CompTIA Updated PT0-002 Exam Questions and Answers by lawson

Upon discovering sensitive information, such as high-profile celebrities' user accounts, the most appropriate and ethical next step is to immediately contact the client. This allows the client to take necessary actions to secure the data and mitigate any potential risks. It is important for a penetration tester to maintain confidentiality and integrity, and directly contacting the celebrities (option A), deleting the accounts (option B), or merely recording the findings without immediate notification (option D) would not be appropriate professional responses.

A watering hole attack involves compromising a website that is frequently visited by the target organization or group. By gaining control of the internal web server hosting the IT knowledge base, a penetration tester could modify the content or introduce malicious code that would be downloaded or executed by employees who visit the site. This type of attack is effective because it leverages a trusted resource within the organization to spread malware or capture sensitive information.

Other options like vishing, whaling, and spear phishing involve direct social engineering attacks targeting individuals, whereas a watering hole attack leverages a compromised website to target multiple users within the organization.

References:

Explanation of watering hole attacks: OWASP Watering Hole

Examples from penetration testing engagements where web server compromises were used to conduct watering hole attacks​​​​.

The -T2 flag in Nmap sets the timing template to “polite”, which means that Nmap will limit the number of parallel probes to 10 and the scan delay to 0.4 seconds. This will reduce the number of connections per minute and avoid triggering the active response tool. The -Pn flag tells Nmap to skip the host discovery phase and scan the target regardless of its ping response. The other options are not suitable for bypassing the active response tool, as they either scan too many ports (-sU, -T5, -F) or use a faster timing template (-T5, -T3) that will generate more connections per minute. References:

•Nmap Cheat Sheet 2024: All the Commands & Flags - StationX

•Nmap Commands - 17 Basic Commands for Linux Network - phoenixNAP

•NMAP Flag Guide: What They Are, When to Use Them - CBT Nuggets