CompTIA Security+ Question L-52

Purchasing receives a phone call from a vendor asking for a payment over the phone. The phone number displayed on the caller ID matches the vendor’s number. When the purchasing agent asks to call the vendor back, they are given a different phone number with a different area code.
Which of the following attack types is this?

A. Hoax
B. Impersonation
C. Spear phishing
D. Whaling

Answer: B

Explanation:
In this question, the impersonator is impersonating a vendor and asking for payment. They have managed to ‘spoof’ their calling number so that their caller ID matches the vendor’s number. Impersonation is where a person, computer, software application or service pretends to be someone or something it’s not. Impersonation is commonly non-maliciously used in client/server applications. However, it can also be used as a security threat.

CompTIA Security+ Question L-16

A company’s employees were victims of a spear phishing campaign impersonating the CEO. The company would now like to implement a solution to improve the overall security posture by assuring their employees that email originated from the CEO. Which of the following controls could they implement to BEST meet this goal?

A. Spam filter
B. Digital signatures
C. Antivirus software
D. Digital certificates

Answer: B

Explanation:
A digital signature is a mathematical technique used to validate the authenticity and integrity of a message, software, or digital document. The digital equivalent of a handwritten signature or stamped seal, but offering far more inherent security, a digital signature is intended to solve the problem of tampering and impersonation in digital communications. Digital signatures can provide the added assurances of evidence to origin, identity and status of an electronic document, transaction or message, as well as acknowledging informed consent by the signer. Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography, also known as asymmetric cryptography. Using a public key algorithm such as RSA, one can generate two keys that are mathematically linked: one private and one public. To create a digital signature, signing software (such as an email program) creates a one-way hash of the electronic data to be signed. The private key is then used to encrypt the hash. The encrypted hash — along with other information, such as the hashing algorithm — is the digital signature. The reason for encrypting the hash instead of the entire message or document is that a hash function can convert an arbitrary input into a fixed length value, which is usually much shorter. This saves time since hashing is much faster than signing.

CompTIA Security+ Question I-95

Using proximity card readers instead of the traditional key punch doors would help to mitigate:

A. Impersonation
B. Tailgating
C. Dumpster diving
D. Shoulder surfing

Answer: D

Explanation:
Using a traditional key punch door, a person enters a code into a keypad to unlock the door. Someone could be watching the code being entered. They would then be able to open the door by entering the code. The process of watching the key code being entered is known as shoulder surfing.

Shoulder surfing is using direct observation techniques, such as looking over someone’s shoulder, to get information. Shoulder surfing is an effective way to get information in crowded places because it’s relatively easy to stand next to someone and watch as they fill out a form, enter a PIN number at an ATM machine, or use a calling card at a public pay phone. Shoulder surfing can also be done long distance with the aid of binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices. To prevent shoulder surfing, experts recommend that you shield paperwork or your keypad from view by using your body or cupping your hand.

CompTIA Security+ Question I-39

Peter, a user, in a coffee shop is checking his email over a wireless network. An attacker records the temporary credentials being passed to Peter’s browser. The attacker later uses the credentials to impersonate Peter and creates SPAM messages. Which of the following attacks allows for this impersonation?

A. XML injection
B. Directory traversal
C. Header manipulation
D. Session hijacking

Answer: D

Explanation:
In computer science, session hijacking, sometimes also known as cookie hijacking is the exploitation of a valid computer session—sometimes also called a session key—to gain unauthorized access to information or services in a computer system. In particular, it is used to refer to the theft of a magic cookie used to authenticate a user to a remote server. It has particular relevance to web developers, as the HTTP cookies used to maintain a session on many web sites can be easily stolen by an attacker using an intermediary computer or with access to the saved cookies on the victim’s computer.

CompTIA Security+ Question H-97

Ann an employee is visiting Peter, an employee in the Human Resources Department. While talking to Peter, Ann notices a spreadsheet open on Peter’s computer that lists the salaries of all employees in her department. Which of the following forms of social engineering would BEST describe this situation?

A. Impersonation
B. Dumpster diving
C. Tailgating
D. Shoulder surfing

Answer: D

Explanation:
Ann was able to see the Spreadsheet on Peter’s computer. This direct observation is known as shoulder surfing.

