Exam Flashcards

Question

Accelerated data requires approximately how many times the daily data volume of additional storage space per year? A) 3.4 B) 5.7 C) 1.0 A) 2.5

Answer 1

Answer = A According to the Splunk Lantern article on Managing data models in Enterprise Security, accelerated data requires approximately 3.4 times the daily data volume of additional storage space per year1. This means that if the daily input volume is 100 GB, the accelerated data model storage per year would be 100 GB x 3.4 = 340 GB. This estimate may vary depending on the data model configuration, the data retention policy, and the indexer cluster replication factor.

Answer 2

Answer = C According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the default ports that must be configured for Splunk Enterprise Security to function are the following: SplunkWeb (8000): This port provides the socket for Splunk Web, the web interface for Splunk Enterprise Security. It allows you to access the dashboards, reports, alerts, and other features of Splunk Enterprise Security from your browser. You can change this port in the web.conf file or by using the splunk set web-port command. Splunk Management (8089): This port is used to communicate with the splunkd daemon, the main process that runs Splunk Enterprise Security. Splunk Web talks to splunkd on this port, as does the command line interface, and any distributed connections from other servers. This port also provides the REST API endpoint for Splunk Enterprise Security. You can change this port in the server.conf file or by using the splunk set splunkd-port command. KV Store (8191): This port is used by the KV Store, a MongoDB-based service that stores key-value pairs of data for Splunk Enterprise Security. The KV Store is used to store and manage data for various features of Splunk Enterprise Security, such as asset and identity correlation, threat intelligence, adaptive response, and investigations. You can change this port in the server.conf file.

Answer 3

Answer: A When creating custom correlation searches, you can use the fieldname format to embed field values in the title, description, and drill-down fields of a notable event. This allows you to customize the notable event with dynamic information from the search results. For example, you can use src to include the source IP address of the event, or user to include the user name of the event1.

Answer 4

Answer: C Splunk Enterprise Security knows the local customer domain names so it can detect internal vs. external emails by using the Corporate Web and Email Domain Lookups. These are lookup files that contain the list of domains that are considered internal or corporate for the organization. The Corporate Web and Email Domain Lookups are edited during the initial configuration of Splunk Enterprise Security, and they are used to enrich events with the tag=internal_web or tag=internal_email fields. These fields indicate whether the web or email activity is internal or external, and they are used by dashboards and correlation searches in Splunk Enterprise Security to monitor and analyze the web and email traffic.

Answer 5

Answer: B According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Default Account Activity Detected correlation search uses the Local User Intel lookup table to flag known default accounts. The Local User Intel lookup table contains a list of default usernames and passwords for various systems and applications, such as admin, root, guest, and others. The correlation search compares the authentication events from the Authentication data model with the usernames in the lookup table and generates a notable event if there is a match. The notable event indicates that a default account was used to access a system or application, which could be a sign of a brute force attack or a misconfiguration.

Answer 6

Answer: B A correlation search that is set to run in real-time mode will be executed as new events are indexed. Real-time mode means that the search continuously runs over a rolling window of time, such as the last 15 minutes or the last hour. Real-time searches can detect patterns and anomalies in near real-time and trigger adaptive response actions accordingly. However, real-time searches are more resource-intensive than scheduled searches and may impact the overall performance of the system. Therefore, Splunk Enterprise Security uses indexed real-time searches by default for some correlation searches, which are more efficient than non-indexed real-time searches. You can change the search mode of a correlation search from real-time to scheduled or vice versa from the Content Management page. See Configure correlation searches in Splunk Enterprise Security1 for more details. The other options, A, C, and D, are not correct. Always-On is not a valid search mode for correlation searches. Scheduled mode means that the search runs at a specified interval, such as every 5 minutes or every hour. Continuous mode is a deprecated search mode that is no longer supported by Splunk Enterprise Security.

Answer 7

Answer: A The urgency of a notable event is a value that indicates how important or urgent the event is for investigation and response. The urgency of a notable event is determined by two fields: the priority and the severity. The priority is a value that is assigned to an asset or an identity based on how critical or valuable it is for the organization. The priority can be unknown, low, medium, high, or critical. The severity is a value that is assigned to a notable event based on how serious or harmful the event is for the security posture. The severity can be unknown, informational, low, medium, high, or critical. The urgency of a notable event is calculated by combining the priority and the severity values using a lookup table called urgency_lookup. The urgency can be informational, low, medium, high, or critical. You can use the urgency field to prioritize the investigation of notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security.

Answer 8

Answer = A According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, one of the actions that may be necessary before installing ES is to redirect distributed search connections. This action is required if you are installing ES on a search head that is already connected to a distributed search environment, such as a search head cluster or a search head pool. You need to redirect the distributed search connections from the existing search head to a new search head that will run ES. This is because ES requires a dedicated search head that is not shared with other apps or users. You can use the Distributed Configuration Management tool to redirect the distributed search connections and create a Splunk Enterprise Security app for indexers. See Redirect distributed search connections for more details. The other actions are not necessary before installing ES, but they may be helpful for optimizing the performance and scalability of ES. Purging KV Store can free up some disk space and remove stale data, but it is not required before installing ES. See Purge the KV Store for more information. Adding additional indexers can improve the indexing and searching capacity of ES, but it is not required before installing ES. See Deployment planning for more information. Adding additional forwarders can increase the data ingestion and forwarding capability of ES, but it is not required before installing ES.

