- (Topic 1)
Examples of types of physical access controls include all EXCEPT which of the following?
Correct Answer:D
Passwords are considered a Preventive/Technical (logical) control. The following answers are incorrect:
badges Badges are a physical control used to identify an individual. A badge can include a smart device which can be used for authentication and thus a Technical control, but the actual badge itself is primarily a physical control.
locks Locks are a Preventative Physical control and has no Technical association. guards Guards are a Preventative Physical control and has no Technical association.
The following reference(s) were/was used to create this question:
Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 2: Access control systems (page 35).
- (Topic 4)
If an employee's computer has been used by a fraudulent employee to commit a crime, the hard disk may be seized as evidence and once the investigation is complete it would follow the normal steps of the Evidence Life Cycle. In such case, the Evidence life cycle would not include which of the following steps listed below?
Correct Answer:D
Unless the evidence is illegal then it should be returned to owner, not destroyed.
The Evidence Life Cycle starts with the discovery and collection of the evidence. It progresses through the following series of states until it is finally returned to the victim or owner:
• Acquisition collection and identification
• Analysis
• Storage, preservation, and transportation
• Presented in court
• Returned to victim (owner)
The Second edition of the ISC2 book says on page 529-530:
Identifying evidence: Correctly identifying the crime scene, evidence, and potential containers of evidence.
Collecting or acquiring evidence: Adhering to the criminalistic principles and ensuring that the contamination and the destruction of the scene are kept to a minimum. Using sound, repeatable, collection techniques that allow for the demonstration of the accuracy and integrity of evidence, or copies of evidence.
Examining or analyzing the evidence: Using sound scientific methods to determine the characteristics of the evidence, conducting comparison for individuation of evidence, and conducting event reconstruction.
Presentation of findings: Interpreting the output from the examination and analysis based on findings of fact and articulating these in a format appropriate for the intended audience (e.g., court brief, executive memo, report).
Note on returning the evidence to the Owner/Victim
The final destination of most types of evidence is back with its original owner. Some types of evidence, such as
drugs or drug paraphernalia (i.e., contraband), are destroyed after the trial.
Any evidence gathered during a search, although maintained by law enforcement, is legally under the control of the courts. And although a seized item may be yours and may even have your name on it, it might not be returned to you unless the suspect signs a release or after a hearing by the court. Unfortunately, many victims do not want to go to trial; they just want to get their property back.
Many investigations merely need the information on a disk to prove or disprove a fact in question; thus, there is no need to seize the entire system. Once a schematic of the system is drawn or photographed, the hard disk can be removed and then transported to a forensic lab for copying.
Mirror copies of the suspect disk are obtained using forensic software and then one of those copies can be returned to the victim so that business operations can resume.
Reference(s) used for this question:
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 9: Law, Investigation, and Ethics (page 309).
and
The Official Study Book, Second Edition, Page 529-230
- (Topic 1)
A central authority determines what subjects can have access to certain objects based on the organizational security policy is called:
Correct Answer:C
A central authority determines what subjects can have access to certain objects based on the organizational security policy.
The key focal point of this question is the 'central authority' that determines access rights. Cecilia one of the quiz user has sent me feedback informing me that NIST defines MAC as:
"MAC Policy means that Access Control Policy Decisions are made by a CENTRAL
AUTHORITY. Which seems to indicate there could be two good answers to this question.
However if you read the NISTR document mentioned in the references below, it is also mentioned that: MAC is the most mentioned NDAC policy. So MAC is a form of NDAC policy.
Within the same document it is also mentioned: "In general, all access control policies other than DAC are grouped in the category of non- discretionary access control (NDAC). As the name implies, policies in this category have rules that are not established at the discretion of the user. Non-discretionary policies establish controls that cannot be changed by users, but only through administrative action."
Under NDAC you have two choices:
Rule Based Access control and Role Base Access Control
MAC is implemented using RULES which makes it fall under RBAC which is a form of NDAC. It is a subset of NDAC.
This question is representative of what you can expect on the real exam where you have more than once choice that seems to be right. However, you have to look closely if one of the choices would be higher level or if one of the choice falls under one of the other choice. In this case NDAC is a better choice because MAC is falling under NDAC through the use of Rule Based Access Control.
