SSCP Systems and Application Security Questions and Answers

Question 1

A system administrator notices that a server is exhibiting unusual behavior, including hidden network connections and processes that are not visible with standard system utilities.
An antivirus scan of the file system reports no infections.
Which type of malware is MOST likely responsible for this activity?

Accepted Answer

Rootkit

Answer

Worm

Answer

Trojan

Answer

Spyware

Question 2

A web developer needs to secure a new feature that allows users to post comments, which are then displayed to other users. To prevent attackers from injecting malicious scripts into the comments, which of the following is the MOST effective primary defense?

Accepted Answer

Performing output encoding on user-supplied data before rendering it in the browser

Answer

Implementing a strong Content Security Policy (CSP)

Answer

Using prepared statements for all database interactions

Answer

Enforcing a strict character limit on the comment input field

Question 3

Which of the following activities is a fundamental part of the system hardening process aimed at reducing a server's attack surface?

Accepted Answer

Removing or disabling unnecessary services, protocols, and accounts

Answer

Configuring daily incremental backups to an offsite location

Answer

Installing a host-based intrusion prevention system (HIPS)

Answer

Deploying the server as a virtual machine for easier snapshots

Question 4

A security analyst is investigating a breach within a multi-tenant cloud environment. The investigation reveals that an attacker, who initially compromised a single virtual machine (VM), was able to exploit a hypervisor vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the host operating system and other VMs. What is this type of attack called?

Accepted Answer

VM escape

Answer

Hyperjacking

Answer

VM sprawl

Answer

Lateral movement

Question 5

During the development phase of the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC), a team uses an automated tool to analyze the application's source code for security flaws without executing the program. Which of the following BEST describes this activity?

Accepted Answer

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Answer

Fuzzing

Answer

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Answer

Penetration Testing

Question 6

A developer is creating a web application that takes user input to search a product database. To provide the strongest defense against SQL injection attacks, which of the following techniques should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Using parameterized queries or prepared statements.

Answer

Implementing an allow-list for specific special characters in the input field.

Answer

Sanitizing user input by stripping out keywords like 'SELECT' and 'DROP'.

Answer

Hashing all user input before appending it to the SQL query string.