Professor Messer's CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Course Notes Flashcards

Flashcards covering general security concepts, threat actors, cryptographic technologies, network architecture, and risk management based on the CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 curriculum.

Technical controls

Controls implemented using systems, such as operating system configurations, firewalls, and anti-virus software.

Managerial controls

Administrative controls associated with security design and implementation, including security policies and standard operating procedures.

Operational controls

Controls implemented by people instead of systems, such as security guards and awareness programs.

Preventive controls

Control types that block access to a resource, such as firewall rules or door locks.

Deterrent controls

Controls designed to discourage an intrusion attempt without directly preventing access, such as posted warning signs or application splash screens.

Detective controls

Controls that identify and log an intrusion attempt, such as motion detectors or system log reviews.

Corrective controls

Controls applied after an event has been detected to reverse the impact, such as restoring from backups or using a fire extinguisher.

Compensating controls

Temporary controls used when existing controls are not sufficient, such as a generator used after a power outage.

Directive controls

Weak security controls that direct a subject toward compliance, such as "Authorized Personnel Only" signs.

Confidentiality

A principle of the CIA Triad that prevents the disclosure of information to unauthorized individuals or systems.

Integrity

A principle of the CIA Triad ensuring that messages cannot be modified without detection.

Availability

A principle of the CIA Triad ensuring that systems and networks are up and running for authorized users.

Non-repudiation

A principle providing proof of integrity and origin so that a sender cannot deny having sent a message.

Hashing

The process of mapping data of an arbitrary length to data of a fixed length, used to verify data integrity.

Digital signatures

A mathematical scheme used to verify the integrity and origin of data, created by encrypting a hash with a private key.

Zero trust

A holistic approach to network security where everything must be verified and nothing is inherently trusted.

Honeypot

A deception tool designed to attract and trap attackers by creating a virtual world for them to explore.

Honeytokens

Traceable data, such as fake API credentials or email addresses, added to a honeynet to track malicious actors.

Symmetric encryption

An encryption method that uses a single, shared secret key for both encryption and decryption.

Asymmetric encryption

Also known as public key cryptography, it uses two mathematically related keys: a public key for anyone to see and a private key kept secret.

Steganography

The practice of hiding information in plain sight, such as embedding a message inside an image or audio file.

Tokenization

Replacing sensitive data with a non-sensitive placeholder that is not mathematically related to the original data.

Data masking

A type of obfuscation that hides some of the original data to protect PII while keeping the rest intact.

OCSP stapling

A process where a certificate holder verifies their own status by including a digitally signed status in the SSL/TLS handshake.

APT (Advanced Persistent Threat)

A sophisticated threat actor, often a nation state, capable of constant attacks and possessing massive resources.

Typosquatting

A type of URL hijacking, such as "professormesssor.com," aimed at taking advantage of user spelling errors.

Vishing

Social engineering conducted over the phone or voicemail, often using caller ID spoofing.

Watering hole attack

An attack where the malicious actor infects a third-party website that a specific victim group is known to visit.

TOCTOU (Time-of-check to time-of-use)

A race condition attack that exploits the time gap between a system checking a condition and using the result.

Zero-day vulnerabilities

Unknown vulnerabilities that are exploited by attackers before the vendor has a patch or method of mitigation.

Rootkit

Malware that modifies core system files or the kernel and can be invisible to the operating system and traditional anti-virus.

ARP poisoning

An on-path attack on a local IP subnet where the attacker redirects traffic by spoofing ARP messages.

CSRF (Cross-site request forgery)

An attack that takes advantage of the trust a web application has for a user's browser, often involving unauthorized status updates.

Birthday attack

A cryptographic attack that uses brute force to find a hash collision, where two different plaintexts result in the same hash.

EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)

Threat protection that uses behavioral analysis and lightweight agents to detect, investigate, and respond to threats automatically.

SASE (Secure Access Service Edge)

A cloud-based security solution that combines network and security services, moving the security perimeter to the cloud.

Data sovereignty

The concept that data residing in a country is subject to the legal jurisdictions and laws of that country, such as GDPR.

MTTR (Mean Time to Repair)

The average time required to fix an issue, including the time spent diagnosing the problem.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

A metric defining how much data loss is acceptable, measured in time from the moment of an outage back to the last backup.

WPA3 SAE (Simultaneous Authentication of Equals)

A key exchange process for wireless networks that creates a shared session key without sending it across the network, preventing brute-force attacks.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System)

A quantitative scoring system for vulnerabilities, ranging from a scale of $0$ to $10$.

Pivoting

A penetration testing technique where the attacker uses a compromised system to gain access to other systems that would normally be inaccessible.

ALE (Annualized Loss Expectancy)

A quantitative risk assessment formula: $\text{ALE} = ext{ARO} \times ext{SLE}$.

SLA (Service Level Agreement)

A contract defining minimum terms for services provided, such as uptime and response time agreements.

MAC (Mandatory Access Control)

An access control model where the operating system limits operations based on security labels like "Top Secret."

RBAC (Role-based access control)

An access control model where administrators provide access permissions based on the user's role in the organization.

ABAC (Attribute-based access control)

A context-aware authorization model that evaluates multiple parameters such as IP address, time of day, and relationship to the data.

Chain of custody

The documentation and control of evidence to maintain its integrity by tracking everyone who contacts it.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

A protocol where a domain owner lists authorized mail servers in a DNS TXT record to prevent email spoofing.

DMARC

A protocol extending SPF and DKIM that tells receiving email servers whether to accept, spam, or reject emails that fail validation.