CS0-003 Exam Dumps - CompTIA CySA+ Questions and Answers

SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) platforms help automate and orchestrate incident response tasks, including phishing triage.

SOAR reduces triage time by automatically:

Parsing phishing emails (checking headers, links, attachments).

Running automated playbooks to check for known malicious indicators.

Escalating real threats while dismissing false positives.

Why Not Other Options?

B (Increase security awareness) → Helps prevent phishing but does NOT reduce triage time.

C (Implement EDR) → EDR is useful for endpoint protection but does NOT specifically reduce phishing triage time.

D (Install a "Report Phishing" button) → Helps report phishing but does NOT automate the triage process.

The discovery of unapproved accounts accessing shared data, along with data discrepancies, strongly indicates unauthorized changes.

Indicators of Unauthorized Changes:

Unexpected user permissions found during audits​.

Modified or deleted data without proper documentation.

Altered system or security configurations, allowing unintended access.

Why Not Other Options?

A. Filesystem Anomaly: This refers to unexpected behavior in the file structure, such as corrupt metadata or missing files, rather than unauthorized user access.

B. Illegal Software: Would involve unlicensed or unauthorized applications, not unauthorized file modifications.

D. Data Exfiltration: If data was removed, it might be exfiltration, but in this case, data modifications were detected instead.

To prevent unauthorized changes, security teams should use:

File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) to detect unauthorized modifications.

Access control audits to verify correct user permissions.

SIEM tools to analyze logs for anomalies.

OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy) is a tool recommended for quickly testing web applications for vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, path traversal, and cross-site scripting. It is an open-source web application security scanner that helps identify security issues in web applications during the development and testing phases.

The correct answer is B. Adversary emulation.

Adversary emulation is a technique that involves mimicking the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of a specific threat actor or group to test the effectiveness of the security controls and incident response capabilities of an organization1. Adversary emulation can help identify and address the gaps and weaknesses in the security posture of an organization, as well as improve the readiness and skills of the security team. Adversary emulation can also help measure the dwell time, which is the duration that a threat actor remains undetected inside the network2.

The other options are not the best techniques to meet the CISO’s goals. Vulnerability scanning (A) is a technique that involves scanning the network and systems for known vulnerabilities, but it does not simulate a real attack or test the incident response capabilities. Passive discovery © is a technique that involves collecting information about the network and systems without sending any packets or probes, but it does not identify or exploit any vulnerabilities or test the security controls. Bug bounty (D) is a program that involves rewarding external researchers or hackers for finding and reporting vulnerabilities in an organization’s systems or applications, but it does not focus on a specific threat actor or group.

Abit-level imageis a forensic-grade copy that preservesalldata on a disk, including unallocated space, deleted files, and metadata. This is the most legally defensible form of digital evidence collection, as it ensures that no potential evidence is missed​.

Copying all access files (Option A)only captures live files and omits deleted or system-level artifacts that may be critical.

Creating a file-level archive (Option B)is insufficient because it does not capture system metadata or slack space where forensic artifacts reside.

Providing a full system backup inventory (Option C)may include important files, but it lacks forensic integrity because backups often modify timestamps and do not capture all system states​.

Thus, the correct answer isD, as abit-level image ensures forensic integrity and completeness of evidence​.

The correct answers for key factors in the change management process to reduce the impact of system failures are:

D. Identify assets with dependence that could be impacted by the change.

F. Ensure that all assets are properly listed in the inventory management system.

D. Identify assets with dependence that could be impacted by the change: This is crucial in change management because understanding the interdependencies among assets can help anticipate and mitigate the potential cascading effects of a change. By identifying these dependencies, the organization can plan more effectively for changes and minimize the risk of unintended consequences that could lead to system failures.

F. Ensure that all assets are properly listed in the inventory management system: Maintaining an accurate and comprehensive inventory of assets is fundamental in change management. Knowing exactly what assets the organization possesses and their characteristics allows for better planning and impact analysis when changes are made. This ensures that no critical component is overlooked during the change process, reducing the risk of failures due to incomplete information.

Other Options:

A. Ensure users document system recovery plan prior to deployment: While documenting a system recovery plan is important, it's more related to disaster recovery and business continuity planning than directly reducing the impact of system failures due to changes.

B. Perform a full system-level backup following the change: While backups are essential, they are generally a reactive measure to recover from a failure, rather than a proactive measure to reduce the impact of system failures in the first place.

C. Leverage an audit tool to identify changes that are being made: While using an audit tool is helpful for tracking changes and ensuring compliance, it is not directly linked to reducing the impact of system failures due to changes.

E. Require diagrams to be completed for all critical systems: While having diagrams of critical systems is useful for understanding and managing them, it is not a direct method for reducing the impact of system failures due to changes. Diagrams are more about documentation and understanding rather than proactive change management.

The best recommendations to prevent an XSS vulnerability from being exploited are to implement a compensating control in the source code and to fix the vulnerability using a virtual patch at the WAF. A compensating control is a technique that mitigates the risk of a vulnerability by adding additional security measures, such as input validation, output encoding, or HTML sanitization. A virtual patch is a rule that blocks or modifies malicious requests or responses at the WAF level, without modifying the application code. These recommendations are effective, efficient, and less disruptive than the other options. References: CompTIA CySA+ Study Guide: Exam CS0-003, 3rd Edition, Chapter 4: Security Operations and Monitoring, page 156; Cross Site Scripting Prevention Cheat Sheet, Section: XSS Defense Philosophy.

USB ports are a common attack vector that can be used to deliver malware, steal data, or compromise systems. The first step to mitigate this vulnerability is to check the configurations of the company assets and disable or restrict the USB ports if possible. This will prevent unauthorized devices from being connected and reduce the attack surface. The other options are also important, but they are not the first priority in this scenario.

Automation is the best concept to describe the example, as it reflects the use of technology to perform tasks or processes without human intervention. Automation can help to improve efficiency, accuracy, consistency, and scalability of various operations, such as identity and access management (IAM). IAM is a security framework that enables organizations to manage the identities and access rights of users and devices across different systems and applications. IAM can help to ensure that only authorized users and devices can access the appropriate resources at the appropriate time and for the appropriate purpose. IAM can involve various tasks or processes, such as authentication, authorization, provisioning, deprovisioning, auditing, or reporting. Automation can help to simplify and streamline these tasks or processes by using software tools or scripts that can execute predefined actions or workflows based on certain triggers or conditions. For example, automation can help to create, update, or delete user accounts in bulk based on a file or a database, rather than manually entering or modifying each account individually. The example in the question shows that an API is used to insert bulk access requests from a file into an identity management system. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules or specifications that defines how different software components or systems can communicate and exchange data with each other. An API can help to enable automation by providing a standardized and consistent way to access and manipulate data or functionality of a software component or system. The example in the question shows that an API is used to automate the process of inserting bulk access requests from a file into an identity management system, rather than manually entering each request one by one. The other options are not correct, as they describe different concepts or techniques. Command and control is a term that refers to the ability of an attacker to remotely control a compromised system or device, such as using malware or backdoors. Command and control is not related to what is described in the example. Data enrichment is a term that refers to the process of enhancing or augmenting existing data with additional information from external sources, such as adding demographic or behavioral attributes to customer profiles. Data enrichment is not related to what is described in the example. Single sign-on is a term that refers to an authentication method thatallows users to access multiple systems or applications with one set of credentials, such as using a single username and password for different websites or services. Single sign-on is not related to what is described in the example.