Pass the Cisco CyberOps Professional 300-215 Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

The STIX data structure shows a pattern field with this entry:

file:hashes.'SHA-256' = '3299f07bc0711b3587fe8a1c6bf3ee6cbcc14cb775f64b28a61d72ebcb8968d3'

This value is a SHA-256 file hash, a well-known indicator of compromise (IoC) for identifying malicious files.

Therefore, the correct answer is:

A. SHA256 file hash.

The alert shown is based on a Snort rule for a Unicode directory traversal attack against IIS web servers (Microsoft platform). The key detail here is the payload content "../..%c0%af../" which is a classic IIS-specific exploit related to CVE-2000-0884.

Since the company only uses Unix systems, they are not vulnerable to this IIS-specific attack. Therefore, these alerts are triggered by irrelevant traffic or misapplied signatures, resulting in False Positives.

As defined in the Cisco CyberOps guide:

“False Positive: an alert is generated for traffic that is not actually malicious or relevant to the protected environment”.

The log entry shows a failed SSH login attempt for an invalid user “admin” from IP 192.168.1.100. As the system has just gone live and no legitimate use is expected, this could be an early reconnaissance or brute-force attempt. However, blocking IPs or resetting passwords without fully understanding the context could lead to incomplete remediation or false positives.

According to Cisco CyberOps best practices, the first step is to thoroughly investigate the alert by correlating it with other logs (e.g., authentication logs, IDS/IPS logs) to determine the intent and scope of activity.

—

The goal of an incident response plan (IRP) is to provide structured procedures for responding to cybersecurity incidents in a way that limits damage, contains the threat, and ensures business continuity. As outlined in the NIST SP 800-61 and Cisco CyberOps Associate study guide, containment and minimizing the impact of incidents is the primary goal of an IRP.

—

Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) is a tunneling protocol used to encapsulate a wide variety of network layer protocols inside point-to-point connections. If packets encapsulated with GRE are bypassing monitoring tools, it's likely due to tunneling—where payloads are hidden within another protocol. Tunneling can obscure malicious content or lateral movement in a network and is a common method used in data exfiltration.

A disassembler is a forensic and reverse engineering tool that translates machine-level code (binary) back into human-readable assembly language. This is used during static malware analysis to understand how the malware is constructed and what it is designed to do without actually executing the code.

According to the CyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guide, “Disassembler tools are used to assist with reverse malware engineering by allowing a security professional to examine the binary and understand the functionality of the malware code”.

—

Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (formerly Threat Grid) enables deep file behavior analysis, including TCP/IP stream analysis and behavioral indicators such as file system activity, process injection, registry changes, and command and control communication. These are essential in understanding what the suspicious file does post-execution, especially given the described behavior of creating a fake folder and outbound connection attempts.

—

The metadata in the exhibit reveals a strong indicator that this .LNK file (shortcut) is malicious:

The shortcut file is named "ds7002.pdf" but actually points to the execution of PowerShell:→ Full path: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Arguments include:→ -noni -ep bypass $z = '...'; indicating an attempt to run a PowerShell script with execution policy bypassed (a known tactic for fileless malware delivery).

The file is masked as a PDF (common social engineering technique), and PowerShell execution via .LNK is a signature technique used by many malware families to initiate second-stage payloads or scripts.

Given this, the correct and safest course of action is to:

→ Open the .LNK file in a sandbox environment (D).

This enables safe behavioral analysis to observe what actions it attempts upon execution without endangering live systems.

Other options are inappropriate:

A (ignoring the threat due to extension) is dangerous — .LNKs can trigger code.

B (upload to virus engine) is only helpful for known malware and lacks behavioral context.

C (quarantine) is preventive but not investigative — sandboxing provides visibility.

According to the CyberOps Technologies (CBRFIR) 300-215 study guide curriculum, command-and-control (C2) communication is a strong indicator that a system has already been compromised and is actively under the control of an attacker. Sudden outbound traffic to high-risk regions and resolution of known malicious domains are high-confidence signs of an active threat. Therefore, prioritizing detection and disruption of this outbound traffic is critical to prevent further damage or data exfiltration.

While monitoring vulnerability exploitation (B) and gathering port scan data (D) are also valuable, they are more preventive or forensic in nature. The most immediate threat—and therefore the top priority—is stopping active C2 communications.