Answer 9

Answer: B The setting that is used in indexes.conf to specify alternate locations for accelerated storage is tstatsHomePath. Accelerated storage is the location where Splunk Enterprise stores the summary data for accelerated data models and reports. By default, acceleration storage is allocated in the same location as the index containing the raw events being accelerated. However, if you need to specify alternate locations for your accelerated storage, you can use the tstatsHomePath setting in indexes.conf. This setting allows you to define a different path for the summary data, which can improve the performance and efficiency of the data model acceleration. For example, you can set the tstatsHomePath to a faster disk or a different volume than the index homePath12.

Answer 10

Answer: D The Auto Deployment feature of Distributed Configuration Management is a tool that allows you to automatically distribute configuration files, such as indexes.conf, to your Splunk platform instances. However, using this feature to distribute indexes.conf can pose a risk of having indexes with different settings across your instances. This can happen if you have manually edited the indexes.conf file on some of your instances, or if you have different versions of Splunk Enterprise Security installed on different instances. If the indexes have different settings, such as retention policies, storage paths, or bucket sizes, this can cause data inconsistency, search inefficiency, or data loss. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Manual Deployment feature of Distributed Configuration Management to review and validate the indexes.conf file before deploying it to your instances12.

Answer 11

Answer: D Detailed information about identities, such as user names, email addresses, phone numbers, and roles, is stored in the Identity Lookup CSV file in Splunk Enterprise Security. The Identity Lookup CSV file is a lookup file that contains the identity data that is collected and extracted from various data sources, such as Active Directory, LDAP, or custom identity lists. The Identity Lookup CSV file is used to enrich events with identity information and generate notable events based on identity correlation searches.

Answer 12

Answer: A The Risk Analysis dashboard uses the Risk data model to populate the panels. The Risk data model is a data model that contains information about the risk scores and risk modifiers of various objects, such as systems, users, hashes, and network artifacts. The Risk data model accelerates these fields for the Risk Analysis and Incident Review dashboards. The Risk data model also handles case insensitive asset and identity correlation, allowing risk modifiers that are applied to system or user name variants to be correctly attributed to the same risk_object1. The other options, B, C, and D, are not correct. The Audit data model contains information about audit events, such as user logins, password changes, and system access. The Domain Analysis data model contains information about the domains that are visited by the systems in the network. The Threat Intelligence data model contains information about the threat intelligence sources, indicators, and matches.

Answer 13

Answer: B In order to include an eventtype in a data model node, you need to apply the correct tags to the eventtype. Tags are labels that you can assign to event types to identify them as belonging to a specific category or domain. Tags are used by data models to map event types to data model nodes. For example, if you have an eventtype named windows_performance that contains events related to Windows performance metrics, you can tag it with performance and os. Then, you can include the eventtype in a data model node that matches those tags, such as the Performance node in the Operating System data model12. To apply tags to an eventtype, you can use the Settings > Event types page in Splunk Web, or the eventtypes.conf and tags.conf configuration files3.

Answer 14

Answer: B According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the default schedule for accelerating ES data models is every 5 minutes. This means that the data model acceleration searches run every 5 minutes to summarize the newly indexed data and store the results in the tsidx files. The 5-minute schedule is recommended for most use cases, as it provides a balance between search performance and resource consumption. However, you can change the schedule of a data model acceleration search in the Content Management page of Splunk Enterprise Security, if needed.

Answer 15

Answer: C The correlation search feature that is used to throttle the creation of notable events is the window duration. The window duration is the time period during which a correlation search will not create a new notable event for the same issue. For example, if the window duration is set to 1 day, and a correlation search triggers a notable event for a certain condition, such as a brute force attack from a source IP address, the correlation search will not create another notable event for the same condition within the next 24 hours. This prevents the correlation search from generating too many alerts for the same issue, which can reduce the alert fatigue and noise. The window duration can be configured in the correlation search settings, under the Throttling section12.

Answer 16

Answer: B According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the bar across the bottom of any ES window is called the Investigation Bar. The Investigation Bar is a tool that helps you create and manage investigations in ES. An investigation is a collection of related notable events, comments, and artifacts that document a security incident or a threat hunting activity. You can use the Investigation Bar to do the following tasks: Create a new investigation or open an existing one. Add notable events, comments, and artifacts to an investigation. Assign an owner and a status to an investigation. Share an investigation with other users or roles. Export an investigation as a PDF report. The Investigation Bar also provides a link to the Investigation Workbench, which is a dashboard that shows a timeline and a summary of an investigation. Therefore, the correct answer is B.

Answer 17

Answer = D According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the first step when preparing to install ES is to determine the size and scope of installation. This involves estimating the amount of data that you plan to ingest, the number of users that will access ES, the number of search heads and indexers that you need, and the hardware requirements for each component. This step helps you plan your deployment architecture and ensure optimal performance and scalability of ES. Therefore, the correct answer is D.

