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Isaca CISA
Certified Information Systems Auditor

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Question 1
A shared resource matrix is a technique commonly used to locate:
Options:
A. Malicious code
B. Security flaws
C. Trap doors
D. Covert channels
Answer: D
Explanation:
Analyzing resources of a system is one standard for locating covert channels because the basis of a covert
channel is a shared resource.
The following properties must hold for a storage channel to exist:
1. Both sending and receiving process must have access to the same attribute of a shared object.
2. The sending process must be able to modify the attribute of the shared object.
3. The receiving process must be able to reference that attribute of the shared object.
4. A mechanism for initiating both processes and properly sequencing their respective accesses to the
shared resource must exist.
Note: Similar properties for timing channel can be listed
The following answers are incorrect:
All other answers were not directly related to discovery of Covert Channels.
The following reference(s) were/was used to create this question:
Acerbic Publications, Acerbic Publications (Test Series) - CRC Press LLC, Page No. 225
http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~sherwood/cs290/papers/covert-kemmerer.pdf
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~byoung/cs361/lecture16.pdf
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~byoung/cs361/lecture16.pdf
Question 2
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You are part of a security staff at a highly profitable bank and each day, all traffic on the network is logged
for later review. Every Friday when major deposits are made you're seeing a series of bits placed in the
"Urgent Pointer" field of a TCP packet. This is only 16 bits which isn't much but it concerns you because:
Options:
A. This could be a sign of covert channeling in bank network communications and should be
investigated.
B. It could be a sign of a damaged network cable causing the issue.
C. It could be a symptom of malfunctioning network card or drivers and the source system should
be
checked for the problem.
D. It is normal traffic because sometimes the previous fields 16-bit checksum value can over run
into the
urgent pointer's 16-bit field causing the condition.
Answer: A
Explanation:
The Urgent Pointer is used when some information has to reach the server ASAP. When the TCP/IP stack
at the other end sees a packet using the Urgent Pointer set, it is duty bound to stop all ongoing activities
and immediately send this packet up the stack for immediate processing. Since the packet is plucked out of
the processing queue and acted upon immediately, it is known as an Out Of Band (OOB)packet and the
data is called Out Of Band (OOB) data.
The Urgent Pointer is usually used in Telnet, where an immediate response (e.g. the echoing of characters)
is desirable.
Covert Channels are not directly synonymous with backdoors. A covert channel is simply using a
communication protocol in a way it was not intended to be used or sending data without going through the
proper access control mechanisms or channels. For example, in a Mandatory Access Control systems a
user at secret has found a way to communicate information to a user at Confidential without going through
the normal channels.
In this case the Urgent bit could be used for a few reasons:
1. It could be to attempt a Denial of service where the host receiving a packet with the Urgent bit set will
give immediate attention to the request and will be in wait state until the urgent message is receive, if the
sender does not send the urgent message then it will simply sit there doing nothing until it times out. Some
of the TCP/IP stacks used to have a 600 seconds time out, which means that for 10 minutes nobody could
use the port. By sending thousands of packet with the URGENT flag set, it would create a very effective
denial of service attack.
2. It could be used as a client server application to transmit data back and forward without going through
the proper channels. It would be slow but it is possible to use reserved fields and bits to transmit data
outside the normal communication channels.
The other answers are incorrect
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http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/rainbow/tg030.htm document covering the subject of covert channels

