Module 2: Attacks, Concepts and Techniques Quiz Answers

Introduction to Cybersecurity Module 2: Attacks, Concepts and Techniques Quiz Answers

1. Which of the following examples illustrates how malware might be concealed?

A botnet of zombies carry personal information back to the hacker
A hacker uses techniques to improve the ranking of a website so that users are redirected to a malicious site
An attack is launched against the public website of an online retailer with the objective of blocking its response to visitors
An email is sent to the employees of an organization with an attachment that looks like an antivirus update, but the attachment actually consists of spyware

Explanation: A bot computer is typically infected by visiting an unsafe website or opening an infected email attachment or infected media file.

2. What is the purpose of a rootkit?

To masquerade as a legitimate program
To deliver advertisements without user consent
To replicate itself independently of any other programs
To gain privileged access to a device while concealing itself

Explanation: Most rootkits take advantage of software vulnerabilities to gain access to resources that normally shouldn’t be accessible (privilege escalation) and modify system files.

3. What type of attack allows an attacker to use a brute-force approach?

Denial of service
Packet sniffing
Social engineering
Password cracking

4. What is the most common goal of search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning?

To increase web traffic to malicious sites
To trick someone into installing malware or divulging personal information
To build a botnet of zombies
To overwhelm a network device with maliciously formed packets

Explanation: The most common goal of SEO poisoning is to increase traffic to malicious sites that may host malware or attempt social engineering.

5. What do you call a program written to take advantage of a known security vulnerability?

An exploit
Antivirus
A firewall
A software update

6. Which of the following security vulnerabilities could result in the receipt of malicious information that could force a program to behave in an unintended way?

Buffer overflow
Non-validated input
Race condition
Access control problem

Explanation: Programs often require data input, but this incoming data could have malicious content, designed to force the program to behave in an unintended way.

7. A set of changes done to any program or application with the aim of updating, fixing or improving it is often referred to as what?

A hack
A patch
An install
A fix

8. Can you identify the software vulnerability from the following descriptions?
Occurs when data is written beyond the limits of memory areas that are allocated to an application
– Buffer overflow

Occurs when an ordered or timed set of processes is disrupted or altered by an exploit
– Race condition

Occurs through the improper use of practices that manage equipment, data or applications
– Access control

9. What is a miner?

A person that solves complex mathematical puzzles to verify a transaction
A computer that processes and verifies a blockchain transaction
A type of blockchain
An algorithm that predicts the next block of a chain

10. What is the primary goal of a DoS attack?

To obtain all addresses in the address book within the server
To prevent the target server from being able to handle additional requests
To scan the data on the target server
To facilitate access to external networks

11. Which of the following should be carried out to address known software vulnerabilities of a specific application?

Change the hardware
Change the software
Install a security patch
Remove the application

Explanation: A denial of service (DoS) attack attempts to overwhelm a system or process by sending large amounts of data or requests to the target. The goal is to keep the system so overwhelmed handling false requests that it is unable to respond to legitimate ones.

12. Which of the following characteristics describe a worm? (Select two correct answers)