Answer 18

Answer: C Correlation searches can perform adaptive response actions when they find a pattern in the data. Adaptive response actions are automated or manual responses that you can use to modify your environment based on notable events. For example, you can block an IP address, add a user to a watchlist, or send an email notification. Configuring correlation adaptive responses is part of tuning correlation searches for a new ES installation, as it allows you to customize the actions that are triggered by the correlation searches. You can enable, disable, or modify the adaptive response actions for each correlation search, or create your own custom actions.

Answer 19

Answer: C The columns in the Assets lookup that are used to identify an asset in an event are ip, mac, dns, and nt_host. These columns contain the network identifiers of the assets, such as IP address, MAC address, DNS name, and NetBIOS name. Splunk Enterprise Security uses these columns to match the asset fields with the event fields, such as src, dest, dvc, host, and hostname. When a match is found, Splunk Enterprise Security enriches the event with the asset information, such as category, priority, business unit, and location. This allows you to search and analyze events based on the asset attributes and context.

Answer 20

Answers: A C D The data models that are used by Splunk Enterprise Security are the ones that are defined and provided by the Common Information Model add-on (Splunk_SA_CIM) and the Enterprise Security-specific data models. The Common Information Model add-on contains 12 data models that cover various domains of security data, such as Web, Authentication, Network Traffic, Change, DLP, Email, Endpoint, Intrusion Detection, Malware, Performance, Ticket Management, and Vulnerabilities1. The Enterprise Security-specific data models are Anomalies, Audit, Business Context, Data Loss Prevention, Identity Management, Risk, Threat Intelligence, and Web Proxy2. Therefore, the data models that are used by ES are Web, Authentication, Network Traffic, and Anomalies, among others.

Answer 21

Answer: C The ES application should be uploaded to the search head, which is the component that runs the ES user interface and executes the searches, alerts, and reports. The search head should be dedicated to ES and not run any other applications. The indexer is the component that indexes the data and stores it in buckets. The KV Store is a feature that stores and manages data as key-value pairs. The dedicated forwarder is a component that collects data from various sources and forwards it to the indexer. None of these components can run the ES application.

Answer 22

Answer: B Splunk Enterprise Security supports downloading threat intelligence from STIX/TAXII servers. STIX is a structured language for describing cyber threat information, and TAXII is a protocol for exchanging STIX data. Splunk Enterprise Security can download STIX/TAXII feeds from any server that supports the TAXII 1.1 specification and the STIX 1.1.1 or 1.2 specification. Splunk Enterprise Security does not support downloading threat intelligence from text, VulnScanSPL, or Splunk Enterprise Threat Generator sources. References = Add threat intelligence to Splunk Enterprise Security, Upload a STIX or OpenIOC structured threat intelligence file

Answer 23

Answer: C The Risk Analysis dashboard provides tools to analyze the risk scores and risk modifiers of various objects, such as systems, users, hashes, and network artifacts. The dashboard shows the risk score by object, the most active sources of risk, the risk score by category, the risk score over time, and the risk modifiers by object. The dashboard also allows you to create ad hoc risk entries, view the risk details of an object, and export the risk data as a CSV file. The other options, A, B, and D, are not correct. The Risk Analysis dashboard does not provide tools to show high risk threats, notable event domains, or key indicators of correlation searches. These are features of other dashboards in Splunk Enterprise Security, such as the Threat Activity dashboard, the Domain Analysis dashboard, and the Correlation Search Audit dashboard.

Answer 24

Answer: A According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Status Configuration window allows you to customize the status values and transitions for notable events. You can define which roles can change the status of a notable event from one value to another, and which roles can view the notable events with a specific status. To restrict the users with the ess_user role from being able to change the status of Resolved notable events to closed, you need to do the following steps: On the Enterprise Security menu bar, select Configure > Incident Management > Status Configuration. In the Status Configuration window, select the Resolved status from the list of values. In the Status Transitions section, find the row for the closed status and click the Edit icon. In the Edit Status Transition dialog box, remove the ess_user role from the Roles field and click Save.Click Save Changes to apply the changes to the Status Configuration window. This will prevent the users with the ess_user role from changing the status of any notable event from Resolved to closed. They will still be able to change the status of other notable events to closed, if they have the permission to do so. Therefore, the correct answer is A. From the Status Configuration window select the Resolved status. Remove ess_user from the status

Answer 25

Answer: C Data models are the primary source of data for Enterprise Security dashboards. Data models provide a structured and consistent way of defining and retrieving data from indexes. Data models accelerate searches by using prebuilt summaries of the data. Data models also enable the use of the tstats command, which can perform statistical analysis on the data model summaries. Data models are mapped to the Common Information Model (CIM), which provides a common language for describing data across domains and technologies.

Answer 26

Answer: C The role that should be assigned to a security team member who will be taking ownership of notable events in the incident review dashboard is the ess_analyst role. The ess_analyst role is a predefined role in Splunk Enterprise Security that grants the user the ability to view, edit, comment, and change the status and owner of notable events. The ess_analyst role also allows the user to access the dashboards, reports, and searches related to security analysis and investigation12.

