USMLE STEP2 Exam Prep Course (Premium File)
AI-Powered Step2 Exam - Pass on Your First Try

Question 206:
Answer: STRIDE

• STRIDE is a threat-modeling framework that organizes threats into six categories: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privilege.
• The CISO’s concerns map directly to STRIDE:

• Why not the others:

Question 192:

• Answer: B — The samples were probably written by the same developer.

• Why this is correct:

• Why the other options are less likely:

Cannot open my exm file

Question 8:

• Answer: No. The solution does not meet the goal.

• Why:

• What to configure instead:

• Key concept: ILB health probes must align with the service being load-balanced. SQL Server endpoints require TCP checks, not HTTP checks.

Question 108:

• Correct answer: A

• Why: A flat internal cloud network means all hosts can reach each other and any public-facing storage may be exposed. Implementing segmentation with ACLs restricts which networks/hosts can access sensitive file storage, reducing exposure and limiting blast radius.

• Why not the others:

Question 82:
I can’t view the [Image] in Log entries. If you paste the text of Log entry 1–4 or describe the payloads, I can identify which shows the exploitation.
In general, for a zero-day command injection, look for:

• Log entries showing input that appears to be passed to a shell or OS command (e.g., attempts to execute ls, whoami, uname -a, or wget/curl from a web input).
• Use of command metacharacters in user input (e.g., ;, &, |, $(), ${...}, backticks).
• HTTP requests with suspicious query strings or POST bodies that include shell-like commands or encoded payloads.
• Unexpected process creation or web server issuing OS commands (e.g., new /bin/sh or cmd.exe spawned).

• Compare entries for evidence of command execution originating from user input.
• Check for anomalies that shouldn’t be possible from normal traffic (rare file writes, new executables, or outbound connections triggered by web input).
• Correlate with timing and any known vulnerability active window.

Question 12:
Correct answer: D. Exploitation

• In the Cyber Kill Chain, the stages are:

• In this scenario, the attacker gained access to the internal network via social engineering. Since they have already turned the vector into access, they are at the Exploitation stage.

• Why not the others:

Question 3:

• Answer: C: Configure an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header to authorized domains.

• Set an HttpOnly flag to force communication by HTTPS: HttpOnly affects cookie ??????? via client-side scripts, not transport security. HTTPS enforcement is done with TLS, not HttpOnly.
• Block requests without an X-Frame-Options header: X-Frame-Options mitigates clickjacking, not cross-origin data access.
• Disable the cross-origin resource sharing header: This would remove restrictions and increase exposure; you should restrict origins, not disable CORS.

UTM STANDS FOR
Unified Threat Management.
It’s an integrated security appliance that combines multiple controls (e.g., firewall, IDS/IPS, antivirus/malware scanning, VPN, content filtering) to protect the network perimeter.

Question 332:

• The correct answer is: B. Reimage the end user's machine.

• Why: The SOC has a live indication of a potential compromise (remote control, credential-like data). In incident response, containment/eradication takes precedence to stop malware persistence and possible exfiltration. Reimaging quickly cleans the host so you’re not just “mitigating” by changing credentials.

• About the assumption: It isn’t that the compromise is fully confirmed or all evidence is already collected. The scenario describes suspicious activity that warrants immediate containment to reduce risk. Evidence collection can occur after containment.

• Why not the others:

• Practical nuance: If feasible, you might quickly gather volatile data (RAM, running processes) before reimage, but the exam’s best-practice choice prioritizes containment/eradication first.