CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner(CASP+)(CAS-004)
1.0 Security Architecture
2.0 Security Operations
3.0 Security Engineering and Cryptography
4.0 Governance, Risk, and Compliance
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CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) Certification Exam Objectives
EXAM NUMBER: CAS-004
About the Exam
Candidates are encouraged to use this document to help prepare for the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) (CAS-004) certification exam. The CompTIA CASP+ certification exam will verify the successful candidate has the knowledge and skills required to:
• Architect, engineer, integrate, and implement secure solutions across complex environments to support a resilient enterprise
• Use monitoring, detection, incident response, and automation to proactively support ongoing security operations in an enterprise environment
• Apply security practices to cloud, on-premises, endpoint, and mobile infrastructure, while considering cryptographic technologies and techniques
• Consider the impact of governance, risk, and compliance requirements throughout the enterprise
This is equivalent to at least ten years of general hands-on IT experience, with at least five of those years being broad hands-on security experience. These content examples are meant to clarify the test objectives and should not be construed as a comprehensive listing of all the content of this examination.
EXAM ACCREDITATION
The CompTIA CASP+ (CAS-004) exam is accredited by ANSI to show compliance with the ISO 17024 standard and, as such, undergoes regular reviews and updates to the exam objectives.
EXAM DEVELOPMENT
CompTIA exams result from subject matter expert workshops and industry-wide survey results regarding the skills and knowledge required of an entry-level IT professional.
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all certification candidates to the CompTIA Certification Exam Policies. Please review all CompTIA policies before beginning the study process for any CompTIA exam. Candidates will be required to abide by the CompTIA Candidate Agreement. If a candidate has a question as to whether study materials are considered unauthorized (aka “brain dumps”), he/she should contact CompTIA at examsecurity@comptia.org to confirm.
PLEASE NOTE
The lists of examples provided in bulleted format are not exhaustive lists. Other examples of technologies, processes, or tasks pertaining to each objective may also be included on the exam although not listed or covered in this objectives document. CompTIA is constantly reviewing the content of our exams and updating test questions to be sure our exams are current, and the security of the questions is protected. When necessary, we will publish updated exams based on existing exam objectives. Please know that all related exam preparation materials will still be valid.
TEST DETAILS
Required exam CAS-004 Number of questions Maximum of 90
Types of questions Multiple-choice and performance-based Length of test 165 minutes
Recommended experience • Minimum of ten years of general hands-on IT experience,
with at least five of those years being broad hands-on IT security experience
• Network+, Security+, CySA+, Cloud+, and PenTest+ or equivalent certifications/knowledge
Passing score Pass/Fail only — no scaled score
EXAM OBJECTIVES (DOMAINS)
The table below lists the domains measured by this examination and the extent to which they are represented.
1.0 Security Architecture 29%
2.0 Security Operations 30%
3.0 Security Engineering and Cryptography 26%
4.0 Governance, Risk, and Compliance 15%
Total 100%
1.0 Security Architecture
Given a scenario, analyze the security requirements and objectives to ensure an appropriate, secure network architecture for a new or existing network.
• Services
- Load balancer
- Intrusion detection system (IDS)/ network intrusion detection system (NIDS)/wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS)
- Intrusion prevention system (IPS)/ network intrusion prevention system (NIPS)/wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS)
- Web application firewall (WAF)
- Network access control (NAC)
- Virtual private network (VPN)
- Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
- Firewall/unified threat management (UTM)/next-generation firewall (NGFW)
- Network address translation (NAT) gateway
- Internet gateway
- Forward/transparent proxy
- Reverse proxy
- Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection
- Routers
- Mail security
- Application programming interface (API) gateway/Extensible Markup Language (XML) gateway
- Traffic mirroring
- Switched port analyzer (SPAN) ports
- Port mirroring
- Virtual private cloud (VPC)
- Network tap
- Sensors
- Security information and event management (SIEM)
- File integrity monitoring (FIM)
- Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps
- NetFlow
- Data loss prevention (DLP)
- Antivirus
• Segmentation
- Microsegmentation
- Local area network (LAN)/ virtual local area network (VLAN)
- Jump box
- Screened subnet
- Data zones
- Staging environments
- Guest environments
- VPC/virtual network (VNET)
- Availability zone
- NAC lists
- Policies/security groups
- Regions
- Access control lists (ACLs)
- Peer-to-peer
- Air gap
• Deperimeterization/zero trust
- Cloud
- Remote work
- Mobile
- Outsourcing and contracting
- Wireless/radio frequency (RF) networks
• Merging of networks from various organizations
- Peering
- Cloud to on premises
- Data sensitivity levels
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Cross-domain
- Federation
- Directory services
• Software-defined networking (SDN)
- Open SDN
- Hybrid SDN
- SDN overlay
1.0 Security Architecture
Given a scenario, analyze the organizational requirements to determine the proper infrastructure security design.
