Practice Free 300-710 Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower (300-710 SNCF) Exam Questions Answers With Explanation

If users report that Cisco Duo 2FA fails when attempting to connect to the VPN on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) device, and the VPN troubleshooting log in FMC shows an error indicating that the Cisco Duo AAA server has been marked as failed, the root cause is likely missing Duo trust certificates on the FTD device. Trust certificates are essential for establishing a secure and trusted connection between the FTD and the Duo authentication service.

Steps:

Obtain the necessary Duo trust certificates.

Install the certificates on the FTD device.

Verify the configuration to ensure that the FTD device can properly communicate with the Duo AAA server.

This resolves the authentication failure by ensuring that the FTD device can trust the Duo server.

Integrated routing and bridging (IRB) is a feature that allows you to route between different bridge groups on a Cisco FTD device. A bridge group is a logical interface that acts as a container for one or more physical or logical interfaces that belong to the same layer 2 broadcast domain. You can assign an IP address to a bridge group interface (BVI) and enable routing protocols on it, just like a regular routed interface. However, when you run a dynamic routing protocol on a Cisco FTD device in IRB mode, you can only use nonbridge interfaces as routing peers. You cannot use bridge group interfaces or bridge group member interfaces as routing peers2. This is because the routing protocol packets are sent and received on the nonbridge interfaces, and the bridge group interfaces are used only for forwarding data traffic3.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/640/configuration/guide/fpmc-config-guide-v64/transparent_or_routed_firewall_mode_for_firepower_threat_defense.html

To allow access to a specific banking site over HTTPS, the network administrator must use SSL decryption (also known as SSL/TLS inspection) and specify the URL. This is because HTTPS traffic is encrypted, and the firewall needs to decrypt the traffic to inspect the URL and enforce the access rule.

Steps:

Enable SSL Decryption: Configure SSL policies to decrypt the HTTPS traffic.

Specify the URL: Define the URL of the banking site in the access control policy, ensuring that the decrypted traffic is inspected and allowed based on the specified URL.

This method ensures that only the desired banking site is accessed over HTTPS, while other HTTPS traffic can be filtered or blocked according to the organization's security policies.

In the integration between Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco Firewall Management Center (FMC), realms are used to define the Active Directory (AD) configuration. Realms in FMC specify the AD servers, domain, and other authentication settings necessary to authenticate and authorize users.

Steps to configure realms:

In FMC, navigate toSystem > Integration > Realms and Directory.

Add a new realm and configure the AD settings.

Ensure the realm settings match the AD environment for seamless integration.

Realms are essential for integrating AD with FMC, allowing the firewall to use AD for user authentication and policy enforcement.

To integrate a third-party security intelligence feed with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) using Threat Intelligence Director (TID), the following actions are necessary:

Upgrade to version 6.6:The FMC must be running at least version 6.6 to support Threat Intelligence Director. Version 6.2.3 does not support the necessary features for this integration.

Add the URL of the TAXII server:Threat Intelligence Director uses TAXII (Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information) to pull threat intelligence data from third-party sources. The URL of the TAXII server must be added to the TID configuration in FMC.

Steps:

Upgrade FMC to version 6.6 or later.

In FMC, navigate toIntegration > Threat Intelligence Director.

Add a new TAXII server by entering the URL of the TAXII server.

These actions enable the integration of third-party threat intelligence feeds, enhancing the security capabilities of the FMC.

Cisco Threat Response (CTR) is a security solution that helps simplify incident investigation and threat hunting. One of its components that significantly simplifies the investigation process is the browser plug-in. The browser plug-in integrates with CTR to provide contextual information directly within the browser, allowing security analysts to quickly view threat details, pivot to related information, and take appropriate actions without switching between multiple tools.

Features of the browser plug-in:

Provides real-time threat intelligence and context from various Cisco security products.

Allows security analysts to investigate incidents directly from web-based consoles.

Enhances efficiency by streamlining the workflow and reducing the time needed to gather and correlate information.

When you configure the Cisco Firepower devices to bypass the access control policies for VPN traffic, the devices will not inspect the VPN traffic and thus will not waste resources on it. This is the best option to ensure that the VPN traffic is not wasting resources on the Cisco Firepower devices.

To collect 24 hours' worth of data using a packet capture on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) appliance without prematurely stopping due to buffer size limitations, the engineer should increase the packet capture buffer size. The default buffer size is 32 MB, which is insufficient for extended captures.

Steps:

Access the packet capture configuration on the FTD device.

Increase the buffer size to 1 GB, which provides a significantly larger capacity for capturing packets over a 24-hour period.