The following are incorrect answers: MANDATORY ACCESS CONTROL
In Mandatory Access Control the labels of the object and the clearance of the subject
determines access rights, not a central authority. Although a central authority (Better known as the Data Owner) assigns the label to the object, the system does the determination of access rights automatically by comparing the Object label with the Subject clearance. The subject clearance MUST dominate (be equal or higher) than the object being accessed.
The need for a MAC mechanism arises when the security policy of a system dictates that:
1. Protection decisions must not be decided by the object owner.
2. The system must enforce the protection decisions (i.e., the system enforces the security policy over the wishes or intentions of the object owner).
Usually a labeling mechanism and a set of interfaces are used to determine access based on the MAC policy; for example, a user who is running a process at the Secret classification should not be allowed to read a file with a label of Top Secret. This is known as the ??simple security rule,?? or ??no read up.??
Conversely, a user who is running a process with a label of Secret should not be allowed to write to a file with a label of Confidential. This rule is called the ??*-property?? (pronounced
??star property??) or ??no write down.?? The *-property is required to maintain system security in an automated environment.
DISCRETIONARY ACCESS CONTROL
In Discretionary Access Control the rights are determined by many different entities, each of the persons who have created files and they are the owner of that file, not one central authority.
DAC leaves a certain amount of access control to the discretion of the object's owner or anyone else who is authorized to control the object's access. For example, it is generally used to limit a user's access to a file; it is the owner of the file who controls other users' accesses to the file. Only those users specified by the owner may have some combination of read, write, execute, and other permissions to the file.
DAC policy tends to be very flexible and is widely used in the commercial and government sectors. However, DAC is known to be inherently weak for two reasons:
First, granting read access is transitive; for example, when Ann grants Bob read access to a file, nothing stops Bob from copying the contents of Ann??s file to an object that Bob controls. Bob may now grant any other user access to the copy of Ann??s file without Ann??s knowledge.
Second, DAC policy is vulnerable to Trojan horse attacks. Because programs inherit the identity of the invoking user, Bob may, for example, write a program for Ann that, on the surface, performs some useful function, while at the same time destroys the contents of Ann??s files. When investigating the problem, the audit files would indicate that Ann destroyed her own files. Thus, formally, the drawbacks of DAC are as follows:
Discretionary Access Control (DAC) Information can be copied from one object to another; therefore, there is no real assurance on the flow of information in a system.
No restrictions apply to the usage of information when the user has received it.
The privileges for accessing objects are decided by the owner of the object, rather than through a system-wide policy that reflects the organization??s security requirements.
ACLs and owner/group/other access control mechanisms are by far the most common mechanism for implementing DAC policies. Other mechanisms, even though not designed with DAC in mind, may have the capabilities to implement a DAC policy.
RULE BASED ACCESS CONTROL
In Rule-based Access Control a central authority could in fact determine what subjects can
have access when assigning the rules for access. However, the rules actually determine the access and so this is not the most correct answer.
RuBAC (as opposed to RBAC, role-based access control) allow users to access systems and information based on pre determined and configured rules. It is important to note that there is no commonly understood definition or formally defined standard for rule-based access control as there is for DAC, MAC, and RBAC. ??Rule-based access?? is a generic term applied to systems that allow some form of organization-defined rules, and therefore rule-based access control encompasses a broad range of systems. RuBAC may in fact be combined with other models, particularly RBAC or DAC. A RuBAC system intercepts every access request and compares the rules with the rights of the user to make an access decision. Most of the rule-based access control relies on a security label system, which dynamically composes a set of rules defined by a security policy. Security labels are attached to all objects, including files, directories, and devices. Sometime roles to subjects (based on their attributes) are assigned as well. RuBAC meets the business needs as well as the technical needs of controlling service access. It allows business rules to be applied to access control??for example, customers who have overdue balances may be denied service access. As a mechanism for MAC, rules of RuBAC cannot be changed by users. The rules can be established by any attributes of a system related to the users such as domain, host, protocol, network, or IP addresses. For example, suppose that a user wants to access an object in another network on the other side of a router. The router employs RuBAC with the rule composed by the network addresses, domain, and protocol to decide whether or not the user can be granted access. If employees change their roles within the organization, their existing authentication credentials remain in effect and do not need to be re configured. Using rules in conjunction with roles adds greater flexibility because rules can be applied to people as well as to devices. Rule-based access control can be combined with role-based access control, such that the role of a user is one of the attributes in rule setting. Some provisions of access control systems have rule- based policy engines in addition to a role-based policy engine and certain implemented dynamic policies [Des03]. For example, suppose that two of the primary types of software users are product engineers and quality engineers. Both groups usually have access to the same data, but they have different roles to perform in relation to the data and the application's function. In addition, individuals within each group have different job responsibilities that may be identified using several types of attributes such as developing programs and testing areas. Thus, the access decisions can be made in real time by a scripted policy that regulates the access between the groups of product engineers and quality engineers, and each individual within these groups. Rules can either replace or complement role-based access control. However, the creation of rules and security policies is also a complex process, so each organization will need to strike the appropriate balance.
