PSE-Strata Paloalto Networks Palo Alto Networks System Engineer Professional - Strata Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

When access to a business site is blocked by URL Filtering inline machine learning (ML) and it is identified as a false positive, the appropriate way to resolve this is to create a custom URL category and add the site to the exceptions list of the inline ML profile. This ensures that the specific URL is no longer subjected to the filtering rules applied by the inline ML, thereby allowing access to the site.

Creating a custom URL category and adding it to the exceptions of the inline ML profile ensures that the legitimate business site is accessible without completely disabling the URL Filtering inline ML feature, which would reduce overall security effectiveness.

References:

Palo Alto Networks, URL Filtering Administration Guide.

The Vulnerability Protection Profile on a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) includes signatures specifically designed to protect against a variety of threats, including brute force attacks. This profile utilizes a database of known vulnerabilities and exploits to detect and block malicious attempts to compromise network security. By applying this profile, administrators can prevent attackers from successfully using brute force methods to gain unauthorized access to systems.

In an HA (High Availability) pair running in Active/Passive mode, the dataplanes communicate over the HA3 interface. This interface is used for the synchronization of session information and other runtime data between the active and passive firewalls, ensuring stateful failover and seamless transition in case of a failure.

Information about Command-and-Control (C2) hosts can be found in the following items:

Threat logs (A): These logs contain detailed information about detected threats, including C2 activities.

WildFire analysis reports (B): WildFire reports provide insights into malicious files and their behaviors, including any C2 communication attempts.

Botnet reports (C): These reports identify infected hosts within the network that are communicating with known botnet C2 servers.

These sources collectively provide comprehensive visibility into C2 activities within the network, aiding in the detection and mitigation of compromised hosts​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

In the first step of the Palo Alto Networks Five-Step Zero Trust Methodology, "Define the protect surface," an organization identifies its critical data, applications, assets, and services (DAAS). This step is crucial because it determines what needs to be protected within the Zero Trust framework. By clearly defining the protect surface, organizations can focus their security efforts on the most critical areas.

AutoFocus is a threat intelligence service provided by Palo Alto Networks that gives context and insight into threat data by leveraging a vast repository of threat intelligence data. It can inform customers about whether a zero-day attack is specifically targeted at their organization by correlating global threat intelligence with local data. This allows the customer to understand the specific nature and scope of the threat, providing actionable insights to mitigate such attacks.

This action will optimize the traffic flow by ensuring that there is a direct and efficient path for traffic within the Americas region. By onboarding a Service Connection in this region, you can reduce latency and improve the performance of the network for users and branches located there. This adjustment is critical for maintaining optimal network performance and user experience.

DNS Sinkholing is a powerful feature in network security that offers several advantages:

Forging DNS replies to known malicious domains: This technique redirects malicious domain queries to a designated IP address (sinkhole), effectively preventing the malware from communicating with its command and control servers, thereby neutralizing its threat.

Working upstream from the internal DNS server: DNS Sinkholing can be implemented upstream, meaning it intercepts and manipulates DNS queries before they reach the internal DNS server. This preemptive action helps in blocking threats early in the DNS resolution process, providing an additional security layer​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

The CLI command that allows you to view latency, jitter, and packet loss on a virtual SD-WAN interface is:

show sdwan path-monitor stats vif

This command displays the statistics related to the virtual SD-WAN interface, including important metrics such as latency, jitter, and packet loss. These metrics are crucial for monitoring the performance and quality of the SD-WAN connections to ensure optimal network performance and quick identification of issues.

References:

Palo Alto Networks SD-WAN Configuration Guide

Palo Alto Networks CLI Reference

In Panorama, the centralized management tool for Palo Alto Networks firewalls, WildFire analysis reports, threat logs, and botnet reports are essential for identifying the inclusion of a host source in a command-and-control (C2) incident. WildFire analysis reports provide detailed insights into malware behavior and characteristics. Threat logs record events related to security threats, such as attempted intrusions or malware detections. Botnet reports specifically track botnet activity, identifying compromised hosts that communicate with known botnet servers. By reviewing these reports and logs, administrators can accurately identify and mitigate C2 incidents.