Answer 27

Answer: C The endpoint security domain dashboards in Splunk Enterprise Security display endpoint data relating to malware infections, patch history, system configurations, and time synchronization information. The sources for events in the endpoint security domain dashboards are the devices that are considered endpoints in your network, such as workstations, notebooks, and point-of-sale systems1.

Answer 28

Answer: C The way to navigate to the list of currently-enabled ES correlation searches is to use the Content Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. The Content Management page allows you to view, enable, disable, and edit the content items that are included in Splunk Enterprise Security, such as correlation searches, dashboards, reports, and lookups. To access the Content Management page, you need to select Configure > Content > Content Management from the Splunk ES menu bar. Then, you can filter the content items by Type and Status to view only the correlation searches that are enabled. You can also use other filters, such as App, Domain, or Owner, to further refine your view12.

Answer 29

Answer: B According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Distributed Configuration Management tool is used to update indexers in ES. This tool allows you to create and distribute a Splunk Enterprise Security app for indexers, which contains the necessary configurations for indexers to work with ES, such as index-time field extractions, tags, and event types. The app name is Splunk_ES_ForIndexers.spl and it is created by running the distributed_config_manager.py script on the search head. You can then deploy the app to theindexers using the deployment server or the cluster master.

Answer 30

Answer: B According to the Splunk Reference Architecture document1, for ES, Splunk recommends sizing based on 80 to 100 GB ingest per indexer per day. This means an ES deployment with 2 TB daily ingest will require up to 20 indexers. This recommendation is for a non-cloud (on-prem) ES deployment. For a cloud-based ES deployment, the recommended volume of indexing per day, per indexer, is 50 GB2. The other options, 300 GB and 500 MB, are not recommended by Splunk for ES deployments.

Answer 31

Answer: C A correlation search is a scheduled search that runs periodically to detect patterns of interest in the data and generate notable events or other actions when the search conditions are met. A correlation search can generate false positives, which are notable events that do not represent a real security incident or threat. False positives can create noise and reduce the efficiency and accuracy of the security analysis. To reduce false positives from a correlation search, you can modify the correlation schedule and sensitivity for your site. The correlation schedule determines how often the correlation search runs and over what time range. The sensitivity determines the threshold or limit for the search conditions to trigger a notable event. By adjusting the correlation schedule and sensitivity, you can fine-tune the correlation search to match your environment and data sources, and avoid generating notable events for normal or benign activities. You can modify the correlation schedule and sensitivity for a correlation search using the Content Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security.

Answer 32

Answer: C According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Protocol Intelligence dashboards are the dashboards that support the ability to view and analyze network Stream data. The Protocol Intelligence dashboards provide a summary of network traffic by protocol, such as TCP, UDP, ICMP, and others. They also show the top sources, destinations, ports, and applications for each protocol. The dashboards allow you to filter the data by time range, protocol, source, destination, port, and application. The dashboards also provide drilldown links to other dashboards, such as the Network Resolution dashboard and the Traffic Size Analysis dashboard, for further analysis. The Protocol Intelligence dashboards require the Splunk App for Stream and the Splunk Add-on for Stream to capture and parse network traffic data.

Answer 33

Answers: C D Correlation searches are scheduled searches that run in Splunk Enterprise Security to detect security incidents or other notable events. They can consume a lot of resources and affect the overall search performance. To improve the search performance, you can do the following actions: Reduce the frequency (schedule) of lower-priority correlation searches. This will reduce the number of searches that run concurrently and free up some resources for other searches. You can edit the schedule of a correlation search in the Content Management page of Splunk Enterprise Security. See Edit a correlation search in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details. Add notable event suppressions for correlation searches with high numbers of false positives. This will prevent the correlation search from generating notable events that are not relevant or actionable, and reduce the load on the Notable Event Framework. You can add suppression rules for a correlation search in the Content Management page of Splunk Enterprise Security. See Suppress notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details. The other two actions are not recommended, because they can have negative effects on the search performance or the security posture. Disabling indexed real-time search can cause some dashboards and panels to not display data correctly, and increasing the priority of all correlation searches can cause resource contention and degrade the performance of other searches.

Answer 34

Answer: B Recommended Actions show a list of Adaptive Responses to an analyst, which are possible actions that can betaken in response to a notable event. Adaptive Response Actions run automatically when a correlation search triggers a notable event, and can perform actions such as sending an email, adding a comment, or modifying a risk score. Recommended Actions are configured in the correlation search editor, while Adaptive Response Actions are configured in the alert actions manager.

Answer 35

Answer: B The Status Configuration window in Splunk Enterprise Security allows you to manage and customize the investigation statuses and the status transitions for notable events. You can specify which roles can change the status of a notable event from one status to another. For example, you can restrict the ess_user role from changing the status of Resolved notable events to Closed by removing the ess_user role from the status transitions for the Closed status. This way, only the roles that have the permission to change the status to Closed can close the Resolved notable events.

