CompTIA CAS-005 - CompTIA SecurityX Certification Exam

Addressing misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in third-party hardware requires a comprehensive approach to manage risks throughout the supply chain. Implementing a proper supply chain risk management (SCRM) program is the most effective solution as it encompasses the following:

Holistic Approach: SCRM considers the entire lifecycle ofthe product, from initial design through to delivery and deployment. This ensures that risks are identified and managed at every stage.

Vendor Management: It includes thorough vetting of suppliers and ongoing assessments of their security practices, which can identify and mitigate vulnerabilities early.

Regular Audits and Assessments: A robust SCRM program involves regular audits and assessments, both internally and with suppliers, to ensure compliance with security standards and best practices.

Collaboration and Communication: Ensures that there is effective communication and collaboration between the company and its suppliers, leading to faster identification and resolution of issues.

Other options, while beneficial, do not provide the same comprehensive risk management:

A. Performing vulnerability tests on each device delivered by the providers: While useful, this is reactive and only addresses issues after they have been delivered.

B. Performing regular red-team exercises on the vendor production line: This can identify vulnerabilities but is not as comprehensive as a full SCRM program.

C. Implementing a monitoring process for the integration between the application and the vendor appliance: This is important but only covers the integration phase, not the entire supply chain.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Formal methods in software engineering use mathematically based specifications to ensure system correctness, safety, and compliance with requirements. SecurityX CAS-005 stresses the importance of traceability between code and both functional and non-functional requirements for high-assurance systems like avionics. A lack of traceability means it is impossible to verify that the implementation meets all required safety and performance standards—exactly what formal methods address.

Encrypting patient data at rest ensures that sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access, thereby maintaining patient privacy. Additionally, encryption supports data portability by allowing secure transfer and storage of data across different systems and devices without compromising confidentiality. This practice is crucial for healthcare providers to comply with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which mandates the protection of patient information.​

Reviewing data sovereignty laws in countries where the organization has no presence is likely due to concerns about regulatory enforcement. Data sovereignty laws dictate how data can be stored, processed, and transferred across borders. Understanding these laws is crucial for compliance, especially if the organization handles data that may be subject to foreign regulations.

A. The organization is performing due diligence of potential tax issues: This is less likely as tax issues are generally not directly related to data sovereignty laws.

B. The organization has been subject to legal proceedings in countries where it has a presence: While possible, this does not explain the focus on countries where the organization has no presence.

C. The organization is concerned with new regulatory enforcement in other countries: This is the most likely reason. New regulations could impact the organization’s operations, especially if they involve data transfers or processing data from these countries.

D. The organization has suffered brand reputation damage from incorrect media coverage: This is less relevant to the need for reviewing data sovereignty laws.

The immediate action after discovering ransomware is toisolate the affected serversto prevent further spread of the malware to other systems in the network. Paying the ransom is not recommended as it does not guarantee data recovery and encourages criminal behavior. Notifying law enforcement is necessary, but containment must happen first to limit damage. Requesting server restoration should only occur after containment and a thorough investigation to ensure no remnants of ransomware remain.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

Always-on VPN ensures that devices connect automatically to the corporate network whenever they are online, allowing seamless access to internal resources and enabling authentication against on-premises directory services (such as Active Directory). This supports centralized identity management, GPO enforcement, and compliance requirements.

Options B, C, and D involve local or peripheral resources, which are unaffected by VPN state.

Select the Action Items for the Appropriate Locations:

Authorization Server:

Action Item: Grant access

The authorization server's role is to authenticate the user and then issue an authorization code or token that the client application can use to access resources. Granting access involves the server authenticating the resource owner and providing the necessary tokens for the client application.

Resource Server:

Action Item: Access issued tokens

The resource server is responsible for serving the resources requested by the client application. It must verify the issued tokens from the authorization server to ensure the client has the right permissions to access the requested data.

