CND Threat Assessment & Vulnerability Management 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which concept describes a vulnerability that is being actively exploited by attackers before the vendor is aware of it or has issued a patch?
- Known vulnerability
- Zero-day vulnerability (Correct answer)
- Legacy vulnerability
- Residual risk
Correct answer: Zero-day vulnerability
A zero-day vulnerability is one that is unknown to the software vendor and is actively exploited before a patch or mitigation is available.
Question 2: In the context of threat assessment, what does 'threat likelihood' measure?
- The potential damage a threat could cause if it occurs
- The probability that a specific threat will exploit a given vulnerability (Correct answer)
- The number of known exploits for a vulnerability
- The time required to remediate a discovered vulnerability
Correct answer: The probability that a specific threat will exploit a given vulnerability
Threat likelihood (or probability) estimates how likely it is that a particular threat will successfully exploit a vulnerability within a given timeframe.
Question 3: A network defender reviews scan results and must decide which vulnerabilities to fix first. Which framework helps prioritize based on whether a vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild?
- CVSS Base Score alone
- EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) (Correct answer)
- OWASP Top 10
- CIS Benchmarks
Correct answer: EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System)
EPSS predicts the likelihood that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within 30 days, helping prioritize remediation beyond static CVSS scores alone.
Question 4: What is the role of a CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) identifier in vulnerability management?
- It assigns a severity score from 0 to 10 for each vulnerability
- It provides a unique, standardized reference number for publicly known vulnerabilities (Correct answer)
- It automatically generates remediation scripts for known vulnerabilities
- It tracks the patch status of vulnerabilities across vendor systems
Correct answer: It provides a unique, standardized reference number for publicly known vulnerabilities
CVE identifiers provide a unique, standardized naming convention for publicly known vulnerabilities, enabling consistent communication across tools and organizations.
Question 5: During threat assessment, the security team applies the 'threat × vulnerability × impact' formula. What does this calculation produce?
- The CVSS Base Score
- A risk rating for the identified threat scenario (Correct answer)
- The number of exploits available for the vulnerability
- The time-to-breach estimate
Correct answer: A risk rating for the identified threat scenario
Multiplying threat likelihood by vulnerability severity by potential impact produces a risk rating that helps prioritize which issues require the most urgent attention.
Question 6: Which scanning technique attempts to exploit discovered vulnerabilities to confirm their existence and measure actual risk?
- Passive scanning
- Credentialed scanning
- Exploitation-based scanning (Correct answer)
- Network mapping
Correct answer: Exploitation-based scanning
Exploitation-based scanning actively attempts to exploit identified vulnerabilities to confirm they are real and exploitable, providing a more accurate risk assessment.
Question 7: An organization's vulnerability management program uses credentialed scanning. What is the primary advantage over non-credentialed scanning?
- It requires no network access to the target system
- It identifies more vulnerabilities by authenticating to systems and inspecting internal configurations (Correct answer)
- It is faster because it skips authentication overhead
- It avoids triggering IDS/IPS alerts during the scan
Correct answer: It identifies more vulnerabilities by authenticating to systems and inspecting internal configurations
Credentialed (authenticated) scanning logs into target systems to check patch levels, configurations, and installed software, discovering vulnerabilities that unauthenticated scans miss.
CND Threat Assessment & Vulnerability Management 4
Which concept describes a vulnerability that is being actively exploited by attackers before the vendor is aware of it or has issued a patch?