Answer 36

Answer: D To add a new column to the Notable Event table in the Incident Review dashboard, you need to follow these steps: On the Splunk Enterprise Security menu bar, click Configure > Incident Management > Incident Review Settings. On the Incident Review Settings page, click the Table Attributes tab. On the Table Attributes tab, click Add New Attribute. Enter the name of the attribute that you want to add as a column, such as src or dest. The name must match the field name in the notable event data model. Enter a label for the attribute that will appear as the column header, such as Source or Destination. Enter a description for the attribute that will appear as a tooltip when you hover over the column header. Select the data type for the attribute, such as string or number. Select the visibility for the attribute, such as visible or hidden. Click Save to save the new attribute. Refresh the Incident Review dashboard to see the new column in the Notable Event table.

Answer 37

Answer: C According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the way to make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page in ES is to use the Edit Navigation page and click the ‘Set this as the default view’ checkmark for Threat Activity. The Edit Navigation page allows you to customize the menu bar of ES and add links to custom dashboards, reports, or other views. You can also set the default view for each app context, which determines the landing page when you open the app. To set the Threat Activity dashboard as the default view, you need to do the following steps: On the Enterprise Security menu bar, select Configure > General > Navigation. In the Edit Navigation page, select the Enterprise Security app context from the drop-down menu. In the Navigation XML section, find the line that contains the view name ‘threat_activity’. Add the attribute default=“true” to the line and remove the same attribute from any other line in the same app context. Click Save Changes to apply the changes to the Edit Navigation page. This will make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page when you open the Enterprise Security app. See Customize the navigation bar for more details. The other options are not the correct ways to make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page in ES. Dragging and dropping the Threat Activity view to the top of the page will not change the default view, but only the order of the menu items. Selecting Enterprise Security as the default application will not change the default view within the app, but only the app that opens when you log in to Splunk. Editing the Threat Activity view settings will not change the default view, but only the title, description, permissions, and schedule of the dashboard.

Answer 38

Answer: C According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the best way to integrate a newly built custom dashboard to a team of security analysts in ES is to set the dashboard permissions to allow access by es_analysts and use the navigation editor to add it to the menu. This will ensure that the dashboard is visible and accessible to the users with the es_analyst role, which is the default role for security analysts in ES. The navigation editor allows you to customize the menu bar of ES and add links to custom dashboards, reports, or other views. See Customize Splunk Enterprise Security dashboards to fit your use case and Customize the navigation bar for more details. The other options are not recommended, because they either do not integrate the dashboard properly or they create unnecessary complexity. Adding links on the ES home page to the new dashboard is not a good option, because it does not integrate the dashboard into the menu bar and it may clutter the home page. Creating a new role inherited from es_analyst, making the dashboard permissions read-only, and making this dashboard the default view for the new role is not a good option, because it creates a redundant role and it may confuse the users who expect to see the Security Posture dashboard as the default view. Adding the dashboard to a custom add-in app and installing it to ES using the Content Manager is not a good option, because it requires creating and maintaining a separate app and it may cause conflicts or performance issues with ES. Therefore, the correct answer is C. Set the dashboard permissions to allow access by es_analysts and use the navigation editor to add it to the menu.

Answer 39

Answer: B Data integrity control is a feature of Splunk Enterprise that helps you verify the integrity of data that it indexes. When you enable data integrity control for an index, Splunk Enterprise computes hashes on every slice of data using the SHA-256 algorithm. It then stores those hashes so that you can verify the integrity of your data later. This feature prevents data tampering and ensures that the data is trustworthy and reliable.

Answer 40

Answer: D A prefix of Splunk_TA_ would allow an add-on to be automatically imported into Splunk Enterprise Security. Splunk Enterprise Security uses a naming convention to identify and import add-ons that are compatible with the Common Information Model (CIM). Add-ons that start with Splunk_TA_ are automatically imported into Splunk Enterprise Security and mapped to the appropriate data models. Add-ons that do not follow this naming convention must be manually imported and configured in Splunk Enterprise Security1. A prefix of CIM_ or TECH_ does not indicate an add-on that can be automatically imported. A suffix of .spl is the file extension for Splunk apps and add-ons, but it does not guarantee that they are compatible with Splunk Enterprise Security.

Answer 41

Answer: C When investigating an incident in Splunk Enterprise Security, the best way to store a newly-found IOC (indicator of compromise) is to click the “Add Artifact” button. This button allows you to add an artifact to the current investigation from any dashboard or search result. An artifact is a piece of machine data that indicates risk, such as an IP address, a domain name, a file hash, or a user name. By adding an artifact to the investigation, you can enrich the context of the incident, track the artifact across multiple data sources, and share the artifact with other analysts. You can also use the artifact to create a threat intelligence indicator, which can be used to detect and alert on future threats12.

Answer 42

Answer: A According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, only users with the ess_admin role or theManage All Investigations capability can delete an investigation. The investigation owner and collaborators can edit the investigation, but not delete it. Therefore, the correct answer is A. ess_admin users only. References = Manage investigations in Splunk Enterprise Security

Answer 43

Answer: B If the number of failed logins is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the search triggers a notable event. To make the search less sensitive, the threshold value can be increased, so that only more frequent failed logins will trigger a notable event. For example, the default threshold value is 4, which means that 4 or more failed logins within a 1-minute window will trigger a notable event. If the threshold value is changed to 10, then only 10 or more failed logins within a 1-minute window will trigger a notable event.

