Question 390
A firewall shows repeated denied connections from a host, and analysts need source/destination IPs, port numbers and rule IDs. Which evidence source should they query?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Firewall events encode the evaluated traffic tuple and policy action. Evidence quality depends on acquisition provenance, controlled handling and the ability to reproduce the finding; merely locating an artifact does not authenticate its origin. The case turns on a firewall shows repeated denied connections from a host, and analysts need source/destination IPs, port numbers and rule IDs; “Structured firewall connection logs” addresses that precise condition. “A building access badge reader” is not equivalent because door events do not contain TCP or UDP policy matches.
Incorrect Answers
A dashboard count can indicate elevated activity, but it cannot reconstruct which traffic tuple the firewall denied or which access rule made the decision. The analyst needs individual records containing at least source and destination IPs, ports, time and policy action. IDS summaries can provide corroboration about suspicious behavior; they are not substitutes for the structured firewall connection log that contains the requested policy evidence.
DHCP logs can help resolve which managed device used an address at a given time, so they may be valuable for attribution after the network event is identified. They generally do not describe the denied destination port, firewall action or matching rule ID. The scenario asks for the connection decision itself. Querying structured firewall logs first provides the traffic and policy context, with DHCP evidence added if the source identity needs corroboration.
Identity sign-in events can help determine which user authenticated to a service, but they do not normally record the firewall rule that rejected a specific network tuple. Successful login evidence also cannot explain every unsolicited connection from a host. The required source is the firewall data plane record with source/destination addresses, ports and applied rule. Identity records may be correlated later when the host or account attribution is uncertain.






CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) Practice Tests