When a client chooses not to block uncategorized websites, additional measures are necessary to maintain a level of protection.

A URL filtering profile with the action set to continue for unknown URL categories: By setting the action to continue, users will be prompted before accessing uncategorized websites, which provides an extra layer of caution and awareness, helping to mitigate risks associated with unknown sites.

A file blocking profile attached to security policy rules: This helps to reduce the risk of drive-by downloads by blocking potentially harmful file types from being downloaded when users visit uncategorized websites. This additional layer of security ensures that even if users access risky sites, the likelihood of malicious file downloads is minimized.

Using a virtual wire (vWire) interface configuration can enhance the security of a production online system while minimizing the impact on the existing network.

Virtual Wire:

A vWire interface operates transparently at Layer 2, allowing the firewall to inspect traffic without making changes to the existing network topology.

This mode is ideal for inline deployments where minimal changes to the network configuration are desired.

To receive weekly dynamic updates to the correlation objects on the firewall and Panorama, the required licenses are:

Threat Prevention on the firewall (B): This license enables the firewall to receive and apply the latest threat signatures and updates.

Support on Panorama (B): This license ensures that Panorama can receive the necessary updates to maintain up-to-date correlation objects and manage the security infrastructure effectively.

These licenses together ensure that both the firewall and Panorama are equipped with the latest security intelligence to protect against emerging threats​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

DNS Security is a service that prevents users from resolving IP addresses to malicious, grayware, or newly registered domains. By integrating DNS Security into the Palo Alto Networks platform, organizations can block threats at the DNS layer, providing an additional level of protection against domain-based attacks. This service leverages real-time threat intelligence to identify and block malicious domains before they can be used in attacks.

In PAN-OS 9, the WF-500 appliance added support for new file types, including ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) and 7-Zip files. This expansion enables broader malware detection capabilities by analyzing additional file formats commonly used in various operating systems and compression utilities​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​.

The Best Practice Assessment (BPA) tool by Palo Alto Networks identifies tasks related to improving device management access. This includes evaluating the current state of management access configurations and providing recommendations to enhance security, such as implementing multi-factor authentication, using secure management interfaces, and restricting access based on roles.

References: Palo Alto Networks Best Practice Assessment tool documentation.

When generating an SLR (Security Lifecycle Review) report for a school concerned about students accessing inappropriate websites, the SE should:

Remove unwanted categories listed under 'High Risk' and focus on categories that are relevant to the school's concerns. This approach allows the SE to tailor the report to highlight specific URL categories that the school is worried about, such as adult content, violence, or other inappropriate material.

By customizing the report to emphasize these categories, the SE can effectively demonstrate the firewall's capability to detect and block access to inappropriate websites, addressing the school's specific concerns directly.

This customization ensures that the SLR report is relevant and useful for the customer's needs, showcasing the firewall's strengths in URL filtering and content control.

Palo Alto Networks Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) architecture is designed to handle traffic efficiently and securely. The key aspect of SP3 is:

Single Pass Processing (C): This means that all traffic is processed in a single pass through the firewall, regardless of the number of security features enabled. There is no additional performance impact for each feature because the firewall processes all security functions (such as threat prevention, URL filtering, and application control) simultaneously in a single pass. This architecture ensures high performance and low latency while maintaining robust security.

References:

Palo Alto Networks, Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) Whitepaper.

Palo Alto Networks, Firewall Performance and Architecture Documentation.

The Automated Correlation Engine in PAN-OS is designed to analyze firewall logs to detect and correlate actionable events on the network. This feature processes a series of related threat events to identify compromised hosts or other significant security issues. By automatically pinpointing areas of risk and providing detailed insights, it allows administrators to assess vulnerabilities and take preventive measures to protect network resources. This capability is crucial for optimizing security outcomes and maintaining a robust defense posture.