and also see:
http://gray-world.net/papers.shtml which is a large collection of documents on Covert Channels
Question 3
John is the product manager for an information system. His product has undergone under security review
by an IS auditor. John has decided to apply appropriate security controls to reduce the security risks
suggested by an IS auditor. Which of the following technique is used by John to treat the identified risk
provided by an IS auditor?
Options:
A. Risk Mitigation
B. Risk Acceptance
C. Risk Avoidance
D. Risk transfer
Answer: A
Explanation:
Risk mitigation is the practice of the elimination of, or the significant decrease in the level of risk presented.
For your exam you should know below information about risk assessment and treatment:
A risk assessment, which is a tool for risk management, is a method of identifying vulnerabilities and
threats and assessing the possible impacts to determine where to implement security controls. A risk
assessment is carried out, and the results are analyzed. Risk analysis is used to ensure that security is
cost-effective, relevant, timely, and responsive to threats. Security can be quite complex, even for well-
versed security professionals, and it is easy to apply too much security, not enough security, or the wrong
security controls, and to spend too much money in the process without attaining the necessary objectives.
Risk analysis helps companies prioritize their risks and shows management the amount of resources that
should be applied to protecting against those risks in a sensible manner.
A risk analysis has four main goals:
Identify assets and their value to the organization.
Identify vulnerabilities and threats.
Quantify the probability and business impact of these potential threats.
Provide an economic balance between the impact of the threat and the cost of the countermeasure.
Treating Risk
Risk Mitigation
Examples of risk mitigation can be seen in everyday life and are readily apparent in the information
technology world. Risk Mitigation involves applying appropriate control to reduce risk. For example, to
lessen the risk of exposing personal and financial information that is highly sensitive and confidential
organizations put countermeasures in place, such as firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and
other mechanisms, to deter malicious outsiders from accessing this highly sensitive information. In the
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underage driver example, risk mitigation could take the form of driver education for the youth or
establishing a policy not allowing the young driver to use a cell phone while driving, or not letting youth of a
certain age have more than one friend in the car as a passenger at any given time.
Risk Transfer
Risk transfer is the practice of passing on the risk in question to another entity, such as an insurance
company. Let us look at one of the examples that were presented above in a different way. The family is
evaluating whether to permit an underage driver to use the family car. The family decides that it is
important for the youth to be mobile, so it transfers the financial risk of a youth being in an accident to the
insurance company, which provides the family with auto insurance.
It is important to note that the transfer of risk may be accompanied by a cost. This is certainly true for the
insurance example presented earlier, and can be seen in other insurance instances, such as liability
insurance for a vendor or the insurance taken out by companies to protect against hardware and software
theft or destruction. This may also be true if an organization must purchase and implement security
controls in order to make their organization less desirable to attack. It is important to remember that not all
risk can be transferred. While financial risk is simple to transfer through insurance, reputational risk may
almost never be fully transferred.
Risk Avoidance
Risk avoidance is the practice of coming up with alternatives so that the risk in question is not realized. For
example, have you ever heard a friend, or parents of a friend, complain about the costs of insuring an
underage driver? How about the risks that many of these children face as they become mobile? Some of
these families will decide that the child in question will not be allowed to drive the family car, but will rather
wait until he or she is of legal age (i.e., 18 years of age) before committing to owning, insuring, and driving
a motor vehicle.
In this case, the family has chosen to avoid the risks (and any associated benefits) associated with an
underage driver, such as poor driving performance or the cost of insurance for the child. Although this
choice may be available for some situations, it is not available for all. Imagine a global retailer who,
knowing the risks associated with doing business on the Internet, decides to avoid the practice. This
decision will likely cost the company a significant amount of its revenue (if, indeed, the company has
products or services that consumers wish to purchase). In addition, the decision may require the company
to build or lease a site in each of the locations, globally, for which it wishes to continue business. This could
have a catastrophic effect on the company’s ability to continue business operations
Risk Acceptance
In some cases, it may be prudent for an organization to simply accept the risk that is presented in certain
scenarios. Risk acceptance is the practice of accepting certain risk(s), typically based on a business
decision that may also weigh the cost versus the benefit of dealing with the risk in another way.
For example, an executive may be confronted with risks identified during the course of a risk assessment
for their organization. These risks have been prioritized by high, medium, and low impact to the
organization. The executive notes that in order to mitigate or transfer the low-level risks, significant costs
could be involved. Mitigation might involve the hiring of additional highly skilled personnel and the purchase
of new hardware, software, and office equipment, while transference of the risk to an insurance company
would require premium payments. The
executive then further notes that minimal impact to the organization would occur if any of the reported low-
level threats were realized. Therefore, he or she (rightly) concludes that it is wiser for the organization to
forgo the costs and accept the risk. In the young driver example, risk acceptance could be based on the
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observation that the youngster has demonstrated the responsibility and maturity to warrant the parent’s
trust in his or her judgment.
Risk Transfer - Risk transfer is the practice of passing on the risk in question to another entity, such as an
insurance company. Let us look at one of the examples that were presented above in a different way.
Risk Avoidance - Risk avoidance is the practice of coming up with alternatives so that the risk in question is
not realized.
Risk Acceptance - Risk acceptance is the practice of accepting certain risk(s), typically based on a
business decision that may also weigh the cost versus the benefit of dealing with the risk in another way.
CISA Review Manual 2014 Page number 51
Official ISC2 guide to CISSP CBK 3rd edition page number 383,384 and 385
Question 4
Sam is the security Manager of a financial institute. Senior management has requested he performs a risk
analysis on all critical vulnerabilities reported by an IS auditor. After completing the risk analysis, Sam has
observed that for a few of the risks, the cost benefit analysis shows that risk mitigation cost
(countermeasures, controls, or safeguard) is more than the potential lost that could be incurred. What kind
of a strategy should Sam recommend to the senior management to treat these risks?
Options:
A. Risk Mitigation
B. Risk Acceptance
C. Risk Avoidance
D. Risk transfer
Answer: B
Explanation:
Risk acceptance is the practice of accepting certain risk(s), typically based on a business decision that may
also weigh the cost versus the benefit of dealing with the risk in another way.
Risk analysis helps companies prioritize their risks and shows
management the amount of resources that should be applied to protecting against those risks in a sensible
manner.
Isaca CISA

