300-215 Exam Dumps - Cisco CyberOps Professional Questions and Answers

During the initial phase of incident response, the two key actions are:

Disconnecting the server (B) to contain the threat and prevent lateral movement or further exfiltration.

Reviewing network logs (E) to understand the timeline and scope of the attack.

These are emphasized in the containment and detection stages of the incident response lifecycle outlined in NIST 800-61 and covered in the Cisco CyberOps training.

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TCPdumpis a CLI-based packet capture tool that is widely used for real-time traffic inspection and analysis on Unix/Linux systems.

TCPsharkis a variant CLI tool used similarly for packet analysis.

AlthoughWiresharkis a powerful network protocol analyzer, it requires a GUI. Therefore, it is not suitable for environments without a graphical interface.

Once an incident has occurred, the appropriate course of action is to engage the organization's Incident Response (IR) plan. This is a structured approach to contain, analyze, and eradicate threats before they spread across the network.

The Cisco CyberOps Associate study guide emphasizes:

“Incident response and handling are essential within an organization… The main objective of implementing an incident handling process is to reduce the impact of a cyber-attack, ensure the damages caused are assessed, and implement recovery procedures”.

In particular, the containment phase of IR is focused on isolating the threat and preventing lateral movement or further compromise.

Options such as "root cause" or "attack surface" are relevant at later stages of analysis and mitigation, not immediate containment. Therefore, the correct answer is C.

The XML (STIX/CybOX format) details anemail-based threatindicator. Specifically:

Theemail addresscontains “@state.gov” (not exact match, so blocking all @state.gov would be overbroad).

Theattachment is a PDFfile with a specifiedMD5 hash: cf2b3ad32a8a4cfb05e9dfc45875bd70.

Theattachment sizeis 87022 bytes.

From a threat mitigation perspective:

Ais correct: Updating AV to block or flag files matching the malicious hash is a standard response.

Dis correct: The email address context and hash together provide a precise rule for blocking—this prevents false positives.

Incorrect options:

Boverreaches by blocking an entire domain without confirming threat context.

Cwould stop all PDFs, which is impractical.

Eis incorrect; there is no indication that the hash appears in the subject line.

According to the Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate guide (Chapter 5 - Identifying Attack Methods), attachments in emails—especially with file extensions like.xlsm—are high-risk indicators when analyzing suspicious or phishing emails. Malicious actors often use macro-enabled Excel files (.xlsm) as a payload delivery mechanism for malware or other exploits. These attachments are typically disguised as legitimate content such as refunds or invoices to trick the recipient into opening them.

The presence of“Card_Refund_18_6913.xlsm”is a strongIndicator of Compromise (IoC), as.xlsmfiles can contain VBA macros capable of executing malicious code. This matches exactly with examples provided in the study material discussing how macro-based payloads are delivered and recognized.

Hence,option Cis the most direct indicator of attack in this email.

The goal of an incident response plan (IRP) is to provide structured procedures for responding to cybersecurity incidents in a way that limits damage, contains the threat, and ensures business continuity. As outlined in the NIST SP 800-61 and Cisco CyberOps Associate study guide, containment and minimizing the impact of incidents is the primary goal of an IRP.

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Hex Fiend is a hex editor that allows analysts to examine the raw byte content of files. One key use case is identifying and extracting byte-level patterns or signatures that can be translated into YARA rules for detecting malware. These hex patterns can be used to define precise signature-based detections.

YARA rulesare primarily used for malware classification and detection based onbinary pattern matchingwithin files. They describe sequences of bytes, strings, and other file characteristics found in malicious binaries.

The Cisco CyberOps Associate guide explains:"YARA rules operate by inspecting binary data using conditions and string matches to identify specific patterns that indicate known malware samples.".

One of the primary challenges of cloud forensics is the inability to physically access the underlying hardware (e.g., the hard drives storing VM or container data). This restricts investigators from performing traditional disk imaging and handling procedures, which are crucial for maintaining evidence integrity. This limitation is widely recognized in cloud forensics frameworks.

Correct answer: C. no physical access to the hard drive.

From the Wireshark capture:

A (iraniansk.com): This domain isnot a known legitimate resourceand is hosting a suspicious file named “Fy.exe,” strongly indicative of amalware distribution domain.

D (Fy.exe): TheContent-Disposition: attachment; filename="Fy.exe"header explicitly signals abinary executabledownload, a key indicator in Emotet campaigns.

WhileContent-Type: application/octet-stream(E) is typical of binary data transfers, it isnot uniqueto malware and cannot by itself serve as a strong IoC. Thenginx server (B)andcookie/hash string (C)similarly do not uniquely indicate compromise.