions, support exceptions, behavioral threat protection rule exceptions, local analysis rules exceptions, advanced analysis exceptions, or digital signer exceptions. Exception profiles help you fine-tune the security policies for your endpoints and reduce false positives. References:

Exception Security Profiles

Create an Agent Exception Profile

Create a Global Exception Profile

A false positive is a situation where a file or activity is incorrectly identified as malicious by a security tool, when in fact it is benign or harmless. A false positive can cause unnecessary alerts, disruptions, or remediation actions, and reduce the confidence and efficiency of the security system. In this question, a file is identified as malware by the Local Analysis module, whereas WildFire verdict is Benign, assuming WildFire is accurate. This means that the Local Analysis module has made a mistake and flagged a legitimate file as malicious, while WildFire has correctly determined that the file is safe. Therefore, this is an example of a false positive. The Local Analysis module is a feature of the Cortex XDR agent that uses a static set of pattern-matching rules and a statistical model to determine if an unknown file is likely to be malware. The Local Analysis module can provide a fast and offline verdict for files that are not yet analyzed by WildFire, but it is not as accurate or comprehensive as WildFire, which uses dynamic analysis and machine learning to examine the behavior and characteristics of files in a sandbox environment. WildFire verdicts are considered more reliable and authoritative than Local Analysis verdicts, and can override them in case of a discrepancy. Therefore, if a file is identified as malware by the Local Analysis module, but as Benign by WildFire, the WildFire verdict should be trusted and the Local Analysis verdict should be disregarded123

References:

False positive (security) - Wikipedia

Local Analysis

WildFire Overview

 The output shows the top 10 hosts with the most malware in the last 30 days, based on the Cortex XDR data. The output is sorted by the number of incidents, with the host with the most incidents at the top. The output also shows the number of alerts, the number of endpoints, and the percentage of endpoints for each host. The output is generated by using the ACC (Application Command Center) feature of Cortex XDR, which provides a graphical representation of the network activity and threat landscape. The ACC allows you to view and analyze various widgets, such as the Top 10 hosts with the most malware, the Top 10 applications by bandwidth, the Top 10 threats by count, and more .

References:

Use the ACC to Analyze Network Activity

Top 10 Hosts with the Most Malware

The correct statement regarding the Cortex XDR Analytics module is D, it interferes with the pattern as soon as it is observed on the endpoint. The Cortex XDR Analytics module is a feature of Cortex XDR that uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to detect and prevent network-based attacks on endpoints. The Cortex XDR Analytics module analyzes the network traffic and activity on the endpoint, and compares it with the attack patterns defined by Palo Alto Networks threat research team. The Cortex XDR Analytics module interferes with the attack pattern as soon as it is observed on the endpoint, by blocking the malicious network connection, process, or file. This way, the Cortex XDR Analytics module can stop the attack before it causes any damage or compromise.

The other statements are incorrect for the following reasons:

A is incorrect because the Cortex XDR Analytics module does interfere with the attack pattern on the endpoint, by blocking the malicious network connection, process, or file. The Cortex XDR Analytics module does not rely on the firewall or any other network device to stop the attack, but rather uses the Cortex XDR agent installed on the endpoint to perform the interference.

B is incorrect because the Cortex XDR Analytics module does not interfere with the attack pattern as soon as it is observed by the firewall. The Cortex XDR Analytics module does not depend on the firewall or any other network device to detect or prevent the attack, but rather uses the Cortex XDR agent installed on the endpoint to perform the analysis and interference. The firewall may not be able to observe or block the attack pattern if it is encrypted, obfuscated, or bypassed by the attacker.

C is incorrect because the Cortex XDR Analytics module does need to interfere with the attack pattern to prevent the attack. The Cortex XDR Analytics module does not only detect the attack pattern, but also prevents it from succeeding by blocking the malicious network connection, process, or file. The Cortex XDR Analytics module does not rely on any other response mechanism or human intervention to stop the attack, but rather uses the Cortex XDR agent installed on the endpoint to perform the interference.

References:

Cortex XDR Analytics Module

Cortex XDR Analytics Module Detection and Prevention

A BIOC rule is a custom detection rule that uses the Cortex Query Language (XQL) to define the behavior or actions that indicate a potential threat. A BIOC rule can use the xdr_data and cloud_audit_log datasets and presets for these datasets. A BIOC rule can also use the filter stage, alter stage, and functions without any aggregations in the XQL query. The query must return a single field named action_process_image, which is the process image name of the suspicious process. The query must also include the event_type and event_sub_type fields in the filter stage to specify the type and sub-type of the event that triggers the rule.

