CompTIA Security+ Question L-37

After a recent internal audit, the security administrator was tasked to ensure that all credentials must be changed within 90 days, cannot be repeated, and cannot contain any dictionary words or patterns. All credentials will remain enabled regardless of the number of attempts made. Which of the following types of user account options were enforced? (Select TWO).

A. Recovery
B. User assigned privileges
C. Lockout
D. Disablement
E. Group based privileges
F. Password expiration
G. Password complexity

Answer: F,G

Explanation:
Password complexity often requires the use of a minimum of three out of four standard character types for a password. The more characters in a password that includes some character type complexity, the more resistant it is to password-cracking techniques. In most cases, passwords are set to expire every 90 days.

CompTIA Security+ Question K-82

An administrator notices that former temporary employees’ accounts are still active on a domain.
Which of the following can be implemented to increase security and prevent this from happening?

A. Implement a password expiration policy.
B. Implement an account expiration date for permanent employees.
C. Implement time of day restrictions for all temporary employees.
D. Run a last logon script to look for inactive accounts.

Answer: D

Explanation:
You can run a script to return a list of all accounts that haven’t been used for a number of days, for example 30 days. If an account hasn’t been logged into for 30 days, it’s a safe bet that the user the account belonged to is no longer with the company. You can then disable all the accounts that the script returns. A disabled account cannot be used to log in to a system. This is a good security measure. As soon as an employee leaves the company, the employees account should always be disabled.

CompTIA Security+ Question J-89

A recent audit has discovered that at the time of password expiration clients are able to recycle the previous credentials for authentication. Which of the following controls should be used together to prevent this from occurring? (Select TWO).

A. Password age
B. Password hashing
C. Password complexity
D. Password history
E. Password length

Answer: A,D

Explanation:
D: Password history determines the number of previous passwords that cannot be used when a user changes his password. For example, a password history value of 5 would disallow a user from changing his password to any of his previous 5 passwords.

A: When a user is forced to change his password due to a maximum password age period expiring, he could change his password to a previously used password. Or if a password history value of 5 is configured, the user could change his password six times to cycle back round to his original password. This is where the minimum password age comes in. This is the period that a password must be used for. For example, a minimum password age of 30 would determine that when a user changes his password, he must continue to use the same password for at least 30 days.

CompTIA Security+ Question I-19

A group policy requires users in an organization to use strong passwords that must be changed every 15 days. Peter and Ann were hired 16 days ago. When Peter logs into the network, he is prompted to change his password; when Ann logs into the network, she is not prompted to change her password. Which of the following BEST explains why Ann is not required to change her password?

A. Ann’s user account has administrator privileges.
B. Peter’s user account was not added to the group policy.
C. Ann’s user account was not added to the group policy.
D. Peter’s user account was inadvertently disabled and must be re-created.

Answer: C

Explanation:
Group policy is used to manage Windows systems in a Windows network domain environment by means of a Group Policy Object (GPO). GPO’s include a number of settings related to credentials, which includes password expiration. Because Anne was not prompted to change her password, it could only mean that her user account was not added to the group policy.

CompTIA Security+ Question G-13

An administrator discovers that many users have used their same passwords for years even though the network requires that the passwords be changed every six weeks. Which of the following, when used together, would BEST prevent users from reusing their existing password? (Select TWO).

A. Length of password
B. Password history
C. Minimum password age
D. Password expiration
E. Password complexity
F. Non-dictionary words

Answer: B,C

Explanation:
In this question, users are forced to change their passwords every six weeks. However, they are able to change their password and enter the same password as the new password.

Password history determines the number of previous passwords that cannot be used when a user changes his password. For example, a password history value of 5 would disallow a user from changing his password to any of his previous 5 passwords.

When a user is forced to change his password due to a maximum password age period expiring, (the question states that the network requires that the passwords be changed every six weeks) he could change his password to a previously used password. Or if a password history value of 5 is configured, the user could change his password six times to cycle back round to his original password. This is where the minimum password age comes in. This is the period that a password must be used for. For example, a minimum password age of 30 would determine that when a user changes his password, he must continue to use the same password for at least 30 days.

CompTIA Security+ Question G-11

An organizations’ security policy requires that users change passwords every 30 days. After a security audit, it was determined that users were recycling previously used passwords. Which of the following password enforcement policies would have mitigated this issue?

A. Password history
B. Password complexity
C. Password length
D. Password expiration

Answer: A

Explanation:
Password history determines the number of previous passwords that cannot be used when a user changes his password. For example, a password history value of 5 would disallow a user from changing his password to any of his previous 5 passwords. However, without a minimum password age setting, the user could change his password six times and cycle back to his original password.

CompTIA Security+ Question F-40

A security administrator would like to ensure that system administrators are not using the same password for both their privileged and non-privileged accounts. Which of the following security controls BEST accomplishes this goal?

A. Require different account passwords through a policy
B. Require shorter password expiration for non-privileged accounts
C. Require shorter password expiration for privileged accounts
D. Require a greater password length for privileged accounts

Answer: A

Explanation:
A password policy aka account policy enforcement can be configured in such a way so as to make sure that system administrators make use of different passwords for different accounts.

CompTIA Security+ Question E-72

A network administrator, Peter, arrives at his new job to find that none of the users have changed their network passwords since they were initially hired. Peter wants to have everyone change their passwords immediately. Which of the following policies should be enforced to initiate a password change?

A. Password expiration
B. Password reuse
C. Password recovery
D. Password disablement

Answer: A

Explanation:
The Maximum password age policy setting determines the number of days that a password can be used before the system requires the user to change it. The password expiration setting determines that a user will not be able to log into a system without changing their password after the maximum password age has been reached.

CompTIA Security+ Question E-38

Which of the following is a BEST practice when dealing with user accounts that will only need to be active for a limited time period?

A. When creating the account, set the account to not remember password history.
B. When creating the account, set an expiration date on the account.
C. When creating the account, set a password expiration date on the account.
D. When creating the account, set the account to have time of day restrictions.

Answer: B

Explanation:
Disablement is a secure feature to employ on user accounts for temporary workers, interns, or consultants. It automatically disables a user account or causes the account to expire at a specific time and on a specific day.