• Scalability
- Vertically
- Horizontally
• Resiliency
- High availability
- Diversity/heterogeneity
- Course of action orchestration
- Distributed allocation
- Redundancy
- Replication
- Clustering
• Automation
- Autoscaling
- Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)
- Bootstrapping
• Performance
• Containerization
• Virtualization
• Content delivery network
• Caching
Given a scenario, integrate software applications securely into an enterprise architecture.
• Baseline and templates
- Secure design patterns/ types of web technologies
- Storage design patterns
- Container APIs
- Secure coding standards
- Application vetting processes
- API management
- Middleware
• Software assurance
- Sandboxing/development environment
- Validating third-party libraries
- Defined DevOps pipeline
- Code signing
- Interactive application security testing (IAST) vs. dynamic application security testing (DAST) vs. static application security testing (SAST)
• Considerations of integrating enterprise applications
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- Configuration management database (CMDB)
- Content management system (CMS)
- Integration enablers
- Directory services
- Domain name system (DNS)
- Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
- Enterprise service bus (ESB)
• Integrating security into development life cycle
- Formal methods
- Requirements
- Fielding
- Insertions and upgrades
- Disposal and reuse
- Testing
- Regression
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- Development approaches
- SecDevOps
- Agile
- Waterfall
- Spiral
- Versioning
- Continuous integration/ continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines
- Best practices
- Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
- Proper Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) headers
1.0 Security Architecture
Given a scenario, implement data security techniques for securing enterprise architecture.
• Data loss prevention
- Blocking use of external media
- Print blocking
- Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) blocking
- Clipboard privacy controls
- Restricted virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) implementation
- Data classification blocking
• Data loss detection
- Watermarking
- Digital rights management (DRM)
- Network traffic decryption/ deep packet inspection
- Network traffic analysis
• Data classification, labeling, and tagging
- Metadata/attributes
• Obfuscation
- Tokenization
- Scrubbing
- Masking
• Anonymization
• Encrypted vs. unencrypted
• Data life cycle
- Create
- Use
- Share
- Store
- Archive
- Destroy
• Data inventory and mapping
• Data integrity management
• Data storage, backup, and recovery
- Redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID)
Given a scenario, analyze the security requirements and objectives to provide the appropriate authentication and authorization controls.
• Credential management
- Password repository application
- End-user password storage
- On premises vs. cloud repository
- Hardware key manager
- Privileged access management
• Password policies
- Complexity
- Length
- Character classes
- History
- Maximum/minimum age
- Auditing
- Reversable encryption
• Federation
- Transitive trust
- OpenID
- Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
- Shibboleth
• Access control
- Mandatory access control (MAC)
- Discretionary access control (DAC)
- Role-based access control
- Rule-based access control
- Attribute-based access control
• Protocols
- Remote Authentication Dial-in User Server (RADIUS)
- Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (TACACS)
- Diameter
- Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
- Kerberos
- OAuth
- 802.1X
- Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
• Multifactor authentication (MFA)
- Two-factor authentication (2FA)
- 2-Step Verification
- In-band
- Out-of-band
• One-time password (OTP)
- HMAC-based one-time password (HOTP)
- Time-based one-time password (TOTP)
• Hardware root of trust
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) web token (JWT)
• Attestation and identity proofing
Given a set of requirements, implement secure cloud and virtualization solutions.