B2B Client Application:

Action Item: Authorize access to other applications

The B2B client application must handle the OAuth flow to authorize access on behalf of the user without requiring direct knowledge of the user's credentials. This includes obtaining authorization tokens from the authorization server and using them to request access to the resource server.

Detailed Explanation:

OAuth 2.0 is designed to provide specific authorization flows for web applications, desktopapplications, mobile phones, and living room devices. The integration involves multiple steps and components, including:

Resource Owner (User):

The user owns the data and resources that are being accessed.

Client Application (B2B Client Application):

Requests access to the resources controlled by the resource owner but does not directly handle the user's credentials. Instead, it uses tokens obtained through the OAuth flow.

Authorization Server:

Handles the authentication of the resource owner and issues the access tokens to the client application upon successful authentication.

Resource Server:

Hosts the resources that the client application wants to access. It verifies the access tokens issued by the authorization server before granting access to the resources.

OAuth Workflow:

The resource owner accesses the client application.

The client application redirects the resource owner to the authorization server for authentication.

The authorization server authenticates the resource owner and asks for consent to grant access to the client application.

Upon consent, the authorization server issues an authorization code or token to the client application.

The client application uses the authorization code or token to request access to the resources from the resource server.

The resource server verifies the token with the authorization server and, if valid, grants access to the requested resources.

D. STIX (Structured Threat Information eXpression): STIX is a standardized language for representing threat information in a structured and machine-readable format. It facilitates the sharing ofthreat intelligence by ensuring that data is consistent and can be easily understood by all parties involved.

E. TAXII (Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information): TAXII is a transport mechanism that enables the sharing of cyber threat information over a secure and trusted network. It works in conjunction with STIX to automate the exchange of threat intelligence among organizations.

Other options:

A. CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform): This focuses on securing cloud workloads and is not directly related to threat intelligence sharing.

B. YARA: YARA is used for malware research and identifying patterns in files, but it is not a platform for sharing threat intelligence.

C. ATT&CK: This is a knowledge base of adversary tactics andtechniques but does not facilitate the sharing of threat intelligence data.

F. JTAG: JTAG is a standard for testing and debugging integrated circuits, not related to threat intelligence.

The data provided shows that all companies have SIEM systems, but they differ in their implementation of UEBA, DLP, ISAC membership, and TIP integration. The key metric to evaluate is the effectiveness in detecting and responding to attacks, as shown by the "Time to Detect" and "Time to Respond" columns. Company 1, which is an ISAC member, has the fastest detection (10 minutes) and response (20 minutes) times. Company 3, which is not an ISAC member, has slower detection (12 minutes) and response (24 minutes) times, despite having UEBA and TIP integration. Company 2, which lacks TIP integration but is an ISAC member, has the slowest times (20 minutes to detect, 40 minutes to respond). This suggests that ISAC membership correlates with faster detection and response, likely due to access to shared threat intelligence.

According to the CompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 objectives (Domain 2: Security Operations, 2.2), Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) are critical for enabling organizations to share real-timethreat intelligence within their industry. ISACs provide access to actionable intelligence, best practices, and coordinated response strategies, which are essential for defending against sophisticated attacks targeting critical infrastructure like the energy sector. The lack of ISAC membership (Company 3) limits access to this intelligence, hindering proactive defense and response capabilities. While UEBA, DLP, and TIP integration are valuable, they are more focused on internal monitoring, data protection,and individual threat intelligence feeds, respectively, and do not provide the same industry-wide collaboration as an ISAC.

To enable code signing with an existing PKI, the first step is to configure the Certificate Authority (CA) to issue code signing certificates. Adding a new template with attributes specific to code signing (e.g., key usage for signing) allows the CA to support this requirement without disrupting existing operations.

Option A:Correct—templates define certificate types; this isthe foundational step.

Option B:Wildcard certificates are for domains, not code signing.

Option C:Recalculating root CA keys is unnecessary and risky unless compromised.

Option D:SAN (Subject Alternative Name) is for multi-domain certificates, irrelevant here.