CompTIA Security+ Threats, Vulnerabilities and Mitigations Practice Questions

Question 1

Which of the following BEST describes a zero-day vulnerability?

Accepted Answer

A vulnerability that is exploited before the vendor is aware of it

Answer

A vulnerability that has been patched for zero days

Answer

A vulnerability that affects systems with zero firewalls

Answer

A vulnerability that only exists for 24 hours

Question 2

What type of attack involves inserting malicious code into a legitimate website?

Accepted Answer

Cross-site scripting (XSS)

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Man-in-the-middle

Answer

DNS poisoning

Question 3

Which type of malware replicates itself across networks?

Accepted Answer

Worm

Answer

Trojan

Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Question 4

What type of attack intercepts communication between two parties?

Accepted Answer

Man-in-the-middle

Answer

Phishing

Answer

DDoS

Answer

SQL injection

Question 5

What is the PRIMARY risk of social engineering?

Accepted Answer

Unauthorized access through human manipulation

Answer

Network congestion

Answer

Hardware failure

Answer

Software licensing violations

Question 6

Which protocol is vulnerable to VLAN hopping attacks?

Accepted Answer

DTP

Answer

SSH

Answer

HTTPS

Answer

IPsec

Question 7

What is the PRIMARY risk of an evil twin access point?

Accepted Answer

Unauthorized network monitoring

Answer

Bandwidth throttling

Answer

Hardware failure

Answer

Software licensing violations

Question 8

Which type of attack floods a network with ICMP echo requests?

Accepted Answer

Smurf attack

Answer

SYN flood

Answer

DNS poisoning

Answer

ARP spoofing

Question 9

Which type of malware displays unwanted advertising?

Accepted Answer

Adware

Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Answer

Rootkit

Question 10

Which type of attack exploits session management weaknesses?

Accepted Answer

Session hijacking

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

DDoS

Answer

Phishing

Question 11

Which type of attack intercepts and alters communication between two parties?

Accepted Answer

Man-in-the-browser

Answer

Phishing

Answer

DDoS

Answer

SQL injection

Question 12

Which type of attack floods a target with SYN packets?

Accepted Answer

SYN flood

Answer

Smurf attack

Answer

DNS poisoning

Answer

ARP spoofing

Question 13

Which type of attack exploits cryptographic weaknesses in SSL/TLS?

Accepted Answer

POODLE

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

DDoS

Answer

Phishing

Question 14

Which type of attack exploits buffer overflow vulnerabilities?

Accepted Answer

Stack smashing

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

XSS

Answer

DDoS

Question 15

Which type of attack exploits race conditions?

Accepted Answer

TOCTOU

Answer

XSS

Answer

DDoS

Answer

Phishing

Question 16

Which of the following BEST describes a zero-day vulnerability?

Accepted Answer

An unpatched flaw unknown to the vendor

Answer

A vulnerability in outdated software

Answer

A misconfigured firewall rule

Answer

An expired digital certificate

Question 17

What type of attack involves inserting malicious code into a legitimate website?

Accepted Answer

Cross-site scripting (XSS)

Answer

Phishing

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Man-in-the-middle

Question 18

What is the PRIMARY purpose of a honeypot?

Accepted Answer

Detect and analyze attack methods

Answer

Store encrypted backups

Answer

Filter malicious network traffic

Answer

Accelerate SSL/TLS decryption

Question 19

Which type of malware replicates itself across networks?

Accepted Answer

Worm

Answer

Trojan

Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Question 20

What type of attack intercepts communication between two parties?

Accepted Answer

MITM (Man-in-the-Middle)

Answer

Phishing

Answer

DoS

Answer

Brute force

Question 21

What is the PRIMARY risk of social engineering?

Accepted Answer

Unauthorized access via deception

Answer

Network congestion

Answer

Data corruption

Answer

Hardware failure

Question 22

During a penetration test, which tool would most likely be used to identify live hosts on a network?

Accepted Answer

Nmap

Answer

Wireshark

Answer

Metasploit

Answer

John the Ripper

Question 23

Which cryptographic attack exploits predictable IVs in WEP encryption?

Accepted Answer

FMS attack

Answer

Birthday attack

Answer

Meet-in-the-middle

Answer

Rainbow table

Question 24

Which type of malware remains dormant until specific conditions are met?

Accepted Answer

Logic bomb

Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Answer

Adware

Question 25

A security analyst is reviewing logs and notices a large number of failed login attempts from various IP addresses targeting a single administrative account. This activity is MOST indicative of which type of attack?