1.0 Security Architecture
• Virtualization strategies
- Type 1 vs. Type 2 hypervisors
- Containers
- Emulation
- Application virtualization
- VDI
• Provisioning and deprovisioning
• Middleware
• Metadata and tags
• Deployment models and considerations
- Business directives
- Cost
- Scalability
- Resources
- Location
- Data protection
- Cloud deployment models
- Private
- Public
- Hybrid
- Community
• Hosting models
- Multitenant
- Single-tenant
• Service models
- Software as a service (SaaS)
- Platform as a service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
• Cloud provider limitations
- Internet Protocol (IP) address scheme
- VPC peering
• Extending appropriate on-premises controls
• Storage models
- Object storage/file-based storage
- Database storage
- Block storage
- Blob storage
- Key-value pairs
Explain how cryptography and public key infrastructure (PKI) support security objectives and requirements.
• Privacy and confidentiality requirements
• Integrity requirements
• Non-repudiation
• Compliance and policy requirements
• Common cryptography use cases
- Data at rest
- Data in transit
- Data in process/data in use
- Protection of web services
- Embedded systems
- Key escrow/management
- Mobile security
- Secure authentication
- Smart card
• Common PKI use cases
- Web services
- Email
- Code signing
- Federation
- Trust models
- VPN
- Enterprise and security automation/orchestration
Explain the impact of emerging technologies on enterprise security and privacy.
• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
• Quantum computing
• Blockchain
• Homomorphic encryption
- Private information retrieval
- Secure function evaluation
- Private function evaluation
• Secure multiparty computation
• Distributed consensus
• Big Data
• Virtual/augmented reality
• 3-D printing
• Passwordless authentication
• Nano technology
• Deep learning
- Natural language processing
- Deep fakes
• Biometric impersonation
2.0 Security Operations
Given a scenario, perform threat management activities.
• Intelligence types
- Tactical
- Commodity malware
- Strategic
- Targeted attacks
- Operational
- Threat hunting
- Threat emulation
• Actor types
- Advanced persistent threat (APT)/nation-state
- Insider threat
- Competitor
- Hacktivist
- Script kiddie
- Organized crime
• Threat actor properties
- Resource
- Time
- Money
- Supply chain access
- Create vulnerabilities
- Capabilities/sophistication
- Identifying techniques
• Intelligence collection methods
- Intelligence feeds
- Deep web
- Proprietary
- Open-source intelligence (OSINT)
- Human intelligence (HUMINT)
• Frameworks
- MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, & Common knowledge (ATT&CK)
- ATT&CK for industrial control system (ICS)
- Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis
- Cyber Kill Chain
Given a scenario, analyze indicators of compromise and formulate an appropriate response.
• Indicators of compromise
- Packet capture (PCAP)
- Logs
- Network logs
- Vulnerability logs
- Operating system logs
- Access logs
- NetFlow logs
- Notifications
- FIM alerts
- SIEM alerts
- DLP alerts
- IDS/IPS alerts
- Antivirus alerts
- Notification severity/priorities
- Unusual process activity
• Response
- Firewall rules
- IPS/IDS rules
- ACL rules
- Signature rules
- Behavior rules
- DLP rules
- Scripts/regular expressions
2.0 Security Operations
Given a scenario, perform vulnerability management activities.
• Vulnerability scans
- Credentialed vs. non-credentialed
- Agent-based/server-based
- Criticality ranking
- Active vs. passive
• Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)
- Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format (XCCDF)
- Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL)
- Common Platform Enumeration (CPE)
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
- Common Configuration Enumeration (CCE)
- Asset Reporting Format (ARF)
• Self-assessment vs. third- party vendor assessment
• Patch management
• Information sources
- Advisories
- Bulletins
- Vendor websites
- Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs)
- News reports
Given a scenario, use the appropriate vulnerability assessment and penetration testing methods and tools.
• Methods
- Static analysis
- Dynamic analysis
- Side-channel analysis
- Reverse engineering
- Software
- Hardware
- Wireless vulnerability scan
- Software composition analysis
- Fuzz testing
- Pivoting
- Post-exploitation
- Persistence
• Tools
- SCAP scanner
- Network traffic analyzer
- Vulnerability scanner
- Protocol analyzer
- Port scanner
- HTTP interceptor
- Exploit framework
- Password cracker
• Dependency management
• Requirements
- Scope of work
- Rules of engagement
- Invasive vs. non-invasive
- Asset inventory
- Permissions and access
- Corporate policy considerations
- Facility considerations
- Physical security considerations
- Rescan for corrections/changes
Given a scenario, analyze vulnerabilities and recommend risk mitigations.
