CompTIA Updated CAS-005 Exam Questions and Answers by avneet

When creating a threat model to identify vulnerabilities in an organization's infrastructure, prioritizing external-facing infrastructure with known exploited vulnerabilities is critical. Here’s why:

Exposure to Attack: External-facing infrastructure is directly exposed to the internet, making it a primary target for attackers. Any vulnerabilities in this layer pose an immediate risk to the organization's security.

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities: Vulnerabilities that are already known and exploited in the wild are of higher concern because they are actively being used by attackers. Addressing these vulnerabilities reduces the risk of exploitation significantly.

Risk Mitigation: By prioritizing external-facing infrastructure with known exploited vulnerabilities, the organization can mitigate the most immediate and impactful threats, thereby improving overall security posture.

References:

CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Study Guide by Mike Chapple and David Seidl

NIST Special Publication 800-30: Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments

OWASP Threat Modeling Cheat Sheet

Implementing digital signatures ensures the integrity and authenticity of software binaries. When a binary is digitally signed, any tampering with the file (e.g., replacing it with a malicious version) would invalidate the signature. This allows systems to verify the origin and integrity of binaries before execution, preventing the execution of unauthorized or compromised binaries.

A. Improving patching processes: While important, this does not directly address the issue of verifying the integrity of binaries.

B. Implementing digital signatures: This ensures that only valid, untampered binaries are executed, preventing attackers from substituting legitimate binaries with malicious ones.

C. Performing manual updates via USB ports: This is not practical and does not scale well, especially in large environments.

D. Allowing only files from internal sources: This reduces the risk but does not provide a mechanism to verify the integrity of binaries.

References:

CompTIA Security+ Study Guide

NIST SP 800-57, "Recommendation for Key Management"

OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) guidelines on code signing

To design resilience in an enterprise system that can survive environmental catastrophes, recover within 24 hours, and be resilient to active exploitation, the best strategy is to allocate fully redundant and geographically distributed standby sites. Here’s why:

Geographical Redundancy: Having geographically distributed standby sites ensures that if one site is affected by an environmental catastrophe, the other sites can take over, providing continuity of operations.

Full Redundancy: Fully redundant sites mean that all critical systems and data are replicated, enabling quick recovery in the event of a critical loss of availability.

Resilience to Exploitation: Distributing resources across multiple sites reduces the risk of a single point of failure and increases resilience against targeted attacks.

References:

CompTIA Security+ SY0-601 Study Guide by Mike Chapple and David Seidl

NIST Special Publication 800-34: Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems

ISO/IEC 27031:2011 - Guidelines for Information and Communication Technology Readiness for Business Continuity

Advancements in quantum computing pose a significant threat to current encryption systems, especially those based on the difficulty of factoring large prime numbers, such as RSA. Quantum computers have the potential to solve these problems exponentially faster than classical computers, making current cryptographic systems vulnerable.

Why Large Prime Numbers are Vulnerable:

Shor's Algorithm: Quantum computers can use Shor's algorithm to factorize large integers efficiently, which undermines the security of RSA encryption.

Cryptographic Breakthrough: The ability to quickly factor large prime numbers means that encrypted data, which relies on the hardness of this mathematical problem, can be decrypted.

Other options, while relevant, do not capture the primary reason for the shift towards new encryption algorithms:

B. Zero Trust security architectures: While important, the shift to homomorphic encryption is not the main driver for new encryption algorithms.

C. Perfect forward secrecy: It enhances security but is not the main reason for new encryption algorithms.

D. Real-time IP traffic capture: Quantum computers pose a more significant threat to the underlying cryptographic algorithms than to the real-time capture of traffic.

References:

CompTIA SecurityX Study Guide

NIST Special Publication 800-208, "Recommendation for Stateful Hash-Based Signature Schemes"

"Quantum Computing and Cryptography," MIT Technology Review