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Question 61.

A software team is designing an account-recovery feature. Which security objective should receive the HIGHEST priority?

1. Making recovery available without identity verification
2. Ensuring the recovery process provides assurance comparable to the normal authentication process
3. Allowing support staff to see user passwords
4. Making recovery tokens valid indefinitely

Correct Answer: 2. Ensuring the recovery process provides assurance comparable to the normal authentication process

Explanation:

Account recovery can become an alternate authentication path and must not be significantly weaker than the normal login process. Recovery should verify identity appropriately, use short-lived and unpredictable tokens, invalidate tokens after use, and record relevant activity. If recovery is weak, an attacker may bypass strong primary authentication entirely. The exact controls should reflect account sensitivity, business risk, and available identity-verification methods.

Question 62.

Which practice BEST reduces the risk of insecure direct object reference vulnerabilities?

1. Perform server-side authorization checks for every requested object
2. Use longer object identifiers
3. Hide object identifiers in the user interface
4. Disable audit logging

Correct Answer: 1. Perform server-side authorization checks for every requested object

Explanation:

Changing an identifier should never allow a user to access another user’s data unless that access is explicitly authorized. Server-side authorization must verify that the requester is permitted to access each requested object. Using unpredictable identifiers may reduce casual guessing, but it does not replace authorization. Security should not depend on identifiers being difficult to discover.

Question 63.

A development team wants to understand whether sensitive data passes through unnecessary components. Which artifact is MOST useful?

1. Project staffing chart
2. Test execution schedule
3. Data-flow diagram
4. Software license inventory

Correct Answer: 3. Data-flow diagram

Explanation:

A data-flow diagram shows how information moves among processes, data stores, external entities, and trust boundaries. It can reveal where sensitive data is unnecessarily copied, transformed, transmitted, or exposed. This information supports threat modeling, data minimization, encryption decisions, and security requirements. Staffing and licensing information do not provide equivalent visibility into how data moves through the system.

Question 64.

A secure application must continue operating when a noncritical logging service fails. Which design is MOST appropriate?

1. Grant all users administrator rights
2. Disable authentication whenever logging fails
3. Terminate the entire application immediately in every case
4. Define secure degraded behavior that preserves critical controls while handling logging failure

Correct Answer: 4. Define secure degraded behavior that preserves critical controls while handling logging failure

Explanation:

Failure handling should reflect the security importance of each dependency. If a noncritical logging component fails, the application may be able to continue safely while generating alerts, buffering events, or using an alternate logging path. However, core authentication and authorization controls should not be bypassed. Secure degraded behavior should be designed intentionally rather than left to unpredictable implementation defaults.

Question 65.

Why should software security requirements include misuse scenarios?

1. They help identify security controls needed to prevent or detect abusive behavior
2. They replace functional requirements
3. They eliminate the need for threat modeling
4. They guarantee that all attacks are discovered

Correct Answer: 1. They help identify security controls needed to prevent or detect abusive behavior

Explanation:

Misuse scenarios consider how legitimate functionality might be abused by attackers, insiders, or unauthorized users. They can reveal security requirements that normal use cases overlook, such as transaction limits, authorization checks, monitoring, anti-automation controls, or fraud detection. Misuse scenarios complement threat modeling and functional requirements rather than replacing them.

Question 66.

A software component processes XML supplied by untrusted users. Which control BEST reduces XML external entity attack risk?

1. Increase parser memory
2. Disable external entity resolution and use securely configured parsers
3. Allow network access from the parser to any destination
4. Run the parser with administrator privileges

Correct Answer: 2. Disable external entity resolution and use securely configured parsers

Explanation:

XML external entity attacks can abuse parser features to access local files, perform network requests, or cause resource exhaustion. Secure parser configurations should disable unnecessary external entity and document type functionality. Input size limits and least privilege provide additional defense. The safest approach is to disable risky parser features unless they are explicitly required by the application.

Question 67.

What is the PRIMARY benefit of integrating security tests into an automated CI pipeline?

1. It eliminates the need for human review
2. It guarantees that no vulnerabilities reach production
3. It provides rapid, repeatable security feedback during development
4. It removes the need for secure coding standards

Correct Answer: 3. It provides rapid, repeatable security feedback during development

Explanation:

Automated security tests in CI can identify certain defects soon after code changes are introduced. Early feedback reduces remediation cost and allows teams to correct problems before release. Static analysis, dependency scanning, secret detection, and selected dynamic tests may all be automated. Automation improves consistency but should complement manual review, architecture analysis, and other security activities.