Setting the buffer size to 1 GB should accommodate a substantial amount of traffic and prevent the capture from stopping prematurely.

In a passive IPS deployment for a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) device, the administrator must configure the interface to operate in passive mode. This involves setting the interface mode, associating it with a security zone, enabling the interface, and setting the MTU parameter.

Steps:

Set the interface mode to passive:

In FMC, navigate toDevices > Device Management.

Select the FTD device and configure the relevant interface.

Set the interface mode to "Passive."

Associate the interface with a security zone:

Create or select an appropriate security zone.

Assign the passive interface to this security zone.

Enable the interface:

Ensure the interface is enabled to receive traffic.

Set the MTU parameter:

Configure the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) parameter as required.

This ensures that the FTD device can inspect traffic passively without impacting the network flow.

A low-impact attack indicates that the host is not vulnerable to those attacks. A low-impact attack is an attack that does not exploit any known vulnerability on the target host or does not match any signature or anomaly rule on the FTD device5. A low-impact attack does not mean that the attack is not dangerous to the network or that the host is not within the administrator’s environment. It simply means that the attack did not succeed in compromising or affecting the host.

The other options are incorrect because:

All attacks are not listed as low until manually categorized. The FTD device automatically assigns an impact level to each attack based on various factors, such as vulnerability information, threat score, and confidence rating5. The impact level can be high, medium, or low, depending on how likely and how severe the attack is.

The attacks are not necessarily harmless to the network. A low-impact attack may still cause some damage or disruption to the network, such as consuming bandwidth, generating noise, or distracting attention from other attacks6. A low-impact attack may also indicate that the attacker is probing or scanning the network for potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses7.

The host is not necessarily outside the administrator’s environment. A low-impact attack can target any host on the network, regardless of its location or ownership. A low-impact attack does not imply that the host is external or irrelevant to the administrator’s environment.

To configure URL filtering such that users receive a warning when they access a specific website (e.g.,http://www.badadultsite.com) and have the option to continue to the site, the engineer needs to perform the following actions:

Configure an access control rule:

Create a URL object forhttp://www.badadultsite.com.

Set the action for this URL object to "Interactive Block," which prompts the user with a warning and allows them to proceed if they choose to.

Set the Interactive Block Response Page:

Navigate to the HTTP Responses tab in the access control policy editor.

Set the Interactive Block Response Page to "System-provided" to ensure that users see the default warning page provided by Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center.

These actions ensure that only the specified website triggers an interactive block, while other websites are not blocked.

To block traffic to known cryptomining networks using Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) managed by Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), the network administrator needs to configure Security Intelligence in an Access Control Policy. Security Intelligence allows administrators to block traffic based on threat intelligence feeds, which include known malicious IP addresses, domains, and URLs.

Steps:

Navigate toPolicies > Access Control > Access Control Policyin FMC.

Edit or create an Access Control Policy.

Go to theSecurity Intelligencetab.

Enable the relevant threat intelligence feeds that include cryptomining networks.

Apply the policy to the FTD device.

This configuration ensures that traffic to known cryptomining networks is blocked, enhancing the network's security posture against cryptomining threats.

When configuring a new report template based on a saved search in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), it is important to note that saved searches are specific to the report template they were created with. Saved searches cannot be freely used across different report templates.

To use a different type of saved search, you must ensure that it aligns with the specific report template being used. This restriction ensures that the saved search parameters match the report's data requirements.

The content keyword is used to specify a string or pattern to search for in the payload or stream of a packet. The string must be enclosed in quotation marks and can use modifiers such as nocase, depth, offset, and so on. The string can also use hexadecimal notation by using a pipe symbol (|) before and after the hexadecimal characters. For example, content:"|45 5* 26 27 4 0A|" will match any payload or stream that contains the hexadecimal bytes 45 5 26 27 4 0A followed by any number of bytes2

To deploy a Cisco FTD device that meets the requirements of the question, the engineer must use transparent mode with a management interface. Transparent mode is a firewall configuration in which the FTD device acts as a “bump in the wire” or a “stealth firewall” and is not seen as a router hop to connected devices. In transparent mode, the FTD device can examine traffic without requiring network changes that will disrupt end users, such as changing IP addresses or routingconfigurations1. A management interface is a dedicated interface that is used for managing the FTD device and separating management traffic from data traffic. A management interface can be configured to allow SSH access for remote administration, which is more secure than Telnet2.

The other options are incorrect because:

Routed mode is a firewall configuration in which the FTD device acts as a router and performs address translation and routing for connected networks. Routed mode requires network changes that may disrupt end users, such as changing IP addresses or routing configurations1. A diagnostic interface is a special interface that is used for troubleshooting and capturing traffic on the FTD device. A diagnostic interface does not separate management traffic from data traffic or allow SSH access for remote administration.

