SY0-601 Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which attack technique involves attempting every possible password combination until the correct one is found?
- Dictionary attack
- Rainbow table attack
- Brute force attack (Correct answer)
- Credential stuffing
Correct answer: Brute force attack
A brute force attack systematically tries every possible combination of characters until the correct password is discovered.
Question 2: An attacker uses a precomputed table of hash values to quickly reverse password hashes. What type of attack is this?
- Brute force attack
- Rainbow table attack (Correct answer)
- Collision attack
- Pass-the-hash attack
Correct answer: Rainbow table attack
Rainbow table attacks use precomputed tables of plaintext-to-hash mappings to quickly crack password hashes without recalculating them.
Question 3: Which technique do attackers use to bypass application blacklists by disguising malicious input using encoding or alternative representations?
- Shimming
- Refactoring
- Obfuscation/camouflage (Correct answer)
- Pivoting
Correct answer: Obfuscation/camouflage
Obfuscation disguises malicious code or input (e.g., URL encoding, Unicode escapes) to evade detection by security controls.
Question 4: A malicious insider deliberately leaks sensitive company data to a competitor. How is this threat actor classified?
- Nation-state actor
- Hacktivist
- Insider threat (Correct answer)
- Shadow IT user
Correct answer: Insider threat
An insider threat is a current or former employee, contractor, or partner who misuses authorized access to harm the organization.
Question 5: Which attack exploits trust relationships to move from a compromised system to other systems within the network?
- Privilege escalation
- Lateral movement (Correct answer)
- Persistence
- Exfiltration
Correct answer: Lateral movement
Lateral movement techniques allow attackers to progressively move through a network by exploiting trust relationships between systems.
Question 6: An attacker gains access to a system and installs software that hides the attacker's presence and maintains access. What type of malware is this?
- Trojan horse
- Rootkit (Correct answer)
- Spyware
- Adware
Correct answer: Rootkit
A rootkit conceals an attacker's presence on a compromised system and maintains persistent access by modifying OS components.
Question 7: Which attack targets the weakest link by sending malicious emails to specific, named individuals within an organization using personalized information?
- Whaling
- Spear phishing (Correct answer)
- Vishing
- Pretexting
Correct answer: Spear phishing
Spear phishing targets specific individuals using personalized information to make the deceptive communication more convincing.
SY0-601 Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities 4
Which attack technique involves attempting every possible password combination until the correct one is found?