Option B is the correct answer because it meets all the requirements for a valid BIOC rule query. It uses the xdr_data dataset, the filter stage, the event_type and event_sub_type fields, and the action_process_image_name field with a regular expression to match any process image name that ends with .pdf.exe or .docx.exe, which are common indicators of malicious files.

Option A is incorrect because it does not include the event_type field in the filter stage, which is mandatory for a BIOC rule query.

Option C is incorrect because it does not include the event_type and event_sub_type fields in the filter stage, and it uses the fields stage, which is not supported for a BIOC rule query. It also returns the action_process_image field instead of the action_process_image_name field, which is the expected output for a BIOC rule query.

Option D is incorrect because it uses the event_behavior field, which is not supported for a BIOC rule query. It also does not include the event_type field in the filter stage, and it uses the event_sub_type field incorrectly. The event_sub_type field should be equal to PROCESS_START, not true.

References:

Working with BIOCs

Cortex Query Language (XQL) Reference

The Broker VM is a virtual machine that you can deploy in your network to provide various services and functionalities to the Cortex XDR agents. One of the services that the Broker VM offers is the Local Agent Settings applet, which allows you to configure the agent proxy, agent installer, and content caching settings for the agents. The Local Agent Settings applet can support a maximum number of 10,000 agents per Broker VM. If you have more than 10,000 agents in your network, you need to deploy additional Broker VMs and distribute the load among them. References:

Broker VM Overview: This document provides an overview of the Broker VM and its features, requirements, and deployment options.

Configure the Broker VM: This document explains how to install, set up, and configure the Broker VM in an ESXi environment.

Manage Broker VM from the Cortex XDR Management Console: This document describes how to activate and manage the Broker VM applets from the Cortex XDR management console.

 To view the WildFire report in an incident, you need to go to the incident details page and look for the relevant key artifacts that are related to the WildFire analysis. A key artifact is a piece of evidence that is associated with an alert or an incident, such as a file hash, a registry key, an IP address,a domain name, or a full path. If a key artifact is related to a WildFire analysis, you will see a WildFire icon next to it, indicating that there is a WildFire report available for that artifact. You can click on the WildFire icon to view the report, which will show you the detailed information about the artifact, such as the verdict, the behavior, the severity, the signatures, and the screenshots12.

Let’s briefly discuss the other options to provide a comprehensive explanation:

B. under Response --> Action Center: This is not the correct answer. The Action Center is a feature that allows you to create and manage actions that you can perform on your endpoints, such as isolating, scanning, collecting files, or executing scripts. The Action Center does not show you the WildFire reports for the incidents, but it can help you to remediate the incidents by applying the appropriate actions3.

C. under the gear icon --> Agent Audit Logs: This is not the correct answer. The Agent Audit Logs are logs that show you the activities and events that occurred on the Cortex XDR agents, such as installation, upgrade, connection, policy update, or prevention. The Agent Audit Logs do not show you the WildFire reports for the incidents, but they can help you to troubleshoot the agent issues or verify the agent status4.

D. on the HUB page at apps.paloaltonetworks.com: This is not the correct answer. The HUB page is a web portal that allows you to access and manage your Palo Alto Networks applications, such as Cortex XDR, Cortex XSOAR, Prisma Cloud, or AutoFocus. The HUB page does not show you the WildFire reports for the incidents, but it can help you to navigate to the different applications or view the notifications and alerts5.

In conclusion, to view the WildFire report in an incident, you need to go to the incident details page and look for the relevant key artifacts that are related to the WildFire analysis. By viewing the WildFire report, you can gain more insights and context about the incident and the artifact.

References:

View Incident Details

View WildFire Reports

Action Center

Agent Audit Logs

HUB

 When selecting multiple incidents at a time, the options that are available from the menu when a user right-clicks the incidents are: Assign incidents to an analyst in bulk and Change the status of multiple incidents. These options allow the user to perform bulk actions on the selected incidents, such as assigning them to a specific analyst or changing their status to open, in progress, resolved, or closed. These options can help the user to manage and prioritize the incidents more efficiently and effectively. To use these options, the user needs to select the incidents from the incident table, right-click on them, and choose the desired option from the menu. The user can also use keyboard shortcuts to perform these actions, such as Ctrl+A to select all incidents, Ctrl+Shift+A to assign incidents to an analyst, and Ctrl+Shift+S to change the status of incidents12

References:

Assign Incidents to an Analyst in Bulk

Change the Status of Multiple Incidents

The “assigned to” field value of a new incident that was just reported to Cortex is “Unassigned”. This means that the incident has not been assigned to any analyst or group yet, and it is waiting for someone to take ownership of it. The “assigned to” field is one of the default fields that are displayed in the incident layout, and it can be used to filter and sort incidents in the incident list. The “assigned to” field can be changed manually by an analyst, or automatically by a playbook or a rule12.