Provide an economic balance between the impact of the threat and the cost
of the countermeasure.
Treating Risk
Risk Mitigation
Risk Transfer
Risk Avoidance
a motor vehicle.
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Risk Acceptance
Risk Avoidance - Risk avoidance is the practice of coming up with alternatives so that the risk in question is
not realized.
Risk Mitigation -Risk mitigation is the practice of the elimination of, or the significant decrease in the level of
risk presented.
and
Official ISC2 guide to CISSP CBK 3rd edition page number 534-539
Question 5
Which of the following risk handling technique involves the practice of being proactive so that the risk in
question is not realized?
Options:
A. Risk Mitigation
B. Risk Acceptance
C. Risk Avoidance
D. Risk transfer
Answer: C
Explanation:
Risk avoidance is the practice of coming up with alternatives so that the risk in question is not realized.
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Risk analysis helps companies prioritize their risks and shows management the amount of resources that
should be applied to protecting against those risks in a sensible manner.
Provide an economic balance between the impact of the threat and the cost
of the countermeasure.
Treating Risk
Risk Mitigation
Risk Transfer
Risk Avoidance
Isaca CISA
a motor vehicle.
Risk Acceptance
Risk Acceptance - Risk acceptance is the practice of accepting certain risk(s), typically based on a
business decision that may also weigh the cost versus the benefit of dealing with the risk in another way.
Risk Mitigation -Risk mitigation is the practice of the elimination of, or the significant decrease in the level of
risk presented
and
Official ISC2 guide to CISSP CBK 3rd edition page number 534-536
Question 6
Which of the following control is intended to discourage a potential attacker?
Options:
A. Deterrent
B. Preventive
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C. Corrective
D. Recovery
Answer: A
Explanation:
Deterrent Control are intended to discourage a potential attacker
For your exam you should know below information about different security controls
Deterrent Controls
Deterrent Controls are intended to discourage a potential attacker. Access controls act as a deterrent to
threats and attacks by the simple fact that the existence of the control is enough to keep some potential
attackers from attempting to circumvent the control. This is often because the effort required to circumvent
the control is far greater than the potential reward if the attacker is successful, or, conversely, the negative
implications of a failed attack (or getting caught) outweigh the benefits of success. For example, by forcing
the identification and authentication of a user, service, or application, and all that it implies, the potential for
incidents associated with the system is significantly reduced because an attacker will fear association with
the incident. If there are no controls for a given access path, the number of incidents and the potential
impact become infinite. Controls inherently reduce exposure to risk by applying oversight for a process.
This oversight acts as a deterrent, curbing an attacker’s appetite in the face of probable repercussions.
The best example of a deterrent control is demonstrated by employees and their propensity to intentionally
perform unauthorized functions, leading to unwanted events.
When users begin to understand that by authenticating into a system to perform a function, their activities
are logged and monitored, and it reduces the likelihood they will attempt such an action. Many threats are
based on the anonymity of the threat agent, and any potential for identification and association with their
actions is avoided at all costs.
It is this fundamental reason why access controls are the key target of circumvention by attackers.
Deterrents also take the form of potential punishment if users do something unauthorized. For example, if
the organization policy specifies that an employee installing an unauthorized wireless access point will be
fired, that will determine most employees from installing wireless access points.
Preventative Controls
Preventive controls are intended to avoid an incident from occurring. Preventative access controls keep a
user from performing some activity or function. Preventative controls differ from deterrent controls in that
the control is not optional and cannot (easily) be bypassed. Deterrent controls work on the theory that it is
easier to obey the control
rather than to risk the consequences of bypassing the control. In other words, the power for action resides
with the user (or the attacker). Preventative controls place the power of action with the system, obeying the
control is not optional. The only way to bypass the control is to find a flaw in the control’s implementation.
Compensating Controls
Compensating controls are introduced when the existing capabilities of a system do not support the
requirement of a policy. Compensating controls can be technical, procedural, or managerial. Although an
existing system may not support the required controls, there may exist other technology or processes that
can supplement the existing environment, closing the gap in controls, meeting policy requirements, and
reducing overall risk.
For example, the access control policy may state that the authentication process must be encrypted when
Isaca CISA
performed over the Internet. Adjusting an application to natively support encryption for authentication
purposes may be too costly. Secure Socket Layer (SSL), an encryption protocol, can be employed and
layered on top of the authentication process to support the policy statement.
Other examples include a separation of duties environment, which offers the capability to isolate certain
tasks to compensate for technical limitations in the system and ensure the security of transactions. In
addition, management processes, such as authorization, supervision, and administration, can be used to
compensate for gaps in the access control environment.
Detective Controls
Detective controls warn when something has happened, and are the earliest point in the post-incident