2.0 Security Operations
• Vulnerabilities
- Race conditions
- Overflows
- Buffer
- Integer
- Broken authentication
- Unsecure references
- Poor exception handling
- Security misconfiguration
- Improper headers
- Information disclosure
- Certificate errors
- Weak cryptography implementations
- Weak ciphers
- Weak cipher suite implementations
- Software composition analysis
- Use of vulnerable frameworks and software modules
- Use of unsafe functions
- Third-party libraries
- Dependencies
- Code injections/malicious changes
- End of support/end of life
- Regression issues
• Inherently vulnerable system/application
- Client-side processing vs. server-side processing
- JSON/representational state transfer (REST)
- Browser extensions
- Flash
- ActiveX
- Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5)
- Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX)
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
- Machine code vs. bytecode or interpreted vs. emulated
• Attacks
- Directory traversal
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
- Injection
- XML
- LDAP
- Structured Query Language (SQL)
- Command
- Process
- Sandbox escape
- Virtual machine (VM) hopping
- VM escape
- Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)/ route hijacking
- Interception attacks
- Denial-of-service (DoS)/DDoS
- Authentication bypass
- Social engineering
- VLAN hopping
Given a scenario, use processes to reduce risk.
• Proactive and detection
- Hunts
- Developing countermeasures
- Deceptive technologies
- Honeynet
- Honeypot
- Decoy files
- Simulators
- Dynamic network configurations
• Security data analytics
- Processing pipelines
- Data
- Stream
- Indexing and search
- Log collection and curation
- Database activity monitoring
• Preventive
- Antivirus
- Immutable systems
- Hardening
- Sandbox detonation
• Application control
- License technologies
- Allow list vs. block list
- Time of check vs. time of use
- Atomic execution
• Security automation
- Cron/scheduled tasks
- Bash
- PowerShell
- Python
• Physical security
- Review of lighting
- Review of visitor logs
- Camera reviews
- Open spaces vs. confined spaces
2.0 Security Operations
Given an incident, implement the appropriate response.
• Event classifications
- False positive
- False negative
- True positive
- True negative
• Triage event
• Preescalation tasks
• Incident response process
- Preparation
- Detection
- Analysis
- Containment
- Recovery
- Lessons learned
• Specific response playbooks/processes
- Scenarios
- Ransomware
- Data exfiltration
- Social engineering
- Non-automated response methods
- Automated response methods
- Runbooks
- SOAR
• Communication plan
• Stakeholder management
Explain the importance of forensic concepts.
• Legal vs. internal corporate purposes
• Forensic process
- Identification
- Evidence collection
- Chain of custody
- Order of volatility
- Memory snapshots
- Images
- Cloning
- Evidence preservation
- Secure storage
- Backups
- Analysis
- Forensics tools
- Verification
- Presentation
• Integrity preservation
- Hashing
• Cryptanalysis
• Steganalysis
Given a scenario, use forensic analysis tools.
• File carving tools
- Foremost
- Strings
• Binary analysis tools
- Hex dump
- Binwalk
- Ghidra
- GNU Project debugger (GDB)
- OllyDbg
- readelf
- objdump
- strace
- ldd
- file
• Analysis tools
- ExifTool
- Nmap
- Aircrack-ng
- Volatility
- The Sleuth Kit
- Dynamically vs. statically linked
• Imaging tools
- Forensic Toolkit (FTK) Imager
- dd
• Hashing utilities
- sha256sum
- ssdeep
• Live collection vs. post-mortem tools
- netstat
- ps
- vmstat
- ldd
- lsof
- netcat
- tcpdump
- conntrack
- Wireshark
3.0 Security Engineering and Cryptography
Given a scenario, apply secure configurations to enterprise mobility.
