350-201 Questions and Answers

To mitigate attacks on a webserver from the Internet, it’s crucial to implement security measures that control the traffic reaching the server and provide an additional layer of abstraction.

A. Create an ACL on the firewall to allow only TLS 1.3: This step ensures that only secure, encrypted traffic using the latest version of the TLS protocol can reach the webserver. TLS 1.3 includes improvements over previous versions that enhance security and performance, making it a strong choice for protecting web traffic.

B. Implement a proxy server in the DMZ network: A proxy server acts as an intermediary between users on the Internet and the webserver. It can provide additional security features like content filtering and load balancing. By processing requests and responses through the proxy, direct access to the webserver is avoided, reducing the attack surface.

Options C and D are less effective in this context: C. Create an ACL on the firewall to allow only external connections: This would not be a mitigation step, as it does not restrict the type of traffic or provide additional security measures. D. Move the webserver to the internal network: This could potentially expose the internal network to more risks if the webserver is compromised. It’s generally safer to keep public-facing services in a DMZ.

The STIX (Structured Threat Information eXpression) provided in the exhibit indicates a risk associated with a file that redirects users to a malicious website. The code snippet shows an HTTP request being made to a URL known fordistributing ransomware. This type of threat involves tricking users into downloading and executing malicious software that encrypts their files and then demands payment for decryption. The static analysis of the file’s behavior, as shown in the code, supports the conclusion that the file poses a risk of ransomware infection1.

References:

Cisco CyberOps Using Core Security Technologies documentation.

Understanding Cisco CyberOps Using Core Security Technologies from Cisco’s official training and certifications resources.

Foundation Topics > Security Principles | Cisco Press1.

Conducting Forensic Analysis and Incident Response Using Cisco Technologies for CyberOps (CBRFIR) v1.02.

CBRFIR Exam Topics - Cisco Learning Network

The risk value for an asset is typically calculated by multiplying the likelihood of a threat occurring by the impact that the threat would have if it did occur. In the exhibit provided, the ‘payment process’ has a likelihood of 5 and an impact of 10, which when multiplied together gives a risk value of 50. This is the highest risk value when compared to the other assets listed, making the payment process the asset with the highest risk value.

References:

Cisco’s CyberOps Using Core Security Technologies documentation emphasizes understanding and managing risks to an organization’s information assets. This includes identifying vulnerabilities and threats, assessing their potential impact, and calculating risk values to prioritize response actions1.

The Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate Overview outlines knowledge areas such as security concepts and intrusion analysis, relevant to investigating and responding to security incidents

 When dealing with a CSRF vulnerability discovered in multiple applications, the recommended approach is to prioritize patching based on the risk scores associated with each application. This ensures that the most critical vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk to the organization are addressed first. It is a strategic approach that aligns remediation efforts with the potential impact of the vulnerabilities4.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is the compliance regulation that must be applied to a company that accepts credit card payments. PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Since the small business in question has acquired a POS terminal to handle credit card transactions, it falls under the purview of PCI DSS compliance.

In the context of Cisco Secure Network Analytics (formerly known as Stealthwatch) and ISE (Identity Services Engine), pxGrid (Platform Exchange Grid) is used for sharing context-aware information across different security tools toenable rapid threat containment. When a malware-infected endpoint is detected, Cisco Secure Network Analytics can communicate with ISE using pxGrid to signal the need for quarantine. This allows ISE to place the infected endpoint into a designated quarantine VLAN using an Adaptive Network Control policy, effectively isolating the threat and preventing it from spreading through the network.

References:

Cisco’s guide on pxGrid

Cisco’s solution overview on Rapid Threat Containment

The MIME type that should be followed is indicated by the x-content-type-options header in HTTP responses. This header is used to instruct the browser not to attempt MIME type sniffing, but to stick with the MIME type declared by the server. This can help prevent security risks associated with incorrect MIME type interpretation, such as executing non-executable MIME types as if they were scripts12.

References:

The Performing CyberOps Using Cisco Security Technologies (CBRCOR) course guides learners through cybersecurity operations fundamentals, including how to interpret security event logs and understand access control policies1.

The Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification provides knowledge on monitoring, detecting, and responding to cybersecurity threats, which includes understanding the significance of access control rules in network traffic management2.

 The script provided in the exhibit is indicative of a Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA), which is commonly used by cyber threats to dynamically generate a large number of domain names. These domain names can serve as potential communication points with command and control (C2) servers. The script takes a list of seeds and applies a transformation to generate new domain names. It then checks these domains against a set of rules, such as not starting with “www.” If a domain does not meet the specified criteria, it is flagged as a potential C2 domain. This process is crucial in cyber operations for identifying and mitigating threats that use DGAs for evasion and maintaining persistence.

