Book Image

CompTIA Security+: SY0-601 Certification Guide - Second Edition

By : Ian Neil
Book Image

CompTIA Security+: SY0-601 Certification Guide - Second Edition

By: Ian Neil

Overview of this book

The CompTIA Security+ certification validates the fundamental knowledge required to perform core security functions and pursue a career in IT security. Authored by Ian Neil, a world-class CompTIA certification trainer, this book is a best-in-class study guide that fully covers the CompTIA Security+ 601 exam objectives. Complete with chapter review questions, realistic mock exams, and worked solutions, this guide will help you master the core concepts to pass the exam the first time you take it. With the help of relevant examples, you'll learn fundamental security concepts from certificates and encryption to identity and access management (IAM). As you progress, you'll delve into the important domains of the exam, including cloud security, threats, attacks and vulnerabilities, technologies and tools, architecture and design, risk management, cryptography, and public key infrastructure (PKI). You can access extra practice materials, including flashcards, performance-based questions, practical labs, mock exams, key terms glossary, and exam tips on the author's website at securityplus.training. By the end of this Security+ book, you'll have gained the knowledge and understanding to take the CompTIA exam with confidence.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Objectives for the CompTIA Security+ 601 exam
Free Chapter
2
Section 1: Security Aims and Objectives
7
Section 2: Monitoring the Security Infrastructure
12
Section 3: Protecting the Security Environment
17
Section 4: Mock Tests
18
Chapter 13: Mock Exam 1
19
Mock Exam 1 Solutions
20
Chapter 14: Mock Exam 2
21
Mock Exam 2 Solutions

Advanced Attacks

In this section, we will be looking at advanced attacks, starting with types of password attacks.

Password Attacks

The two most common password attacks are dictionary attacks and brute-force attacks. Let's look at these in turn:

  • Dictionary Attack: For a dictionary attack, we could start by using all of the words in the Oxford English Dictionary and use them to try and crack passwords, but misspelled names or passwords with special characters such as $ or % can't be cracked, as they don't appear in the dictionary.

    Which of the following passwords would a dictionary attack crack?

    a. elasticity

    b. el@ST1city

    c. fred123

    d. blueberry

    It would crack elasticity and blueberry, but el@ST1city features numbers and characters not in a dictionary. Therefore, it will fail. It wouldn't crack fred123 either as it contains numbers.

    Example: An IT administrator was searching a security log and found the following entries. This is a dictionary attack...