• Managed configurations
- Application control
- Password
- MFA requirements
- Token-based access
- Patch repository
- Firmware Over-the-Air
- Remote wipe
- WiFi
- WiFi Protected Access (WPA2/3)
- Device certificates
- Profiles
- Bluetooth
- Near-field communication (NFC)
- Peripherals
- Geofencing
- VPN settings
- Geotagging
- Certificate management
- Full device encryption
- Tethering
- Airplane mode
- Location services
- DNS over HTTPS (DoH)
- Custom DNS
• Deployment scenarios
- Bring your own device (BYOD)
- Corporate-owned
- Corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE)
- Choose your own device (CYOD)
• Security considerations
- Unauthorized remote activation/ deactivation of devices or features
- Encrypted and unencrypted communication concerns
- Physical reconnaissance
- Personal data theft
- Health privacy
- Implications of wearable devices
- Digital forensics of collected data
- Unauthorized application stores
- Jailbreaking/rooting
- Side loading
- Containerization
- Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and carrier differences
- Supply chain issues
- eFuse
Given a scenario, configure and implement endpoint security controls.
• Hardening techniques
- Removing unneeded services
- Disabling unused accounts
- Images/templates
- Remove end-of-life devices
- Remove end-of-support devices
- Local drive encryption
- Enable no execute (NX)/ execute never (XN) bit
- Disabling central processing unit (CPU) virtualization support
- Secure encrypted enclaves/ memory encryption
- Shell restrictions
- Address space layout randomization (ASLR)
• Processes
- Patching
- Firmware
- Application
- Logging
- Monitoring
• Mandatory access control
- Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux)/ Security-Enhanced
Android (SEAndroid)
- Kernel vs. middleware
• Trustworthy computing
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
- Secure Boot
- Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)/basic input/ output system (BIOS) protection
- Attestation services
- Hardware security module (HSM)
- Measured boot
- Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
• Compensating controls
- Antivirus
- Application controls
- Host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS)/Host-based intrusion prevention system (HIPS)
- Host-based firewall
- Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
- Redundant hardware
- Self-healing hardware
- User and entity behavior analytics (UEBA)
3.0 Security Engineering and Cryptography
Explain security considerations impacting specific sectors and operational technologies.
• Embedded
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- System on a chip (SoC)
- Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
- Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
• ICS/supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
- Programmable logic controller (PLC)
- Historian
- Ladder logic
- Safety instrumented system
- Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC)
• Protocols
- Controller Area Network (CAN) bus
- Modbus
- Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3)
- Zigbee
- Common Industrial Protocol (CIP)
- Data distribution service
• Sectors
- Energy
- Manufacturing
- Healthcare
- Public utilities
- Public services
- Facility services
Explain how cloud technology adoption impacts organizational security.
• Automation and orchestration
• Encryption configuration
• Logs
- Availability
- Collection
- Monitoring
- Configuration
- Alerting
• Monitoring configurations
• Key ownership and location
• Key life-cycle management
• Backup and recovery methods
- Cloud as business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR)
- Primary provider BCDR
- Alternative provider BCDR
• Infrastructure vs. serverless computing
• Application virtualization
• Software-defined networking
• Misconfigurations
• Collaboration tools
• Storage configurations
- Bit splitting
- Data dispersion
• Cloud access security broker (CASB)
Given a business requirement, implement the appropriate PKI solution.
• PKI hierarchy
- Certificate authority (CA)
- Subordinate/intermediate CA
- Registration authority (RA)
• Certificate types
- Wildcard certificate
- Extended validation
- Multidomain
- General purpose
• Certificate usages/profiles/templates
- Client authentication
- Server authentication
- Digital signatures
- Code signing
• Extensions
- Common name (CN)
- Subject alternate name (SAN)
• Trusted providers
• Trust model
• Cross-certification
• Configure profiles
• Life-cycle management
• Public and private keys
• Digital signature
• Certificate pinning
• Certificate stapling
• Certificate signing requests (CSRs)
• Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) vs. certificate revocation list (CRL)
• HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
3.0 Security Engineering and Cryptography
Given a business requirement, implement the appropriate cryptographic protocols and algorithms.
• Hashing
- Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA)
- Hash-based message authentication code (HMAC)
- Message digest (MD)
- RACE integrity primitives
evaluation message digest (RIPEMD)
- Poly1305
• Symmetric algorithms
- Modes of operation
- Galois/Counter Mode (GCM)
- Electronic codebook (ECB)
- Cipher block chaining (CBC)
- Counter (CTR)
- Output feedback (OFB)
- Stream and block
- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
- Triple digital encryption standard (3DES)
- ChaCha
- Salsa20
• Asymmetric algorithms
- Key agreement
- Diffie-Hellman
- Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH)
- Signing
- Digital signature algorithm (DSA)
- Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA)
- Elliptic-curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA)
• Protocols
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/ Transport Layer Security (TLS)
- Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)
- Internet Protocol Security (IPSec)
- Secure Shell (SSH)
- EAP
• Elliptic curve cryptography
- P256
- P384
• Forward secrecy
• Authenticated encryption with associated data
• Key stretching
- Password-based key derivation function 2 (PBKDF2)
- Bcrypt
Given a scenario, troubleshoot issues with cryptographic implementations.
