CompTIA Updated PT0-003 Exam Questions and Answers by tony

To detect all open ports and enumerate services, the tester needs to:

Use -sV (Service Version Detection)

Use -Pn (Disables ICMP ping to bypass firewalls)

Use -p- (Scans all 65,535 TCP ports)

nmap -sV -Pn -p- 10.10.10.10 (Option D):

This command performs full-port scanning, including high-numbered ports like 50123/tcp (ms-rpc).

Without -p-, high ports would be missed.

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) provides a standardized way to evaluate the severity of security vulnerabilities. It includes:

Base Metrics: Inherent characteristics of a vulnerability (e.g., attack vector, complexity).

Temporal Metrics: Factors that change over time (e.g., exploit availability).

Environmental Metrics: Customization based on an organization’s environment.

Correct answers:

Helping to prioritize remediation based on threat context (Option B):

CVSS scores help organizations prioritize vulnerabilities based on real-world impact.

The Environmental metric allows customization based on business risk.

The tool and command provided by option B are used to perform passive DNS enumeration, which can uncover subdomains associated with a domain. Here’s why option B is correct:

amass enum -passive -d comptia.org: This command uses the Amass tool to perform passive DNS enumeration, effectively identifying subdomains of the target domain. The output provided (subdomains) matches what this tool and command would produce.

nslookup -type=SOA comptia.org: This command retrieves the Start of Authority (SOA) record, which does not list subdomains.

nmap -Pn -sV -vv -A comptia.org: This Nmap command performs service detection and aggressive scanning but does not enumerate subdomains.

shodan host comptia.org: Shodan is an internet search engine for connected devices, but it does not perform DNS enumeration to list subdomains.

References from Pentest:

Writeup HTB: Demonstrates the use of DNS enumeration tools like Amass to uncover subdomains during external assessments​​.

Horizontall HTB: Highlights the effectiveness of passive DNS enumeration in identifying subdomains and associated information​​.

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Leverage SSRF for Metadata Access:

Server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerabilities allow attackers to force a server to send requests to internal resources. In cloud environments, SSRF can often be used to access the metadata service (e.g., AWS EC2 metadata) to retrieve credentials for cloud services.

Once credentials are obtained, they can be used to access privileged systems that are not directly accessible from the internet.

Why Not Other Options?

A (Public bucket): Analyzing the bucket for sensitive data is useful but does not directly lead to privileged system access.

B (Pacu): Pacu is used for AWS exploitation but requires credentials or misconfigured roles. SSRF can provide the credentials needed to run Pacu effectively.

C (SSH brute force): Brute-forcing SSH is noisy and inefficient. Privileged systems are likely better protected than SSH open to the internet.

D (Phishing via XSS): This is a longer-term attack and less direct compared to leveraging SSRF.

CompTIA Pentest+ References:

Domain 3.0 (Attacks and Exploits)

SSRF Exploitation and Cloud Metadata Access Techniques