Transparent mode with a data interface does not meet the requirement of separating management traffic from data traffic. A data interface is a regular interface that is used for passing and inspecting traffic on the FTD device. A data interface does not allow SSH access for remote administration2.

Routed mode with a bridge virtual interface (BVI) does not meet the requirement of examining traffic without requiring network changes that will disrupt end users. A BVI is a logical interface that acts as a container for one or more physical or logical interfaces that belong to the same layer 2 broadcast domain. A BVI allows the FTD device to route between different bridge groups on the same security module/engine. However, routed mode still requires network changes that may disrupt end users, such as changing IP addresses or routing configurations.

Transparent mode allows the FTD device to act as a “bump in the wire” that does not affect the IP addressing of the network. The end user workstations will not need any changes to their configuration, as they will still receive an IP address from the same DHCP server. However, the FTD device must allow DHCP traffic in the access control policies, otherwise it will block the DHCP requests and replies1

To ensure that VoIP traffic in a contact center is not impacted by performance issues after deploying an access control policy on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) device, the engineer should configure the access control rule with the "trust" action. The "trust" action allows traffic to bypass inspection and policy enforcement, ensuring that critical VoIP traffic is not delayed or degraded.

Steps:

In FMC, navigate toPolicies > Access Control > Access Control Policy.

Create a new rule or edit an existing rule.

Set the source and destination for the VoIP traffic.

Set the action to "trust" to ensure the VoIP traffic is not inspected.

By configuring the rule with the "trust" action, the VoIP traffic will be prioritized, maintaining the quality and performance required for the contact center operations.

When configuring a custom widget on a dashboard within Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), it is mandatory to provide a title for the system to display the information correctly. The title helps in identifying and organizing the widget on the dashboard.

Steps:

Navigate to the dashboard section in FMC.

Add a new custom widget.

Configure the widget settings and provide a title.

Save and apply the widget to the dashboard.

Providing a title ensures that the widget is correctly displayed and easily identifiable on the dashboard.

In inline IPS mode, to ensure that traffic passes through uninterrupted when VDB (Vulnerability Database) updates are being applied, the "Short Fall Open" setting must be configured. This setting allows traffic to continue to flow through the firewall even if there are issues with the inspection process, such as during updates or if the inspection engine fails.

Steps:

In FMC, navigate to the inline set configuration.

Enable the "Short Fall Open" option.

Deploy the configuration to the FTD device.

This ensures that network traffic is not disrupted during updates or other issues with the inspection process.

Transparent mode is a firewall configuration in which the firewall acts as a “bump in the wire” or a “stealth firewall” and is not seen as a router hop to connected devices. In transparent mode, the firewall can forward traffic at both layer 2 and layer 3 for the same subnet, as it does not perform any address translation or routing. The firewall inspects the traffic and applies security policies based on the source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols. Transparent mode is useful when you want to deploy a firewall without changing the existing network topology or addressing scheme1.

The correct sequence of actions for configuring a multi-instance environment for high availability on a Cisco Firepower 4100 appliance is as follows:

Add a resource profile for container instances. A resource profile defines the CPU, RAM, and disk space allocation for each container instance.You can create multiple resource profiles with different resource settings and assign them to different container instances1.

Add a MAC pool prefix and view the MAC address for the container instance interfaces. A MAC pool prefix is a 24-bit prefix that is used to generate MAC addresses for the container instance interfaces. You can specify a custom MAC pool prefix or use the default one.You can also view the MAC addresses that are assigned to each container instance interface1.

Configure interfaces. You need to configure the physical interfaces, EtherChannels, and VLAN subinterfaces that will be used by the container instances.You can also configure shared interfaces that can be used by multiple container instances on the same security module/engine1.

Add a Standalone Firepower Threat Defense for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. You need to add a logical device that runs a standalone Firepower ThreatDefense (FTD) application instance and register it with the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC).This logical device will act as the management interface for the container instances1.

Add a high-availability pair. You need to add another logical device that runs a standalone FTD application instance and register it with the FMC as well. Then, you need to configure high availability (HA) between the two standalone FTD logical devices.This will enable HA for the container instances that are associated with them1.

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (FTDv) appliances support High Availability (HA) configurations in specific virtual environments. The supported environments for HA setups include:

ESXi: VMware's ESXi is a widely supported platform for deploying FTDv appliances in HA configurations.

AWS: Amazon Web Services (AWS) supports FTDv appliances and allows for HA configurations to ensure redundancy and reliability in cloud deployments.

