312-39 Exam Dumps - Certified SOC Analyst (CSA)

The IIS log events indicate a SQL Injection Attack. This is evident from the complex SQL queries present in the log, which include functions like “UNICODE”, “SUBSTRING”, and “MAX”. These functions are being used in a manner that suggests manipulation of strings and extraction of data, which are common tactics in SQL injection attacks. The use of specific characters like CHAR(97) and CHAR(108) within the queries is a technique often employed to bypass security mechanisms during such attacks.

References: For further study and verification, the EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) course materials and study guides provide extensive information on identifying and responding to various types of cyber attacks, including SQL Injection. These resources are essential for any security analyst to understand the intricacies of log analysis and attack identification.

URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) under certain circumstances. When characters are not allowed in a URI, they are replaced with a percent sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits that represent the ASCII code of the character. For example, a space character is not allowed in a URI and is replaced with %20.

References:The answer is verified as per the EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) course materials and study guides, which discuss various encoding schemes used in cybersecurity practices. URL encoding is specifically mentioned as the method for replacing unusual ASCII characters with a percent sign followed by two hexadecimal digits123.

The default directory in Mac OS X that stores security-related logs is /private/var/log. This directory is used by the system to keep various log files, which include security-related information. These logs can provide valuable insights for a Security Operations Center (SOC) analyst when monitoring and analyzing security events on Mac OS systems.

References: The EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) program covers the importance of understanding the logging mechanisms of different operating systems, including Mac OS X. The /private/var/log directory is a critical location for SOC analysts to monitor, as it contains logs that can be used to track security incidents and anomalies12.

 The regex pattern /(\.|(%|%25)2E)(\.|(%|%25)2E)(\/|(%|%25)2F|\\|(%|%25)5C)/i is indicative of a Directory Traversal Attack. This type of attack exploits insufficient security controls to gain unauthorized access to files and directories that are stored outside the web root folder. Here’s a breakdown of the regex pattern:

• (\.|(%|%25)2E) matches a period . or its URL-encoded forms %2E or %252E. In file systems, a period can represent the current directory or, when used as .., the parent directory.
• (\/|(%|%25)2F|\\|(%|%25)5C) matches a forward slash /, its URL-encoded form %2F or %252F, or a backslash \, which is %5C in URL encoding. These characters are used in file paths to navigate directories.

When combined, this pattern can match sequences like ../ or ..%2F, which are commonly used in directory traversal attempts to navigate up the directory tree and access files outside of the intended directory.

References: The EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) program includes training on recognizing and responding to various types of cyber threats, including Directory Traversal Attacks12. The program emphasizes the importance of understanding and identifying different attack vectors, including those that involve manipulating file paths, which is a critical skill for SOC analysts. The regex pattern provided is a typical example of what SOC analysts might encounter and need to recognize as part of their role in monitoring and analyzing web server logs12.

• Collect: The first step involves collecting data from various sources. This data could be logs, alerts, or other relevant information.
• Ingest: The collected data is then ingested into the SOC’s systems for processing. This typically involves parsing and normalizing the data to make it usable for analysis.
• Validate: Once ingested, the data must be validated to ensure its integrity and relevance. This step helps in filtering out false positives and focusing on genuine security events.
• Report: After validation, the relevant findings are compiled into reports. These reports may be used internally within the SOC or shared with other stakeholders.
• Respond: Based on the reports, the SOC team responds to the identified incidents. This response could involve mitigating threats, patching vulnerabilities, or other remediation actions.
• Document: Finally, all actions and findings are thoroughly documented. This documentation is crucial for audit trails, compliance, and improving future SOC operations.

References: The sequence provided is aligned with the SOC operations as described in EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) training and certification program, which covers the fundamentals of SOC operations, including the workflow of SOC analysts123.

A false negative incident in the context of a Security Operations Center (SOC) is when an actual attack or intrusion occurs, but the SOC analyst fails to detect any suspicious events or indicators of compromise. This means that the security measures in place did not work as intended, and the attack went unnoticed.

In David’s case, since an attack was initiated and he was not able to find any suspicious events, it is categorized as a false negative incident. This is a critical type of incident because it indicates a failure in the detection capabilities of the SOC, potentially allowing the intruder to cause harm without being detected.

References: The categorization of incidents is a fundamental part of the SOC Analyst’s role, as outlined in the EC-Council’s Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) training and certification program. The program covers the different types of incidents that can be encountered in a SOC, including true positives, false positives, true negatives, and false negatives, and how to identify and respond to each12345.