• Implementation and configuration issues
- Validity dates
- Wrong certificate type
- Revoked certificates
- Incorrect name
- Chain issues
- Invalid root or intermediate CAs
- Self-signed
- Weak signing algorithm
- Weak cipher suite
- Incorrect permissions
- Cipher mismatches
- Downgrade
• Keys
- Mismatched
- Improper key handling
- Embedded keys
- Rekeying
- Exposed private keys
- Crypto shredding
- Cryptographic obfuscation
- Key rotation
- Compromised keys
4.0 Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Given a set of requirements, apply the appropriate risk strategies.
• Risk assessment
- Likelihood
- Impact
- Qualitative vs. quantitative
- Exposure factor
- Asset value
- Total cost of ownership (TCO)
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Mean time to recovery (MTTR)
- Mean time between failure (MTBF)
- Annualized loss expectancy (ALE)
- Annualized rate of occurrence (ARO)
- Single loss expectancy (SLE)
- Gap analysis
• Risk handling techniques
- Transfer
- Accept
- Avoid
- Mitigate
• Risk types
- Inherent
- Residual
- Exceptions
• Risk management life cycle
- Identify
- Assess
- Control
- People
- Process
- Technology
- Protect
- Detect
- Respond
- Restore
- Review
- Frameworks
• Risk tracking
- Risk register
- Key performance indicators
- Scalability
- Reliability
- Availability
- Key risk indicators
• Risk appetite vs. risk tolerance
- Tradeoff analysis
- Usability vs. security requirements
• Policies and security practices
- Separation of duties
- Job rotation
- Mandatory vacation
- Least privilege
- Employment and termination procedures
- Training and awareness for users
- Auditing requirements and frequency
Explain the importance of managing and mitigating vendor risk.
• Shared responsibility model (roles/responsibilities)
- Cloud service provider (CSP)
- Geographic location
- Infrastructure
- Compute
- Storage
- Networking
- Services
- Client
- Encryption
- Operating systems
- Applications
- Data
• Vendor lock-in and vendor lockout
• Vendor viability
- Financial risk
- Merger or acquisition risk
• Meeting client requirements
- Legal
- Change management
- Staff turnover
- Device and technical configurations
• Support availability
• Geographical considerations
• Supply chain visibility
• Incident reporting requirements
• Source code escrows
• Ongoing vendor assessment tools
• Third-party dependencies
- Code
- Hardware
- Modules
• Technical considerations
- Technical testing
- Network segmentation
- Transmission control
- Shared credentials
4.0 Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Explain compliance frameworks and legal considerations, and their organizational impact.
• Security concerns of integrating diverse industries
• Data considerations
- Data sovereignty
- Data ownership
- Data classifications
- Data retention
- Data types
- Health
- Financial
- Intellectual property
- Personally identifiable information (PII)
- Data removal, destruction, and sanitization
• Geographic considerations
- Location of data
- Location of data subject
- Location of cloud provider
• Third-party attestation of compliance
• Regulations, accreditations, and standards
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
- Common Criteria
- Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security Trust Assurance and Risk (STAR)
• Legal considerations
- Due diligence
- Due care
- Export controls
- Legal holds
- E-discovery
• Contract and agreement types
- Service-level agreement (SLA)
- Master service agreement (MSA)
- Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
- Memorandum of understanding (MOU)
- Interconnection security agreement (ISA)
- Operational-level agreement
- Privacy-level agreement
Explain the importance of business continuity and disaster recovery concepts.