These environments provide the necessary infrastructure and capabilities to support the high availability requirements for FTDv appliances.

To ensure that router R2 removes the directly connected route for 192.168.1.0/24 from its routing table when the cable between router R1 and the Secure FTD device is disconnected, the network engineer must implement the "Propagate Link State" option on the Secure FTD device. This option allows the FTD to propagate the link state changes to adjacent devices, ensuring that the disconnection is recognized and the routing table is updated accordingly.

Steps:

Access the FTD device configuration via FMC.

Navigate to the interface settings for the relevant interfaces.

Enable the "Propagate Link State" option for the interfaces connected to R1 and R2.

Deploy the changes to the FTD device.

This configuration ensures that the link state changes are communicated to router R2, prompting it to remove the disconnected route from its routing table.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/610/fdm/fptd-fdm-config-guide-610/fptd-fdm- interfaces.html

If inside clients have intermittent connectivity issues and the Cisco Secure FTD is responding to all ARP requests on the inside network, it indicates that there may be an incorrect proxy ARP configuration in the NAT policy. Proxy ARP can cause the FTD to respond to ARP requests on behalf of other devices, leading to connectivity issues.

Steps to resolve:

Review the NAT policy on the FTD to identify any incorrect proxy ARP configurations.

Disable the proxy ARP setting for the relevant NAT rules that are causing the issue.

This ensures that the FTD only responds to ARP requests as needed, preventing it from interfering with normal ARP traffic on the inside network.

Based on the Attacks Risk Report, DNS is associated with a high number of impact events (16). DNS traffic is critical for network operations but can also be exploited for malicious activities such as DNS tunneling, DDoS attacks, and data exfiltration. To improve security, the security engineer should focus on inspecting DNS traffic. This involves deploying DNS security solutions and monitoring DNS traffic for anomalies to detect and mitigate potential threats.

Steps:

Implement DNS security tools such as DNS filtering, DNSSEC, and DNS anomaly detection.

Configure the firewall to inspect DNS traffic for malicious activities.

Regularly analyze DNS logs to identify and respond to threats.

This action addresses a significant risk identified in the report and helps to mitigate potential attacks exploiting DNS.

After setting the interface mode to inline and enabling the interfaces on a Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) device in an inline IPS deployment, the next step is to configure an inline set. An inline set groups two interfaces that work together to inspect traffic passing between them.

Steps to configure an inline set:

In FMC, navigate toDevices > Device Management.

Select the FTD device and configure the interfaces.

Create a new inline set, adding the relevant interfaces that have been set to inline mode.

Deploy the configuration to the FTD device.

Configuring an inline set ensures that the traffic between the specified interfaces is inspected and processed according to the IPS policies, completing the implementation of the inline IPS deployment.

The Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is enabled under the SSL tab of an access control policy. EVE provides visibility into encrypted traffic, allowing the firewall to detect threats even when traffic is encrypted.

Steps to enable EVE:

Navigate to the access control policy in FMC.

Go to theSSLtab.

Enable Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) to analyze encrypted traffic.

This configuration helps in identifying and mitigating threats within encrypted traffic without the need for full decryption.

"In routed firewall mode, broadcast and multicast traffic is blocked even if you allow it in an access rule..." "The bridge group does not pass CDP packets packets..."https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa913/configuration/general/asa-913-general-config/intro-fw.html

Passing Traffic Not Allowed in Routed Mode

In routed mode, some types of traffic cannot pass through the ASA even if you allow it in an access rule. The bridge group, however, can allow almost any traffic through using either an access rule (for IP traffic) or an EtherType rule (for non-IP traffic):

IP traffic—In routed firewall mode, broadcast and "multicast traffic is blocked even if you allow it in an access rule," including unsupported dynamic routing protocols and DHCP (unless you configure DHCP relay). Within a bridge group, you can allow this traffic with an access rule (using an extended ACL).

Non-IP traffic—AppleTalk, IPX, BPDUs, and MPLS, for example, can be configured to go through using an EtherType rule.

Note

"The bridge group does not pass CDP packets packets, or any packets that do not have a valid EtherType greater than or equal to 0x600. An exception is made for BPDUs and IS-IS, which are supported. "

In Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC), when two users attempt to modify a VPN policy simultaneously, the system implements a locking mechanism to prevent conflicts. The first user who selects edit on the policy locks the configuration, preventing other users from making changes until the lock is released.

Steps:

When the first user selects edit on the VPN policy, FMC locks the policy for editing.

The lock ensures that only the first user can make changes.

Once the first user saves or cancels their changes, the lock is released.

Other users can then edit the policy.

This locking mechanism ensures that configuration conflicts are avoided and only one set of changes is applied at a time.