Shoulder surfing is using direct observation techniques, such as looking over someone’s shoulder, to get information. Shoulder surfing is an effective way to get information in crowded places because it’s relatively easy to stand next to someone and watch as they fill out a form, enter a PIN number at an ATM machine, or use a calling card at a public pay phone. Shoulder surfing can also be done long distance with the aid of binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices. To prevent shoulder surfing, experts recommend that you shield paperwork or your keypad from view by using your body or cupping your hand.

CompTIA Security+ Question H-78

Peter’s corporation has outsourced help desk services to a large provider. Management has published a procedure that requires all users, when receiving support, to call a special number.
Users then need to enter the code provided to them by the help desk technician prior to allowing the technician to work on their PC. Which of the following does this procedure prevent?

A. Collusion
B. Impersonation
C. Pharming
D. Transitive Access

Answer: B

Explanation:
Impersonation is where a person, computer, software application or service pretends to be someone or something it’s not. Impersonation is commonly non-maliciously used in client/server applications. However, it can also be used as a security threat.

The procedure the users have to go through is to ensure that the technician who will have access to the computer is a genuine technician and not someone impersonating a technician.

CompTIA Security+ Question H-49

A security administrator is tackling issues related to authenticating users at a remote site. There have been a large number of security incidents that resulted from either tailgating or impersonation of authorized users with valid credentials. The security administrator has been told to implement multifactor authentication in order to control facility access. To secure access to the remote facility, which of the following could be implemented without increasing the amount of space required at the entrance?

A. MOTD challenge and PIN pad
B. Retina scanner and fingerprint reader
C. Voice recognition and one-time PIN token
D. One-time PIN token and proximity reader

Answer: C

Explanation:
Authentication systems or methods are based on one or more of these five factors: Something you know, such as a password or PIN Something you have, such as a smart card, token, or identification device Something you are, such as your fingerprints or retinal pattern (often called biometrics) Something you do, such as an action you must take to complete authentication Somewhere you are (this is based on geolocation)

Multifactor authentication is authentication that uses two of more of the authentication factors listed above.

In this question, we can use voice recognition (something you are) and a one-time PIN token (something you have) to provide two factors of authentication. The one-time PIN token is a small device that generates a one-time PIN to enable access.

CompTIA Security+ Question G-89

At the outside break area, an employee, Ann, asked another employee to let her into the building because her badge is missing. Which of the following does this describe?

A. Shoulder surfing
B. Tailgating
C. Whaling
D. Impersonation

Answer: B

Explanation:
Although Ann is an employee and therefore authorized to enter the building, she does not have her badge and therefore strictly she should not be allowed to enter the building. Just as a driver can tailgate another driver’s car by following too closely, in the security sense, tailgating means to compromise physical security by following somebody through a door meant to keep out intruders. Tailgating is actually a form of social engineering, whereby someone who is not authorized to enter a particular area does so by following closely behind someone who is authorized.

CompTIA Security+ Question G-63

A security administrator forgets their card to access the server room. The administrator asks a coworker if they could use their card for the day. Which of the following is the administrator using to gain access to the server room?

A. Man-in-the-middle
B. Tailgating
C. Impersonation
D. Spoofing

Answer: C

Explanation:
Impersonation is where a person, computer, software application or service pretends to be someone or something it’s not. Impersonation is commonly non-maliciously used in client/server applications. However, it can also be used as a security threat.

In this question, by using the coworker’s card, the security administrator is ‘impersonating’ the coworker. The server room locking system and any logging systems will ‘think’ that the coworker has entered the server room.

CompTIA Security+ Question F-98

Physical documents must be incinerated after a set retention period is reached. Which of the following attacks does this action remediate?

A. Shoulder Surfing
B. Dumpster Diving
C. Phishing
D. Impersonation

Answer: B

Explanation:
Incinerating documents (or shredding documents) instead of throwing them into a bin will prevent people being able to read the documents to view sensitive information. Dumpster diving is looking for treasure in someone else’s trash. (A dumpster is a large trash container.) In the world of information technology, dumpster diving is a technique used to retrieve information that could be used to carry out an attack on a computer network. Dumpster diving isn’t limited to searching through the trash for obvious treasures like access codes or passwords written down on sticky notes. Seemingly innocent information like a phone list, calendar, or organizational chart can be used to assist an attacker using social engineering techniques to gain access to the network. To prevent dumpster divers from learning anything valuable from your trash, experts recommend that your company establish a disposal policy where all paper, including print-outs, is shredded in a cross-cut shredder before being recycled, all storage media is erased, and all staff is educated about the danger of untracked trash.