Accepted Answer

Brute-force attack

Answer

Phishing

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Man-in-the-middle

Question 26

Which of the following BEST describes a watering hole attack?

Accepted Answer

Compromising a website likely to be visited by a specific group of users to infect their systems.

Answer

Sending targeted emails with malicious attachments to a specific individual.

Answer

Flooding a website with traffic to make it unavailable.

Answer

Intercepting network traffic to steal credentials.

Question 27

Which of the following is a common technique used by attackers to escalate privileges on a compromised system?

Accepted Answer

Exploiting unpatched software vulnerabilities

Answer

Port scanning

Answer

Deploying a honeypot

Answer

Implementing MAC filtering

Question 28

Which of the following BEST describes a pharming attack?

Accepted Answer

Redirecting users to a fraudulent website by compromising DNS or host files.

Answer

Tricking users into revealing credentials via deceptive emails.

Answer

Overwhelming a server with traffic to make it unavailable.

Answer

Exploiting vulnerabilities in web application code.

Question 29

Which of the following is a key characteristic of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)?

Accepted Answer

Highly sophisticated, targeted, and prolonged attacks often sponsored by nation-states.

Answer

Short-term attacks focused on quick financial gain.

Answer

Random, opportunistic attacks using common malware.

Answer

Attacks primarily focused on disrupting services rather than stealing data.

Question 30

Which type of social engineering attack involves an attacker impersonating a senior executive to pressure an employee into making an unauthorized transaction?

Accepted Answer

Whaling

Answer

Phishing

Answer

Vishing

Answer

Tailgating

Question 31

An attacker gains access to a user's session cookie and uses it to impersonate the user on a web application. This is an example of what type of attack?

Accepted Answer

Session hijacking

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

Answer

Denial-of-service

Question 32

Which attack involves trying a small number of common passwords against a large number of different user accounts to avoid account lockout?

Accepted Answer

Password spraying

Answer

Brute force

Answer

Rainbow table

Answer

Dictionary attack

Question 33

Which type of social engineering attack uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create realistic audio or video impersonations of executives to authorize fraudulent transfers?

Accepted Answer

Deepfake

Answer

Whaling

Answer

Vishing

Answer

Pharming

Question 34

Which supply chain risk involves an attacker intercepting hardware during shipment to install a backdoor or modify components?

Accepted Answer

Interdiction

Answer

Vendor lock-in

Answer

Sideloading

Answer

Privilege escalation

Question 35

Which attack uses many systems to overwhelm a target service with traffic?

Accepted Answer

DDoS

Answer

On-path decryption only

Answer

Bluejacking

Answer

Typosquatting only

Question 36

A user approves a push notification they did not initiate. What attack might this indicate?

Accepted Answer

MFA fatigue

Answer

SQL injection

Answer

RF jamming

Answer

DNSSEC signing

Question 37

Which vulnerability management action should happen after remediation?

Accepted Answer

Validation

Answer

Scope expansion without approval

Answer

Deleting the asset

Answer

Ignoring compensating controls

Question 38

Which wireless attack creates a fake access point that appears legitimate?

Accepted Answer

Evil twin

Answer

Smurf

Answer

Pass-the-hash

Answer

Birthday attack

Question 39

Which type of malware encrypts user files and demands payment?

Accepted Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Logic bomb only

Answer

Root certificate

Answer

Ad blocker

Question 40

Which attack uses a fake QR code to send users to a malicious site?

Accepted Answer

Quishing

Answer

Smishing only

Answer

Vishing only

Answer

Tailgating

Question 41

Which attack attempts to capture cookies by forcing a victim browser to send unauthorized requests?

Accepted Answer

CSRF

Answer

DDoS

Answer

Smurf

Answer

Bluejacking

Question 42

Which attack uses similar-looking domain names to trick users?

Accepted Answer

Typosquatting

Answer

ARP poisoning only

Answer

RFID cloning only

Answer

Privilege escalation only

Question 43

Which vulnerability occurs when an application includes user input in an LDAP query without safe handling?

Accepted Answer

LDAP injection

Answer

DNS poisoning

Answer

MAC flooding

Answer

Bluejacking

Question 44

Which attack sends fraudulent text messages to steal information?

Accepted Answer

Smishing

Answer

Vishing only

Answer

Whaling only

Answer

Watering hole only

Question 45

Which type of attack involves an attacker intercepting and potentially altering communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other?

