Cisco 300-215 Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

Cisco 300-215 Online Questions & Answers

• Question 71:

  An analyst receives an alert about a suspicious email containing a malicious attachment. The investigation shows remote PowerShell execution, an executable downloaded from a flagged domain, and a SHA256 hash that is linked to known malware. What is the next best step to further analyze the nature of this threat?

  

  A. Evaluate the artifacts in Cisco Secure Malware Analytics.
  B. Evaluate the file activity in Cisco Umbrella.
  C. Analyze the registry activity section in Cisco Umbrella.
  D. Analyze the activity paths in Cisco Secure Malware Analytics.
  A. Evaluate the artifacts in Cisco Secure Malware Analytics.

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  The correct next step in analyzing the malicious nature of the email is to evaluate the artifacts Cisco Secure in Malware Analytics (formerly Threat Grid). This tool provides a comprehensive sandbox environment where behavioral indicators like file execution, registry access, and domain connections are logged and scored. The exhibit shows: Remote PowerShell execution Executable download from a flagged domain SHA256 hash linked to malware All these artifacts, as labeled in the Secure Malware Analytics output, are key indicators of compromise , and analyzing them further can confirm whether the email was part of a malicious campaign.

• Question 72:

  Refer to the exhibit.

  

  Which encoding technique is represented by this HEX string?

  A. Unicode
  B. Binary
  C. Base64
  D. Charcode
  D. Charcode

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:The hexadecimal representation in the exhibit does not match the Base64 encoding format, which uses ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /) and often includes padding with. This string is clearly hex and is more aligned with Charcode , where hexadecimal values represent individual characters based on ASCII values. The Cisco CyberOps Associate guide refers to such encodings during forensic analysis and emphasizes identifying patterns in memory dumps, payloads, or logs. "Security professionals often decode hexadecimal strings to reveal ASCII representations, particularly when inspecting encoded payloads or character obfuscation techniques used in malware".

• Question 73:

  Refer to the exhibit.

  

  After a cyber attack, an engineer is analyzing an alert that was missed on the intrusion detection system. The attack exploited a vulnerability in a business critical, web-based application and violated its availability. Which two migration techniques should the engineer recommend? (Choose two.)

  A. encapsulation
  B. NOP sled technique
  C. address space randomization
  D. heap-based security
  E. data execution prevention
  C. address space randomization
  E. data execution prevention

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  The alert indicates a WebDAV Stack Buffer Overflow , which is a memory corruption attack targeting the stack, a common vector for remote code execution denial-of-service (DoS) or . To mitigate such exploits, two effective system-hardening techniques are: C. Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR):Randomizes memory addresses used by system and application processes, making it difficult for attackers to predict where their malicious code will be executed. E. Data Execution Prevention (DEP):Prevents execution of code from non-executable memory regions such as the stack, thus stopping buffer overflow attacks from successfully executing payloads. Both are well-established protections against stack-based buffer overflow attacks and are strongly recommended in the Cisco CyberOps Associate guide and general security best practices.

• Question 74:

  Refer to the exhibit.

  

  What should an engineer determine from this Wireshark capture of suspicious network traffic?

  A. There are signs of SYN flood attack, and the engineer should increase the backlog and recycle the oldest half-open TCP connections.
  B. There are signs of a malformed packet attack, and the engineer should limit the packet size and set a threshold of bytes as a countermeasure.
  C. There are signs of a DNS attack, and the engineer should hide the BIND version and restrict zone transfers as a countermeasure.
  D. There are signs of ARP spoofing, and the engineer should use Static ARP entries and IP address-to- MAC address mappings as a countermeasure.
  A. There are signs of SYN flood attack, and the engineer should increase the backlog and recycle the oldest half-open TCP connections.

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  In the provided Wireshark capture, we see multiple TCP SYN packets being sent from different source IP addresses to the same destination IP address (192.168.1.159:80) within a short time window. These SYN packets do not show a corresponding SYN-ACK or ACK response, indicating that these TCP connection requests are not being completed. This pattern is indicative of a SYN flood attack , a type of Denial of Service (DoS) attack. In this attack, a malicious actor floods the target system with a high volume of TCP SYN requests, leaving the target's TCP connection queue (backlog) filled with half-open connections. This can exhaust system resources, causing legitimate connection requests to be denied or delayed. The countermeasure for this scenario, as highlighted in theCyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guideunder Network-Based Attacks and TCP SYN Flood Attacks , involves: Increasing the backlog queue: This allows the server to hold more half-open connections. Recycling the oldest half-open connections: This ensures that legitimate connections have a chance to be established if the backlog fills up. CyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guide, Chapter 5: Identifying Attack

• Question 75:

  A Python script is discovered during an investigation. The script disables SSL certificate verification, sets a custom User-Agent string, connects to https://23.1.4.14:8443, and uses exec(zlib.decompress(base64.b64decode(...))) to process content from the server. What is the primary purpose of this script?

  

  A. Initiate a connection to 23.1.4.14 over port 8443.
  B. Generate a Windows executable file.
  C. Open the Mozilla Firefox browser.
  D. Validate the SSL certificate for 23.1.4.14.
  A. Initiate a connection to 23.1.4.14 over port 8443.