• Business impact analysis
- Recovery point objective
- Recovery time objective
- Recovery service level
- Mission essential functions
• Privacy impact assessment
• Disaster recovery plan (DRP)/ business continuity plan (BCP)
- Cold site
- Warm site
- Hot site
- Mobile site
• Incident response plan
- Roles/responsibilities
- After-action reports
• Testing plans
- Checklist
- Walk-through
- Tabletop exercises
- Full interruption test
- Parallel test/simulation test
CASP+ (CAS-004) Acronym List
The following is a list of acronyms that appear on the CompTIA CASP+ certification exam. Candidates are encouraged to review the complete list and attain a working knowledge of all listed acronyms as part of a comprehensive exam preparation program.
ACRONYM SPELLED OUT ACRONYM SPELLED OUT
2FA Two-Factor Authentication CSR Certificate Signing Request
3DES Triple Digital Encryption Standard CSRF Cross-Site Request Forgery
ACL Access Control List CVE Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
AES Advanced Encryption Standard CVSS Common Vulnerability Scoring System
AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript and XML CYOD Choose Your Own Device
ALE Annualized Loss Expectancy DAC Discretionary Access Control
API Application Programming Interface DAST Dynamic Application Security Testing
APT Advanced Persistent Threat DDoS Distributed Denial of Service
ARF Asset Reporting Format DEP Data Execution Prevention
ARO Annualized Rate of Occurrence DLP Data Loss Prevention
ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuit DNP3 Distributed Network Protocol 3
ASLR Address Space Layout Randomization DNS Domain Name System
ATT&CK Adversarial Tactics, Techniques DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions
& Common Knowledge DoH DNS over HTTPS
BCDR Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery DoS Denial of Service
BCP Business Continuity Plan DRM Digital Rights Management
BGP Border Gateway Protocol DRP Disaster Recovery Plan
BIOS Basic Input/Output System DSA Digital Signature Algorithm
BYOD Bring Your Own Device EAP Extensible Authentication Protocol
CA Certificate Authority ECB Electronic Codebook
CAN Controller Area Network ECDH Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman
CASB Cloud Access Security Broker ECDSA Elliptic-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
CBC Cipher Block Chaining EDR Endpoint Detection and Response
CCE Common Configuration Enumeration ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
CI/CD Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery ESB Enterprise Service Bus
CIP Common Industrial Protocol FIM File Integrity Monitoring
CMDB Configuration Database Management FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array
CMMI Capability Maturity Model Integration FTK Forensic Toolkit
CN Common Name GCM Galois/Counter Mode
COPE Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
COPPA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act HIDS Host-based Intrusion Detection System
CPE Common Platform Enumeration HIPS Host-based Intrusion Prevention System
CPU Central Processing Unit HMAC Hash-based Message Authentication Code
CRL Certificate Revocation List HOTP HMAC-based One-Time Password
CRM Customer Relationship Management HSM Hardware Security Module
CSA Cloud Security Alliance HSTS HTTP Strict Transport Security
CSP Cloud Service Provider HTML Hypertext Markup Language
ACRONYM SPELLED OUT ACRONYM SPELLED OUT
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol PKI Public Key Infrastructure
HUMINT Human Intelligence PLC Programmable Logic Controller
HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning PSK Pre-Shared Key
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service QoS Quality of Service
IAST Interactive Application Security Testing RA Registration Authority
ICS Industrial Control System RACE Research and Development in Advanced
IDS Intrusion Detection System Communications Technologies in Europe
IoT Internet of Things RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-in User Server
IP Internet Protocol RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
IPS Intrusion Prevention System RDP Remote Desktop Protocol
IPSec Internet Protocol Security REST Representational State Transfer
ISA Interconnection Security Agreement RF Radio Frequency
ISAC Information Sharing Analysis Center RIPEMD RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation
ISO International Organization for Standardization Message Digest
ISP Internet Service Provider ROI Return on Investment
JSON JavaScript Object Notation RPO Recovery Point Objective
JWT JSON Web Token RSA Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman
KVM Keyboard, Video, and Mouse RTO Recovery Time Objective
LAN Local Area Network RTU Remote Terminal Unit
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol S/MIME Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