Question 68.

A product team wants to release software containing a known critical vulnerability because of a business deadline. What is the BEST response?

1. Release without documenting the vulnerability
2. Hide the issue from customers
3. Remove the vulnerability from the defect tracker
4. Escalate for formal risk evaluation and apply release criteria before deciding

Correct Answer: 4. Escalate for formal risk evaluation and apply release criteria before deciding

Explanation:

Known critical vulnerabilities should be handled through defined security governance and release criteria. Decision-makers need information about exploitability, exposure, affected assets, compensating controls, and business impact. The result may be remediation before release, delay, mitigation, or formally approved risk acceptance. The issue should remain visible and documented throughout the decision process.

Question 69.

Which practice BEST protects authentication cookies in a web application?

1. Use secure cookie attributes, appropriate scope, and server-side session protections
2. Store authentication cookies permanently without expiration
3. Make cookies readable by all client-side scripts when unnecessary
4. Place session identifiers in public URLs

Correct Answer: 1. Use secure cookie attributes, appropriate scope, and server-side session protections

Explanation:

Authentication cookies should be protected against network exposure, unnecessary client-side script access, and unintended cross-site requests. Appropriate Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite, path, domain, and lifetime settings can reduce risk, depending on application requirements. Server-side session controls, token rotation, logout invalidation, and reauthentication for sensitive actions provide additional protection.

Question 70.

A team must validate security controls before accepting a software release. What is the BEST evidence?

1. Developer statements that the controls work
2. Test results traceable to documented security requirements
3. Marketing documentation
4. The absence of customer complaints

Correct Answer: 2. Test results traceable to documented security requirements

Explanation:

Security verification should produce evidence demonstrating that defined requirements were implemented and behave as expected. Traceable test cases make it possible to determine which requirements were validated and which remain unresolved. Developer confidence and lack of complaints are not substitutes for objective verification. Testing may include automated checks, manual tests, code review, and penetration testing depending on the requirement.

Question 71.

A security review finds that sensitive data remains in application memory longer than necessary. Which principle is MOST applicable?

1. Open design
2. High availability
3. Minimize exposure and lifetime of sensitive data
4. Maximum privilege

Correct Answer: 3. Minimize exposure and lifetime of sensitive data

Explanation:

Sensitive information should exist only where and for as long as required. Keeping secrets, credentials, cryptographic material, or regulated data in memory longer than necessary increases the opportunity for disclosure through memory dumps, debugging tools, application vulnerabilities, or system compromise. Developers should minimize retention and clear sensitive buffers when supported and meaningful for the platform.

Question 72.

A secure development team uses a third-party component with a newly disclosed critical vulnerability. What should it do FIRST?

1. Assume the vulnerability does not affect its application
2. Remove the component inventory
3. Wait until attackers exploit the application
4. Determine whether the vulnerable component and affected functionality are present and exposed

Correct Answer: 4. Determine whether the vulnerable component and affected functionality are present and exposed

Explanation:

The first step is impact analysis. Teams should determine whether the vulnerable version is actually present, whether the affected functionality is used, and how exposed it is within the deployed application. This informs remediation urgency and mitigation decisions. Component inventories and software bills of materials can make this analysis much faster and more reliable.

Question 73.

Which design BEST reduces the likelihood of privilege escalation through application roles?

1. Define roles around business responsibilities and enforce least privilege
2. Give every authenticated user the same permissions
3. Allow users to select their own role
4. Trust roles received directly from browser parameters

Correct Answer: 1. Define roles around business responsibilities and enforce least privilege

Explanation:

Role definitions should reflect legitimate business responsibilities and provide only the permissions necessary for those functions. Role assignment should be controlled by trusted server-side identity and governance mechanisms rather than user-controlled input. Periodic access reviews can identify excessive permissions. Broad or self-selected roles increase the risk of unauthorized privilege escalation.

Question 74.

A development organization wants to reduce secrets accidentally committed to source-control repositories. Which approach is BEST?