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:This Python script uses a combination of libraries (urllib,zlib,base64, andssl) to: Disable SSL certificate verification (ssl.CERT_NONEandcheck_hostname=False). Construct a custom HTTPS opener with the specified SSL context. Add a forgedUser-Agentheader to mimic Internet Explorer 11. Connect to the URLhttps://23.1.4.14:8443. Download and execute base64-encoded and zlib-compressed content from that URL using: exec(zlib.decompress(base64.b64decode(...).read())) This shows a classic example of: Downloading payloads from a remote server (23.1.4.14:8443). Avoiding detection by disabling SSL verification. Executing the payload dynamically withexec()after decoding and decompressing. The main goal is clearly to initiate a connection to a remote command-and-control (C2) server on port 8443 and download/execute additional code. Hence, the correct answer is: A. Initiate a connection to 23.1.4.14 over port 8443.

• Question 76:

  An employee receives an email from a "trusted" person containing a hyperlink that is malvertising. The employee clicks the link and the malware downloads. An information analyst observes an alert at the SIEM and engages the cybersecurity team to conduct an analysis of this incident in accordance with the incident response plan. Which event detail should be included in this root cause analysis?

  A. phishing email sent to the victim
  B. alarm raised by the SIEM
  C. information from the email header
  D. alert identified by the cybersecurity team
  A. phishing email sent to the victim

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:The root cause analysis in incident response focuses on identifying the initial trigger or root cause of the incident to understand how it started and how to prevent recurrence. In this scenario, thephishing email sent to the victim (A) is the initial trigger that led to the employee's action of clicking the malvertising link, resulting in the malware download. The other options represent later stages in the incident response cycle, such as detection (SIEM alert, cybersecurity team's alert) or supporting evidence (email header information), but they do not address the root cause, which is the phishing email itself . This aligns with the CyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guide , which states that identifying the initial vector of compromise is critical to the root cause analysis phase of incident response (Chapter: Incident Response Techniques, page 410-412). CyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guide, Chapter: Incident Response Techniques, Root Cause Analysis, page 410-412 .

• Question 77:

  Refer to the exhibit.

  

  Which determination should be made by a security analyst?

  A. An email was sent with an attachment named "Grades.doc.exe".
  B. An email was sent with an attachment named "Grades.doc".
  C. An email was sent with an attachment named "Final Report.doc".
  D. An email was sent with an attachment named "Final Report.doc.exe".
  D. An email was sent with an attachment named "Final Report.doc.exe".

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  The XML structure shows that: The file name starts with :"Final Report" The file extension equals :"doc.exe" Together, this forms"Final Report.doc.exe"-- a known double-extension technique used to disguise executables as benign documents. This is a red flag in email forensics, commonly linked to malware distribution , and explicitly covered in the Cisco CyberOps study material as a typical evasion method for malicious attachments.

• Question 78:

  Refer to the code.

  5b53797374656d2e57696e646f7773204d657373616765426f783a20546869732069732061206d65737361676520736372697074212229

  A long alphanumeric string is observed, containing uppercase and lowercase letters along with numbers. This type of encoding is often used to obfuscate payloads in malicious scripts. What type of encoding is being used?

  A. hex encoding
  B. metamorphic encoding
  C. ASCII85 encoding
  D. Base64 encoding
  D. Base64 encoding

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:The string shown is long, alphanumeric, and includes both uppercase and lowercase letters with numbers-- characteristics of Base64 encoding. This format is widely used to obfuscate payloads in malicious scripts, particularly in phishing or malware campaigns. Base64 encoding is also supported by Python and other platforms for data transformation.

• Question 79:

  What can the blue team achieve by using Hex Fiend against a piece of malware?

  A. Use the hex data to define patterns in VARA rules.
  B. Read the hex data and transmognify into a readable ELF format
  C. Use the hex data to modify BE header to read the file.
  D. Read the hex data and decrypt payload via access key.
  A. Use the hex data to define patterns in VARA rules.

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:Hex Fiend is a hex editor that allows analysts to examine the raw byte content of files. One key use case is identifying and extracting byte-level patterns or signatures that can be translated into YARA rules for detecting malware. These hex patterns can be used to define precise signature-based detections.

• Question 80:

  Data has been exfiltrated and advertised for sale on the dark web. A web server shows:

  1.

  Database unresponsiveness

  2.

  PageFile.sys changes

  3.

  Disk usage spikes with CPU spikes

  4.

  High page faults

  Which action should the IR team perform on the server?

  A. Review the database.log file in the program files directory for database errors
  B. Examine the system.cfg file in the Windows directory for improper system configurations
  C. Analyze the PageFile.sys file in the System Drive and the Virtual Memory configuration
  D. Check the Memory.dmp file in the Windows directory for memory leak indications
  C. Analyze the PageFile.sys file in the System Drive and the Virtual Memory configuration

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  Explanation Explanation/Reference:The combination of CPU spikes, disk usage peaks, and fluctuating PageFile.sys indicates excessive virtual memory paging, which may be a sign of malicious memory or file access behavior. PageFile.sys is part of the virtual memory system, and analyzing it can reveal which processes or payloads are consuming unusual amounts of memory, especially during exfiltration events.