Answer 44

Answer: B The Add-on Builder can configure a new add-on to normalize data by mapping the data fields to the Common Information Model (CIM). The CIM provides a common language for describing data across domains and technologies. Normalizing data enables the data to be used by other Splunk apps, such as Splunk Enterprise Security and Splunk IT Service Intelligence. The Add-on Builder can also configure other features in a new add-on, such as collecting data from various sources, extracting fields from the data, creating alert actions and adaptive response actions, and testing and validating the add-on. However, the Add-on Builder cannot configure an add-on to expire data, summarize data, or translate data. These are not features of the Add-on Builder.

Answer 45

Answer: D The tstatsHomePath setting in indexes.conf allows you to specify an alternate location for accelerated storage. Accelerated storage is where Splunk Enterprise stores the summary data for data models that are accelerated. The summary data is used to speed up searches and reports that use the data models. By default, the accelerated storage is located in the same volume as the index that contains the events referenced by the data model. However, you can use the tstatsHomePath setting to change the location of the accelerated storage to a different volume or path. This can help you optimize the performance and disk space usage of your Splunk Enterprise deployment.

Answer 46

Answer: B The Security Posture dashboard displays a high-level overview of notable events across all domains of your deployment, suitable for display in a Security Operations Center (SOC). This dashboard shows all events from the past 24 hours, along with the trends over the past 24 hours, and provides real-time event information and updates. The dashboard consists of several panels that show key indicators, notable events by urgency, notable events over time, top notable events, and top notable event sources1.

Answer 47

Answer: A The summariesonly=true option is a macro that modifies a correlation search to search only accelerated data. Accelerated data is the summary data that is generated by the data model acceleration process. Data model acceleration is a feature that speeds up searches and reports that use data models by pre-computing and storing the results of the data model queries. By using the summariesonly=true option, a correlation search can run faster and more efficiently, as it does not need to scan the raw events or the index time field extractions. However, the summariesonly=true option also requires that the data model acceleration is enabled and complete for the data model that the correlation search uses. Otherwise, the correlation search may not return any results or may miss some events that are not accelerated.

Answer 48

Answer: D To configure an “Nslookup” adaptive response action, so that it appears as a selectable option in the notable event’s action menu when an analyst is working in the Incident Review dashboard, the administrator would take the following steps: On the Splunk Enterprise Security menu bar, click Configure > Content > Content Management. Filter the content by Type: Correlation Search and select the correlation search that you want to add the Nslookup action to. Click Edit and go to the Notable tab. Under Recommended Actions, click Add New Action and select Nslookup from the drop-down menu. Enter the required fields for the Nslookup action, such as the host field, the DNS server, and the output index. Click Save to save the changes to the correlation search. The Nslookup action will now appear as an option in the notable event’s action menu on the Incident Review dashboard. References = Set up Adaptive Response actions in Splunk Enterprise Security Included adaptive response actions with Splunk Enterprise Security

Answer 49

Answer: B The Add-On Builder is available from SplunkBase, which is the official source of apps and add-ons for the Splunk platform. SplunkBase allows you to browse, download, and install apps and add-ons that are compatible with your Splunk deployment. You can also upload and share your own apps and add-ons with the Splunk community. The Add-On Builder is a Splunk app that helps you build and validate technology add-ons for your Splunk Enterprise deployment. Technology add-ons are specialized add-ons that help to collect, transform, and normalize data feeds from specific sources in your environment. The Add-On Builder guides you through the process of creating an add-on, following best practices and naming conventions, maintaining CIM compliance, and testing and validating the add-on1. The Add-On Builder is not available from GitHub, www.splunk.com, or the ES installation package.

Answer 50

Answer: D When exporting and importing updates to ES content, you should follow the best practices described in the Splunk Enterprise Security Admin documentation1. One of the best practices is to avoid overwriting existing content on the destination system. To do this, you have two options: either use new app names each time you export content, or always include both existing and new content in each export. This way, you can preserve the original content and avoid conflicts or data loss. The other options, A, B, and C, are not correct. Using new app names each time content is exported is only one of the options, not the only one. Using the .spl extension when naming an export is not a problem, as it is the default extension for Splunk apps. Including only new content for each export is not a good practice, as it may overwrite existing content on the destination system.

Answer 51

Answer: D A technology add-on (TA) is a Splunk app that contains the configurations for ingesting and normalizing data from a specific data source or vendor. A TA can include sourcetype definitions, index-time and search-time field extractions, event types, tags, lookups, and other settings that help to map the data to the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM). The CIM is a set of predefined data models that provide a common standard for organizing and naming data fields across different data sources. Splunk Enterprise Security uses the CIM to enable cross-source analysis and correlation of security events.

Answer 52

Answer: B Threat intel is the lookup type in Enterprise Security that contains information about known hostile IP addresses, as well as other indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as domains, URLs, hashes, and email addresses. Threat intel is collected from various sources, such as Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Add-on for Enterprise Security, Splunk Enterprise Security Content Update, and third-party threat intelligence providers. Threat intel is used to enrich events and generate notable events when a match is found between an IOC and an event field. You can view and manage the threat intel sources and lookups in Enterprise Security using the Threat Intelligence framework.