References used for this question: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistir/7316/NISTIR-7316.pdf and
AIO v3 p162-167 and OIG (2007) p.186-191
also
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 33.
- (Topic 1)
Which access control model enables the OWNER of the resource to specify what subjects can access specific resources based on their identity?
Correct Answer:A
Data owners decide who has access to resources based only on the identity of the person accessing the resource.
The following answers are incorrect :
Mandatory Access Control : users and data owners do not have as much freedom to determine who can access files. The operating system makes the final decision and can override the users' wishes and access decisions are based on security labels.
Sensitive Access Control : There is no such access control in the context of the above question.
Role-based Access Control : uses a centrally administered set of controls to determine how subjects and objects interact , also called as non discretionary access control.
In a mandatory access control (MAC) model, users and data owners do not have as much freedom to determine who can access files. The operating system makes the final decision and can override the users?? wishes. This model is much more structured and strict and is based on a security label system. Users are given a security clearance (secret, top secret, confidential, and so on), and data is classified in the same way. The clearance and classification data is stored in the security labels, which are bound to the specific subjects and objects. When the system makes a decision about fulfilling a request to access an object, it is based on the clearance of the subject, the classification of the object, and the security policy of the system. The rules for how subjects access objects are made by the security officer, configured by the administrator, enforced by the operating system, and supported by security technologies
Reference : Shon Harris , AIO v3 , Chapter-4 : Access Control , Page : 163-165
- (Topic 4)
When referring to a computer crime investigation, which of the following would be the MOST important step required in order to preserve and maintain a proper chain of custody of evidence:
Correct Answer:C
Two concepts that are at the heart of dealing effectively with digital/electronic evidence, or any evidence for that matter, are the chain of custody and authenticity/integrity.
The chain of custody refers to the who, what, when, where, and how the evidence was handled??from its identification through its entire life cycle, which ends with destruction or permanent archiving.
Any break in this chain can cast doubt on the integrity of the evidence and on the professionalism of those directly involved in either the investigation or the collection and handling of the evidence. The chain of custody requires following a formal process that is well documented and forms part of a standard operating procedure that is used in all cases, no exceptions.
The following are incorrect answers:
Evidence has to be collected in accordance with all laws and legal regulations. Evidence would have to be collected in accordance with applicable laws and regulations but not necessarily with ALL laws and regulations. Only laws and regulations that applies would be followed.
Law enforcement officials should be contacted for advice on how and when to collect critical information. It seems you failed to do your homework, once you have an incident it is a bit late to do this. Proper crime investigation as well as incident response is all about being prepared ahead of time. Obviously, you are improvising if you need to call law enforcement to find out what to do. It is a great way of contaminating your evidence by mistake if you don't have a well documented processs with clear procedures that needs to be followed.
Log files containing information regarding an intrusion are retained for at least as long as normal business records, and longer in the case of an ongoing investigation. Specific legal requirements exists for log retention and they are not the same as normal business records. Laws such as Basel, HIPPAA, SOX, and others has specific requirements.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Hernandez CISSP, Steven (2012-12-21). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition ((ISC)2 Press) (Kindle Locations 23465-23470). Auerbach Publications. Kindle Edition.
and
ALLEN, Julia H., The CERT Guide to System and Network Security Practices, Addison- Wesley, 2001, Chapter 7: Responding to Intrusions (pages 282-285).