MAC Mandatory Access Control SaaS Software as a Service
MD Message Digest SAE Simultaneous Authentication of Equals
MFA Multifactor Authentication SAML Security Assertion Markup Language
MOU Memorandum of Understanding SAN Subject Alternate Name
MSA Master Service Agreement SASE Secure Access Service Edge
MTBF Mean Time Between Failure SAST Static Application Security Testing
MTTR Mean Time to Recovery SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
NAC Network Access Control SCAP Security Content Automation Protocol
NAT Network Address Translation SDN Software-Defined Networking
NDA Non-Disclosure Agreement SDR Software-Defined Radio
NFC Near Field Communication SD-WAN Software-Defined Wide Area Network
NGFW Next Generation Firewall SEAndroid Security Enhanced Android
NIC Network Interface Controller SED Self-Encrypting Drive
NIDS Network Intrusion Detection System SELinux Security Enhanced Linux
NIPS Network Intrusion Prevention System SFTP SSH File Transfer Protocol
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology SHA Secure Hashing Algorithm
NX No Execute SIEM Security Information Event Management
OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol SLA Service-Level Agreement
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer SLE Single Loss Expectancy
OFB Output Feedback SMB Server Message Block
OS Operating System SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol
OSINT Open-Source Intelligence SOA Start of Authority
OTP One-Time Password SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
OVAL Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language SOAR Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response
OWASP Open Web Application Security Project SoC System-on-Chip
PaaS Platform as a Service SPAN Switched Port Analyzer
PBKDF2 Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 SQL Structured Query Language
PBX Private Branch Exchange SSH Secure Shell
PCAP Packet Capture SSL Secure Sockets Layer
PCI DSS Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard SSO Single Sign-On
PGP Pretty Good Privacy STAR Security Trust Assurance and Risk
PII Personal Identifiable Information TACACS Terminal Access Controller Access Control System
ACRONYM SPELLED OUT
TAP Test Access Points
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
TLS Transport Layer Security
TOTP Time-Based One-Time Password
TPM Trusted Platform Module
UEBA User and Entity Behavior Analytics UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface UTM Unified Threat Management
VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
VLAN Virtual Local Area Network
VM Virtual Machine
VNET Virtual Network
VNET Virtual Network
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
VPC Virtual Private Cloud
VPN Virtual Private Network
WAF Web Application Firewall
WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy
WIDS Wireless Intrusion Detection System WIPS Wireless Intrusion Prevention System WPA WiFi Protected Access
WS Web Services
XCCDF Extensible Configuration Checklist Description Format
XML Extensible Markup Language
XN Execute Never
XSS Cross-Site Scripting
CASP+ Proposed Hardware and Software List
CompTIA has included this sample list of hardware and software to assist candidates as they prepare for the CASP+ exam. This list may also be helpful for training companies that wish to create a lab component for their training offering. The bulleted lists below each topic are sample lists and are not exhaustive.
EQUIPMENT
• Laptops
• Basic server hardware (email server/ Active Directory server, trusted OS)
• Tokens
• Mobile devices (Android and iOS)
• Switches (managed switch)—IPv6 capable
• Gateway/router—IPv6 capable (wired/wireless)
• Firewall
• VoIP
• Proxy server
• Load balancer
• NIPS
• HSM
• Access points
• Crypto cards
• Smart cards
• Smart card reader
• Biometric devices
• Arduino/Raspberry Pi
• SCADA system: RTUs and PLCs
SPARE HARDWARE
• Keyboards
• Cables
• NICs
• Power supplies
• Removable media
• High-power graphics card
TOOLS
• Spectrum analyzer
• Antennas
• RF hacking hardware/SDR
• RSA token
• KVM switch
SOFTWARE
• Virtualized appliances (firewall, IPS, SIEM solution, RSA authentication, asterisk PBX)
• Windows
• Linux distros
• VMware Player/VirtualBox
• Vulnerability assessment tools
• SSH and Telnet utilities
• Threat modeling tool
• IPS/IDS, HIPS
• WIPS
• Forensic tools
• Certificate authority
• Kali and all Kali tool sets
• Remediation software
• GNS and associated firmware
• Log analysis tools
• APIs
• ELK Stack
• Graylog
• Python 3+
• Security Onion tools
• Metasploitable 2
OTHER
• Sample logs
• Sample network traffic (packet capture)
• Sample organizational structure
• Sample network documentation
• Broadband Internet connection
• 4G/5G and/or hotspot
• Computer and mobile peripheral devices
• Cloud services
• Visio/Excel
• Open Office
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