Answer 53

Answer: C The point in the ES installation process when Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl should be deployed to the indexers is after installing ES on the search head(s) and running the distributed configuration management tool. Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl is a Splunk add-on that contains the index-time configurations for the data models used by ES. It is required to be installed on all indexers that receive data from ES data sources, such as network devices, endpoints, threat intelligence feeds, and so on. The recommended way to deploy Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl to the indexers is to use the distributed configuration management tool in ES, which is a feature that allows you to automatically distribute configuration files, such as indexes.conf, props.conf, and transforms.conf, to your Splunk platform instances. To use the distributed configuration management tool, you need to first install ES on the search head(s) and then run the tool from the ES menu bar. The tool will prompt you to select the configuration files that you want to deploy, including Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl, and the instances that you want to deploy them to, such as indexers, forwarders, or other search heads. The tool will also validate the configuration files and restart the instances as needed12.

Answer 54

Answer: D According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, threat gen searches are searches that generate synthetic events in the threat activity index to simulate security threats. Threat gen searches are useful for testing and validating the correlation searches, notable events, and adaptive response actions in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches produce events in the threat activity index, which is a dedicated index for storing the synthetic events. The events in the threat ctivity index have the sourcetype of threatgen and the tag of threat. You can use the Threat Activity dashboard to view and analyze the events in the threat activity index. See Threat gen searches for more details. The other options are not correct, because threat gen searches do not produce them. Threat gen searches do not produce threat intel in KV Store collections, which are key-value pairs of data that store and manage threat intelligence in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches do not produce threat correlation searches, which are searches that correlate events with threat intelligence and generate notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches do not produce threat notables in the notable index, which are alerts or tasks that indicate potential security incidents or threats in Splunk Enterprise Security. Therefore, the correct answer is D. Events in the threat activity index.

Answer 55

Answer: A According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, when using the Distributed Configuration Management tool to create the Splunk_TA_ForIndexers package, you can include the following three files: indexes.conf: This file defines the indexes that are used by Splunk Enterprise Security, such as main, summary, and notable. It also specifies the index settings, such as retention policy, replication factor, and search factor. See indexes.conf for more details. props.conf: This file defines the properties of the data sources that are ingested by Splunk Enterprise Security, such as sourcetype, timestamp, line breaking, and field extraction. It also specifies the data model mappings, tags, and event types for the data sources. See props.conf for more details. transforms.conf: This file defines the transformations that are applied to the data sources that are ingested by Splunk Enterprise Security, such as lookup definitions, field aliases, field formats, and calculated fields. It also specifies the regex patterns, delimiters, and formats for the transformations. See transforms.conf for more details.

Answer 56

Answer: B One way to test for a properly normalized data model is to run a | datamodel search against the data model or a dataset within the data model and compare the results to the CIM documentation for the datamodel. The CIM documentation provides the expected fields, tags, and constraints for each data model and dataset, as well as examples of normalized events. By running a | datamodel search, you can examine the JSON output of the data model or dataset and verify that it matches the CIM specifications. You can also use the search mode option of the | datamodel command to return either results or a search string that you can further inspect or modify.

Answer 57

Answer: A Adaptive response action history is stored in the cim_modactions index. This index contains the events generated by the adaptive response actions that are triggered by correlation searches or run manually from Incident Review. You can use this index to search, audit, and report on the adaptive response actions that have been executed in your environment. You can also view the adaptive response action history on the Adaptive Response dashboard in Enterprise Security1.

Answer 58

Answer: A The main purpose of the Dashboard Requirements Matrix document is to identify on which data model(s) each dashboard in Splunk Enterprise Security depends. The Dashboard Requirements Matrix document is a web page that lists all the dashboards in Splunk Enterprise Security and the data model datasets that populate them. The data model datasets are linked to the Common Information Model (CIM) documentation, which describes the tags, field names, and field values that the events must use to be CIM-compliant. The Dashboard Requirements Matrix document helps you to determine which data models you need to enable and accelerate for your Splunk Enterprise Security deployment,

Answer 59

Answer: B You can export content from Splunk Enterprise Security as an app from the Content Management page. Use the export option to share custom content with other ES instances, such as migrating customized searches from a development or testing environment into production. The Content Management page allows you to view, edit, enable, disable, and export content in Splunk Enterprise Security. You can also import content from other ES instances or from the Splunk Security Essentials app.

Answer 60

Answer: A Attachments to investigations are stored in a KV Store collection named investigation_attachment. KV Store is a feature that stores and manages data as key-value pairs. Splunk Enterprise Security uses KV Store to store investigation information in several collections, such as investigation, investigation_event, investigation_lead, and investigation_attachment. You can view or modify the KV Store collections using the KV Store API endpoint.

