CompTIA Security+ Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities 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

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 17

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 18

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 19

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 20

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 21

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 22

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 23

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 24

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 25

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

CompTIA Security+ Practice Questions: Threats, Attacks & Vulnerabilities

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. 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?

Q17. Which of the following BEST describes a watering hole attack?

Q18. Which of the following is a common technique used by attackers to escalate privileges on a compromised system?

Q19. Which of the following BEST describes a pharming attack?

Q20. Which of the following is a key characteristic of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)?

Q21. Which type of social engineering attack involves an attacker impersonating a senior executive to pressure an employee into making an unauthorized transaction?

Q22. 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?

Q23. Which attack involves trying a small number of common passwords against a large number of different user accounts to avoid account lockout?

Q24. Which type of social engineering attack uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create realistic audio or video impersonations of executives to authorize fraudulent transfers?

Q25. Which supply chain risk involves an attacker intercepting hardware during shipment to install a backdoor or modify components?

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