timeline. Access controls are a deterrent to threats and can be aggressively utilized to prevent harmful
incidents through the application of least privilege. However, the detective nature of access controls can
provide significant visibility into the access environment and help organizations manage their access
strategy and related security risk.
As mentioned previously, strongly managed access privileges provided to an authenticated user offer the
ability to reduce the risk exposure of the enterprise’s assets by limiting the capabilities that authenticated
user has. However, there are few options to control what a user can perform once privileges are provided.
For example, if a user is provided write access to a file and that file is damaged, altered, or otherwise
negatively impacted (either deliberately or unintentionally), the use of applied access controls will offer
visibility into the transaction. The control environment can be established to log activity regarding the
identification, authentication, authorization, and use of privileges on a system.
This can be used to detect the occurrence of errors, the attempts to perform an unauthorized action, or to
validate when provided credentials were exercised. The logging system as a detective device provides
evidence of actions (both successful and unsuccessful) and tasks that were executed by authorized users.
Corrective Controls
When a security incident occurs, elements within the security infrastructure may require corrective actions.
Corrective controls are actions that seek to alter the security posture of an environment to correct any
deficiencies and return the environment to a secure state. A security incident signals the failure of one or
more directive, deterrent, preventative, or compensating controls. The detective controls may have
triggered an alarm or notification, but now the corrective controls must work to stop the incident in its
tracks. Corrective controls can take many forms, all depending on the particular situation at hand or the
particular security failure that needs to be dealt with.
Recovery Controls
Any changes to the access control environment, whether in the face of a security incident or to offer
temporary compensating controls, need to be accurately reinstated and returned to normal operations.
There are several situations that may affect access controls, their applicability, status, or management.
Events can include system outages, attacks, project changes, technical demands, administrative gaps, and
full-blown disaster situations. For example, if an application is not correctly installed or deployed, it may
adversely affect controls placed on system files or even have default administrative accounts unknowingly
implemented upon install.
Additionally, an employee may be transferred, quit, or be on temporary leave that may affect policy
requirements regarding separation of duties. An attack on systems may have resulted in the implantation of
a Trojan horse program, potentially exposing private user information, such as credit card information and
financial data. In all of these cases, an undesirable situation must be rectified as quickly as possible and
controls returned to normal operations.
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Preventive - Preventive controls are intended to avoid an incident from occurring
Corrective - Corrective control fixes components or systems after an incident has occurred
Recovery - Recovery controls are intended to bring the environment back to regular operations
and
Official ISC2 CISSP guide 3rd edition Page number 50 and 51
Question 7
Which of the following security control is intended to avoid an incident from occurring?
Options:
A. Deterrent
B. Preventive
C. Corrective
D. Recovery
Answer: B
Explanation:
Preventive controls are intended to avoid an incident from occurring
Deterrent Controls
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Detective Controls
Corrective Controls
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Recovery Controls
Deterrent - Deterrent controls are intended to discourage a potential attacker
and
Question 8
Which of the following control fixes a component or system after an incident has occurred?
Options:
A. Deterrent
B. Preventive
C. Corrective
D. Recovery
Answer: C
Explanation:
Corrective control fixes components or systems after an incident has occurred
Deterrent Controls
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Detective Controls
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Corrective Controls
Recovery Controls
and
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Question 9
Which of the following security control is intended to bring environment back to regular operation?
Options:
A. Deterrent
B. Preventive
C. Corrective
D. Recovery
Answer: D
Explanation:
Recovery controls are intended to bring the environment back to regular operations
Deterrent Controls
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Detective Controls
Corrective Controls
Recovery Controls
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and
Question 10
Which of the following control helps to identify an incident’s activities and potentially an intruder?
Options:
A. Deterrent
B. Preventive
C. Detective
D. Compensating
Answer: C
Explanation:
Detective control helps identify an incident’s activities and potentially an intruder
Deterrent Controls
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Detective Controls
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Corrective Controls
Recovery Controls
Compensating - Compensating Controls provide an alternative measure of control
and
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Isaca CISA

Certified Information Systems Auditor

B. It could be a sign of a damaged network cable causing the issue.

http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/rainbow/tg030.htm document covering the subject of covert channels

Identify assets and their value to the organization.

The following answers are incorrect:

perform unauthorized functions, leading to unwanted events.

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