Accepted Answer

On-path (man-in-the-middle) attack

Answer

Denial of service

Answer

Buffer overflow

Answer

SQL injection

Question 46

Which type of malware encrypts a victim's files and demands payment for the decryption key?

Accepted Answer

Ransomware

Answer

Spyware

Answer

Adware

Answer

Rootkit

Question 47

Which technique involves sending fraudulent emails that appear to come from a trusted source in order to steal sensitive information?

Accepted Answer

Phishing

Answer

Pharming only

Answer

Spoofing hardware

Answer

Vishing exclusively

Question 48

Which type of vulnerability scan is performed using valid credentials to log into the target system for a deeper assessment?

Accepted Answer

Authenticated scan

Answer

Unauthenticated scan

Answer

Passive scan

Answer

External scan only

CompTIA Security+ Practice Questions: Threats, Vulnerabilities and Mitigations

Q1. Which of the following BEST describes a zero-day vulnerability?

Q2. What type of attack involves inserting malicious code into a legitimate website?

Q3. Which type of malware replicates itself across networks?

Q4. What type of attack intercepts communication between two parties?

Q5. What is the PRIMARY risk of social engineering?

Q6. Which protocol is vulnerable to VLAN hopping attacks?

Q7. What is the PRIMARY risk of an evil twin access point?

Q8. Which type of attack floods a network with ICMP echo requests?

Q9. Which type of malware displays unwanted advertising?

Q10. Which type of attack exploits session management weaknesses?

Q11. Which type of attack intercepts and alters communication between two parties?

Q12. Which type of attack floods a target with SYN packets?

Q13. Which type of attack exploits cryptographic weaknesses in SSL/TLS?

Q14. Which type of attack exploits buffer overflow vulnerabilities?

Q15. Which type of attack exploits race conditions?

Q16. Which of the following BEST describes a zero-day vulnerability?

Q17. What type of attack involves inserting malicious code into a legitimate website?

Q18. What is the PRIMARY purpose of a honeypot?

Q19. Which type of malware replicates itself across networks?

Q20. What type of attack intercepts communication between two parties?

Q21. What is the PRIMARY risk of social engineering?

Q22. During a penetration test, which tool would most likely be used to identify live hosts on a network?

Q23. Which cryptographic attack exploits predictable IVs in WEP encryption?

Q24. Which type of malware remains dormant until specific conditions are met?

Q25. A security analyst is reviewing logs and notices a large number of failed login attempts from various IP addresses targeting a single administrative account. This activity is MOST indicative of which type of attack?

Q26. Which of the following BEST describes a watering hole attack?

Q27. Which of the following is a common technique used by attackers to escalate privileges on a compromised system?

Q28. Which of the following BEST describes a pharming attack?

Q29. Which of the following is a key characteristic of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)?

Q30. Which type of social engineering attack involves an attacker impersonating a senior executive to pressure an employee into making an unauthorized transaction?

Q31. An attacker gains access to a user's session cookie and uses it to impersonate the user on a web application. This is an example of what type of attack?

Q32. Which attack involves trying a small number of common passwords against a large number of different user accounts to avoid account lockout?

Q33. Which type of social engineering attack uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create realistic audio or video impersonations of executives to authorize fraudulent transfers?

Q34. Which supply chain risk involves an attacker intercepting hardware during shipment to install a backdoor or modify components?

Q35. Which attack uses many systems to overwhelm a target service with traffic?

Q36. A user approves a push notification they did not initiate. What attack might this indicate?

Q37. Which vulnerability management action should happen after remediation?

Q38. Which wireless attack creates a fake access point that appears legitimate?

Q39. Which type of malware encrypts user files and demands payment?

Q40. Which attack uses a fake QR code to send users to a malicious site?

Q41. Which attack attempts to capture cookies by forcing a victim browser to send unauthorized requests?

Q42. Which attack uses similar-looking domain names to trick users?

Q43. Which vulnerability occurs when an application includes user input in an LDAP query without safe handling?

Q44. Which attack sends fraudulent text messages to steal information?

Q45. Which type of attack involves an attacker intercepting and potentially altering communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other?

Q46. Which type of malware encrypts a victim's files and demands payment for the decryption key?

Q47. Which technique involves sending fraudulent emails that appear to come from a trusted source in order to steal sensitive information?

Q48. Which type of vulnerability scan is performed using valid credentials to log into the target system for a deeper assessment?

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