Answer 61

Answer: D The Remote Access panel within the User Activity dashboard is based on the Authentication data model, which contains information about authentication events from various sources, such as VPN, SSH, RDP, and others. The Authentication data model is accelerated by default, which means that it generates summary data to speed up searches. However, if the summary data is not up to date, the dashboard panel may not show the most recent data. This can happen if the data model acceleration search is skipped, disabled, or encountering errors12. To check the status of the data model acceleration, you can use the Data Model Audit dashboard

Answer 62

Answer: C According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, an asset is a physical or logical device that is part of your network infrastructure, such as a server, a workstation, a router, or a firewall. An asset can have various attributes, such as IP address, MAC address, DNS name, NT host name, priority, business unit, owner, and others. Splunk Enterprise Security uses asset data to enrich and correlate security events and provide context for analysis. You can manage asset data using the Asset and Identity Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. See Manage assets and identities in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details. The other options are not examples of ES assets, but they may be related to other types of data. A MAC address is an attribute of an asset, not an asset itself. A user name is an example of an identity, which is a person or group that is associated with an asset or an event. Splunk Enterprise Security uses identity data to enrich and correlate security events and provide context for analysis. You can manage identity data using the Asset and Identity Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. See Manage assets and identities in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details. People is a data model in the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM), which provides a common standard for organizing and naming data fields across different data sources. Splunk Enterprise Security uses the CIM to enable cross-source analysis and correlation of security events. The People data model contains the fields and tags for events that are related to people, such as user names, email addresses, phone numbers, and others.

Answer 63

Answer: A If a username does not match the ‘identity’ column in the identities list, Splunk Enterprise Security checks the ‘email’ column next. The ‘email’ column contains the email address associated with the identity. If the email address matches the username, Splunk Enterprise Security assigns the identity to the user. If the email address does not match, Splunk Enterprise Security checks the ‘nickname’ column next, followed by the ‘ip’ column, and finally the ‘last_name’ and ‘first_name’ columns.

Answer 64

Answer: D A network anomaly notable is a type of notable event that indicates a possible network attack or misconfiguration. It is generated by the Network - Anomaly Detection - Rule correlation search

Answer 65

Answer: D According to the Splunk Enterprise Security Admin documentation, the minimum hardware requirements for a dedicated search head running ES are as follows: OS: 64 bit, RAM: 32 GB, CPU: 16 cores. These requirements are based on the assumption that the search head is not performing any other tasks besides running ES. The documentation also recommends having at least 500 GB of disk space for the search head.

Answer 66

Answer: C User and website watchlists are lists of users or websites that you want to monitor for suspicious or unwanted activity. You can configure user and website watchlists in Splunk Enterprise Security to generate notable events when a user on the watchlist accesses a website on the watchlist. The User Activity dashboard displays the notable events generated by the watchlists, as well as other user activity information such as top users, top websites, and top categories. Configuring user and website watchlists can help identify users accessing inappropriate web sites,

Answer 67

Answer: D According to the Splunk Add-on Builder documentation, after managing source types and extracting fields, the key step that comes next in the Add-on Builder is to map to data models. Data models are predefined schemas that provide a common standard for organizing and naming data fields across different data sources. Splunk Enterprise Security uses the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to enable cross-source analysis and correlation of security events. The Add-on Builder helps you to map your data fields to the CIM data models, such as Authentication, Change, Endpoint, and others.

Answer 68

Answer: A Splunk Enterprise Security requires a dedicated search head with no other apps installed. This is because ES is a resource-intensive application that may cause performance issues and conflicts with other apps. Installing ES on a search head with other apps may also result in data loss or corruption. Therefore, it is recommended to install ES on a clean search head with only the default built-in apps and the Common Information Model (CIM) app. The CIM app is a prerequisite for ES

Answer 69

Answer: C Glass tables can display static images and text, the results of ad-hoc searches, and security metrics. Security metrics are visualizations that show the values of KPIs, service health scores, or notable events. You can add security metrics to a glass table by using the Security Metrics menu in the glass table editor. You can also configure the appearance, behavior, and drilldown options of the security metrics. Glass tables cannot display lookup searches, summarized data, or metrics store searches directly, although

Answer 70

Answer: B Removing throttling fields would not reduce the number of false positives from a correlation search. Throttling fields are the fields that are used to group events and suppress duplicate alerts. For example, if you use src and dest as throttling fields, then the correlation search will only generate one alert per unique pair of src and dest values within the throttling window. This can help reduce the number of false positives by avoiding repeated alerts for the same issue.

Answer 71

Answer: A Adaptive responses are actions that can be performed in response to notable events or other security incidents. Adaptive responses can be triggered by correlation searches and users on the incident review dashboard. Correlation searches are scheduled searches that run periodically to detect patterns of interest in the data and generate notable events or other actions when the search conditions are met. Users can configure correlation searches to trigger adaptive responses automatically when a notable event is created.

Answer 72

Answer: D Notable event urgency is calculated by combining the severity set by the correlation search and the priority assigned to the associated asset or identity. The severity is a value that indicates the impact or importance of the event, such as low, medium, high, or critical. The priority is a value that indicates the significance or sensitivity of the asset or identity involved in the event, such as unknown, low, medium, high, or critical. The urgency is a value that indicates the level of attention or action required for the event, such as informational, low, medium, high, or critical.

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