CSLLP Software Deployment, Operations, and Disposal 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which process ensures that software is deployed consistently and securely using automated, repeatable steps?
- Manual deployment checklist
- Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline (Correct answer)
- Change advisory board (CAB) review
- Blue-green deployment
Correct answer: Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline
A secure CI/CD pipeline automates building, testing, and deploying software with consistent security checks applied at every stage, reducing human error and ensuring repeatable deployments.
Question 2: What is the purpose of configuration management in secure software operations?
- To manage user access provisioning
- To maintain a known, secure baseline of system configurations and control changes to them (Correct answer)
- To monitor application performance metrics
- To schedule security patches automatically
Correct answer: To maintain a known, secure baseline of system configurations and control changes to them
Configuration management establishes and maintains secure baselines for systems, ensuring that changes are tracked, authorized, and do not introduce security regressions.
Question 3: Which practice involves monitoring production systems continuously for signs of security incidents or anomalous behavior?
- Vulnerability scanning
- Security information and event management (SIEM) (Correct answer)
- Penetration testing
- Code review
Correct answer: Security information and event management (SIEM)
SIEM systems aggregate and correlate log data from across the environment in real time, generating alerts for suspicious patterns that may indicate a security incident.
Question 4: What is the primary security concern with end-of-life (EOL) software components in production?
- They consume more system resources than supported software
- They no longer receive security patches, leaving known vulnerabilities permanently unaddressed (Correct answer)
- They are incompatible with modern encryption standards
- They cannot be monitored by SIEM tools
Correct answer: They no longer receive security patches, leaving known vulnerabilities permanently unaddressed
EOL software no longer receives security updates from the vendor, meaning known vulnerabilities will remain unpatched indefinitely, creating persistent risk in production environments.
Question 5: Which secure deployment technique runs two identical production environments, directing traffic to one while updating the other, enabling instant rollback?
- Canary deployment
- Rolling deployment
- Blue-green deployment (Correct answer)
- Shadow deployment
Correct answer: Blue-green deployment
Blue-green deployment maintains two identical environments; the live 'blue' environment serves traffic while the 'green' is updated, and traffic is switched after validation, enabling instant rollback.
Question 6: What does a patch management process primarily address in production systems?
- Deploying new application features to users
- Applying security fixes to software and systems to remediate known vulnerabilities in a timely manner (Correct answer)
- Managing software licenses and compliance
- Backing up production databases before maintenance
Correct answer: Applying security fixes to software and systems to remediate known vulnerabilities in a timely manner
Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, acquiring, testing, and applying security updates to reduce exposure to known vulnerabilities.
CSLLP Software Deployment, Operations, and Disposal 1
Which process ensures that software is deployed consistently and securely using automated, repeatable steps?