Let’s briefly discuss the other options to provide a comprehensive explanation:

A. Pending: This is not the correct answer. Pending is not a valid value for the “assigned to” field. Pending is a possible value for the “status” field, which indicates the current state of the incident. The status field can have values such as “New”, “Active”, “Done”, “Closed”, or "Pending"3.

B. It is blank: This is not the correct answer. The “assigned to” field is never blank for any incident. It always has a default value of “Unassigned” for new incidents, unless a playbook or a rule assigns it to a specific analyst or group12.

D. New: This is not the correct answer. New is not a valid value for the “assigned to” field. New is a possible value for the “status” field, which indicates the current state of the incident. The status field can have values such as “New”, “Active”, “Done”, “Closed”, or "Pending"3.

In conclusion, the “assigned to” field value of a new incident that was just reported to Cortex is “Unassigned”. This field can be used to manage the ownership and responsibility of incidents, and it can be changed manually or automatically.

References:

Cortex XDR Pro Admin Guide: Manage Incidents

Cortex XDR Pro Admin Guide: Assign Incidents

Cortex XDR Pro Admin Guide: Update Incident Status

If you have an isolated network that is prevented from connecting to the Cortex Data Lake, you can use the Local Agent Proxy setup to facilitate the communication. The Local Agent Proxy is a type of Broker VM that acts as a proxy server for the Cortex XDR agents that are deployed on the isolated network. The Local Agent Proxy enables the Cortex XDR agents to communicate securely with the Cortex Data Lake and the Cortex XDR management console over the internet, without requiring direct access to the internet from the isolated network. The Local Agent Proxy also allows the Cortex XDR agents to download installation packages and content updates from the Cortex XDR management console. To use the Local Agent Proxy setup, you need to deploy a Broker VM on the isolated network and configure it as a Local Agent Proxy. You also need to deploy another Broker VM on a network that has internet access and configure it as a Remote Agent Proxy. The Remote Agent Proxy acts as a relay between the Local Agent Proxy and the Cortex Data Lake. You also need to install a strong cipher SHA256-based SSL certificate on both the Local Agent Proxy and the Remote Agent Proxy to ensure secure communication. You can read more about the Local Agent Proxy setup and how to configure it here1 and here2. References:

Local Agent Proxy

Configure the Local Agent Proxy Setup

The Broker VM for Cortex XDR is a virtual machine that serves as the central communication hub for all Cortex XDR agents deployed in your organization. It enables agents to communicate with the Cortex XDR cloud service and allows you to manage and monitor the agents’ activities from a centralized location. The system requirements for the Broker VM are as follows:

CPU: 4 cores

RAM: 8 GB

Disk space: 256 GB

Network: Internet access and connectivity to all Cortex XDR agents

The disk space requirement is based on the number of agents and the frequency of content updates. The Broker VM stores the content updates locally and distributes them to the agents. The disk spacealso depends on the retention period of the content updates, which can be configured in the Broker VM settings. The default retention period is 30 days.

References:

Broker VM for Cortex XDR

PCDRA Study Guide

The Managed Threat Hunting (MTH) team is a group of security experts who proactively hunt for threats in the Cortex XDR tenant and generate a report with the findings. The MTH team uses advanced queries and investigative actions to identify and analyze potential threats, such as zero-day exploits, that may have bypassed the prevention and detection capabilities of Cortex XDR. The MTH team also provides recommendations and best practices to help customers remediate the threats and improve their security posture. References:

Managed Threat Hunting Service

Managed Threat Hunting Report

 To ingest external logs from various vendors, you need a Cortex XDR Pro per TB license. This license allows you to collect and analyze logs from Palo Alto Networks and third-party sources, such as firewalls, proxies, endpoints, cloud services, and more. You can use the Log Forwarding app to forward logs from the Logging Service to an external syslog receiver. The Cortex XDR Pro per Endpoint license only supports logs from Cortex XDR agents installed on endpoints. The Cortex XDR Vendor Agnostic Pro and Cortex XDR Cloud per Host licenses do not exist. References:

Features by Cortex XDR License Type

Log Forwarding App for Cortex XDR Analytics

SaaS Log Collection