References :=

Understanding Cisco CyberOps Using Core Security Technologies (Official Cisco course material)

Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate Certification Overview (Cisco Learning Network)

After using antivirus and malware removal tools, if abnormal processes are still occurring, the engineer should analyze the components of the infected hosts and their associated business services. This step is crucial to understand the scope of the infection, determine how the malware is affecting the system, and identify any changes made by the malware. This analysis will help in planning the subsequent steps for cleaning the infected host and restoring its functionality1.

 To prevent a security breach exploiting the Netlogon Remote Protocol vulnerability from reoccurring, the incident response team should implement a patch management process and apply existing patches to the company servers5. Patch management ensures that all systems are up-to-date with the latest security patches, which can prevent known vulnerabilities from being exploited6. Applying existing patches is a critical step in securing systems against identified threats, such as the Netlogon Remote Protocol vulnerability5.

 In Cisco Secure Network Analytics (Stealthwatch), when an engineer needs to analyze the top data transmissions to identify significant anomalies in traffic within a host group, the Top Conversations tool is used. This tool provides a detailed view of the communication between hosts, showing which pairs of hosts are exchanging the most data. By examining the top conversations, the engineer can pinpoint which specific data flows are contributing to the anomaly and take appropriate action.

The Top Conversations tool is particularly useful for this task because it focuses on the interactions between hosts, rather than just the volume of traffic (Top Ports), the individual hosts themselves (Top Hosts), or the peers (Top Peers) involved in the network communications. It allows for a more granular analysis of the network traffic, which is essential for identifying and addressing anomalies.

The Cisco Advanced Malware Protection report indicates several behavioral indicators with high severity scores, which suggests that malicious activity has been detected. However, there is no specific indicator in the report that states that files have been modified. Therefore, while the threat scores are high due to the detected malicious activity, we cannot conclude that any files have been modified based on the information provided in the report. This underscores the importance of analyzing the detailed indicators in such reports to accurately understand the nature of the threat and the actions taken by the malware.

After utilizing interactive behavior analysis in a sandbox environment, the next step in malware analysis is typically to disassemble the malware. This process involves breaking down the executable into assembly code to understand its structure and functionality. Disassembly allows the engineer to see the instructions that the malware executes, which can provide insights into its capabilities and purpose

According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data is a fundamental aspect of data security. One of the key measures to achieve this is by conducting a data protection impact assessment (DPIA). A DPIA helps to systematically analyze, identify, and minimize the data protection risks of a project or plan. It is a process for building and demonstrating compliance with the GDPR and should be conducted for processing operations that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons12.

To prevent network availability issues related to peak memory pool buffer usage, the engineer should enable memory threshold notifications. This action allows the system to alert administrators before the memory usage reaches a critical level, enabling them to take proactive measures to prevent malfunction

 To detect abnormal behavior for a UK-based user traveling between three countries, creating a rule that triggers an alert for a successful VPN connection from any nondestination country is an effective strategy. This rule helps in identifying potential unauthorized access or compromised credentials if the user’s account is accessed from a location where they are not supposed to be2.

 In the context of Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP), when a file is submitted to the Threat Grid analysis engine, it undergoes a thorough behavioral analysis to determine if it exhibits characteristics typical of malware. The Threat Grid provides detailed reports that include behavioral indicators of compromise (IoCs), which are actions or artifacts on a network or an endpoint that with high confidence indicate a breach.

In this case, the report generated by the Threat Grid for a low prevalence file shows high severity scores for the behavioral indicators. This suggests that the behaviors observed are strongly indicative of malicious activity, specifically ransomware. The high scores reflect the Threat Grid’s confidence in the malicious nature of the file based on its observed behaviors, which may include patterns of encryption consistent with ransomware, network activity that matches known ransomware command and control patterns, or file system changes that are characteristic of ransomware encryption.

Therefore, the correct answer is C, as the high scores on the behavioral indicators strongly suggest the presence of ransomware, justifying the execution of the ransomware detection mechanisms by Cisco AMP.

 The HTTP response header that signifies a page will be stopped from loading when a scripting attack is detected is the x-xss-protection header. When configured with the value “1; mode=block”, it instructs the browser to block the entire page from loading if a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack is detected, rather than attempting to sanitize the potentially malicious script. This header is a browser-side measure to prevent the execution of scripts if an XSS attack is suspected.

The other headers listed serve different purposes:

x-frame-options: Controls whether a browser should be allowed to render a page in a ,