1. Encourage developers to rename secrets before committing
2. Use secret-scanning controls and approved external secret-management mechanisms
3. Store all credentials in comments
4. Make repositories publicly accessible

Correct Answer: 2. Use secret-scanning controls and approved external secret-management mechanisms

Explanation:

Secret scanning can detect common credentials, keys, and tokens before or after they enter repositories, while external secret-management systems reduce the need to place secrets in source code at all. Developer training, pre-commit hooks, CI checks, and rapid revocation procedures provide additional protection. Any exposed credential should be treated as potentially compromised and rotated promptly.

Question 75.

A web service accepts JSON requests containing fields that clients should never control. Which technique BEST prevents unintended assignment of privileged fields?

1. Accept every supplied field automatically
2. Disable request validation
3. Explicitly allowlist fields that clients are permitted to set
4. Give clients direct access to database records

Correct Answer: 3. Explicitly allowlist fields that clients are permitted to set

Explanation:

Mass assignment vulnerabilities can occur when frameworks automatically bind client-supplied fields to internal objects. Attackers may add fields such as role, approval status, or account balance if those properties are not explicitly restricted. Allowlisting permitted input fields, using dedicated request models, and enforcing server-side authorization reduces this risk.

Question 76.

A development team needs to handle security-sensitive random values such as password-reset tokens. Which implementation is BEST?

1. Use predictable timestamps
2. Use sequential numbers
3. Use a normal noncryptographic pseudorandom generator
4. Use a cryptographically secure random number generator

Correct Answer: 4. Use a cryptographically secure random number generator

Explanation:

Security tokens must be sufficiently unpredictable that attackers cannot guess future or existing values. Cryptographically secure random number generators are specifically designed for this purpose. Predictable values such as timestamps, counters, or weak pseudorandom outputs can make tokens guessable even when they appear random. Tokens should also have appropriate length, lifetime, and single-use behavior.

Question 77.

Why should developers use centralized input-validation routines where practical?

1. They can improve consistency and reduce duplicated validation mistakes
2. They eliminate the need for output encoding
3. They guarantee no injection vulnerability can occur
4. They make authorization unnecessary

Correct Answer: 1. They can improve consistency and reduce duplicated validation mistakes

Explanation:

Reusable validation components can provide consistent rules for common data types and reduce the chance that individual developers implement incomplete or contradictory checks. Validation should still be context appropriate, and centralized routines do not replace parameterized queries, output encoding, or authorization. They are one part of a layered approach to handling untrusted input safely.

Question 78.

A team wants to prevent vulnerable open-source packages from entering production builds. Which control is MOST appropriate?

1. Allow arbitrary package downloads during every build
2. Use dependency scanning and approved package repositories with policy enforcement
3. Disable version tracking
4. Ignore transitive dependencies

Correct Answer: 2. Use dependency scanning and approved package repositories with policy enforcement

Explanation:

Approved repositories and automated dependency scanning help detect prohibited, outdated, or vulnerable packages before deployment. Policies can block components that exceed defined risk thresholds or lack acceptable provenance. Transitive dependencies should also be included because they can introduce vulnerabilities indirectly. Continuous monitoring remains necessary after release because new vulnerabilities may be discovered later.

Question 79.

A security tester discovers that an application allows unlimited login attempts. Which control would BEST reduce automated password guessing?

1. Increase password-display time
2. Disable authentication logging
3. Apply rate limiting, adaptive controls, and appropriate account-protection mechanisms
4. Allow anonymous login after several failures

Correct Answer: 3. Apply rate limiting, adaptive controls, and appropriate account-protection mechanisms

Explanation:

Automated guessing can be slowed using rate limiting, progressive delays, risk-based challenges, monitoring, and carefully designed account protections. Controls should avoid creating easy denial-of-service opportunities through indiscriminate permanent lockouts. Strong password storage, multifactor authentication, and detection of suspicious authentication behavior can further reduce the impact of credential attacks.

Question 80.

Which practice BEST reflects secure software lifecycle governance?

1. Allow teams to define security independently without organizational standards
2. Perform security only during penetration testing
3. Stop tracking security requirements after release
4. Establish policies, roles, lifecycle activities, metrics, and accountability for software security

Correct Answer: 4. Establish policies, roles, lifecycle activities, metrics, and accountability for software security

Explanation:

Secure software governance provides the organizational structure needed to make security repeatable and accountable. Policies define expectations, roles establish responsibility, lifecycle activities integrate security into development, metrics provide visibility, and governance processes manage exceptions and risk decisions. Technical tools are important, but they are most effective when supported by consistent processes and management oversight.