AICPA CPA-Auditing Exam Prep
CPA Auditing and Attestation (AUD) (Page 36 )

• Which host first communicated with the suspected malicious source
• Whether that host initiated suspicious traffic or merely received it
• Which other hosts show evidence of infection, such as connections from the originating host
• Which hosts have no related suspicious activity and are therefore clean

• An outbound connection to a suspicious external address
• A downloaded or executed malicious file
• Later lateral connections from that host to other internal systems
• Firewall logs showing the direction and timing of the traffic

• GPS coordinates
• Date and time the image was taken
• Camera or device information
• Image dimensions and software used

• Log data: Records generated by systems or applications, not normally embedded in image files.
• Encrypted data: Information intentionally encoded to prevent unauthorized access.
• Sensitive data: A broad classification, not the specific type of information being extracted.

• Form layout
• Related lists
• Dictionary settings
• UI policies
• Client scripts
• Views and field visibility

• Personalization usually affects only the individual user.
• System configuration can affect other users, depending on its scope and conditions.

• No servers or database infrastructure to provision.
• Uses standard SQL.
• Supports formats such as JSON, CSV, Parquet, and ORC.
• You typically define the table structure with AWS Glue Data Catalog or Athena’s own schema definitions.
• Charges are generally based on the amount of data scanned, so partitioning and columnar formats can reduce cost.
• It does not copy the data into a separate database; it reads the files in S3 when you run a query.

• JDBC
• SnowSQL
• Snowflake Web Interface (UI)
• ODBC
• Python connector

• Constrained VMs: VMs whose workloads are experiencing resource pressure, such as insufficient CPU or memory. They may need additional resources or optimization.
• Overprovisioned VMs: VMs allocated more CPU, memory, or storage than their workloads require. Their resources may be reclaimed or reduced.

• Underprovisioned VMs: This is not the predefined view identified for this report question.
• Zombie VMs: These are typically inactive or unused VMs and are useful for cleanup, but they are not the two views specifically intended here to identify inefficient resource allocation.

• terraform apply
• terraform destroy

Why this is correct

• Each user authenticates with their own Google account.
• Google manages the user’s SSH key association.
• IAM controls who can access instances.
• Access can be audited by user identity, so security can determine who accessed a VM.
• Granting the role to a Google group avoids managing permissions individually.

Why the others don’t apply

• A: A shared private key is difficult to distribute securely and cannot reliably identify which employee used it.
• B: Manually collecting and deploying keys on every instance is operationally inefficient and complicates auditing.
• D: A project-wide shared key has the same identity and key-management problems as option A. It also does not provide per-user accountability.

• Firewall
• Intrusion prevention and detection
• Antivirus or antimalware
• Web and email filtering
• Virtual private networking (VPN)
• Sometimes content filtering and centralized reporting

• httprint fingerprints Web servers by analyzing their HTTP responses. It can help identify the Web server type and sometimes its version, even when the banner has been modified or hidden.
• Wget is mainly used to download files or Web content.
• WinSSLMiM is associated with SSL man-in-the-middle testing.
• Whisker is an older Web-server vulnerability assessment tool, especially associated with IIS, rather than the expected banner-grabbing tool here.

• # Development
• # Testing
• # Production

• Separate endpoints: relate to compute or connectivity, not dashboard labels.
• Separate queries: retrieve or transform data but do not designate visual sections.
• Direct text written into the dashboard in editing mode: dashboards use text boxes, typically with Markdown formatting, rather than arbitrary text placed directly on the canvas.

• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Malicious or malformed web requests
• Some application-layer attacks

• Layer 4 firewall: Filters based mainly on IP addresses, ports, and transport protocols; it cannot deeply inspect web application content.
• NGFW: Provides advanced network filtering and may include application awareness, but a WAF is more specifically designed to protect web applications.
• UTM: Combines several security functions in one appliance, but it is not the most targeted solution for a web portal.

• Share files with the wrong people
• Use public links unnecessarily
• Fail to classify sensitive data
• Upload data to unauthorized services
• Misunderstand company sharing policies

• A — Step-up authentication: Helps protect administrator accounts, but does not directly address improper file sharing by users.
• C — Password complexity: Helps reduce password attacks, not accidental data disclosure.
• D — Mobile device management: Secures managed mobile devices, but does not directly control file-sharing behavior across the organization.

• Matching hashes: The software is likely unchanged.
• Different hashes: The software or its contents have been modified.

• Encryption: Protects confidentiality, not primarily integrity.
• Baselines: Document expected configurations and support comparison, but hashing is more directly suited to verifying file integrity.
• Tokenization: Replaces sensitive data with tokens and is unrelated to software tampering.

• Disabling a compromised account
• Blocking a malicious IP address
• Isolating an endpoint
• Creating or escalating an incident ticket

• Virus signatures: Primarily associated with antivirus or endpoint protection.
• Security agent deployment: Usually handled by endpoint-management or security-agent platforms.
• Vulnerability scanning: Typically performed by vulnerability-management tools.

• Azure DevOps Analytics views are accessed through the Power BI Azure DevOps (Boards only) connector.
• This connector authenticates directly to Azure DevOps Services and lets you select an Analytics view.
• Analytics views allow filtering and shaping data in the cloud before Power BI loads it.
• Azure DevOps Server (Boards only) is for an on-premises Azure DevOps Server instance, not Azure DevOps cloud.
• A generic OData Feed connection can access OData endpoints, but it is not the purpose-built connector for Azure DevOps Analytics views.
• “OData queries” describes the underlying technology or query approach, not the most appropriate Azure DevOps connector choice here.

• Admin access to the deployment pipeline
• Contributor access to the Development and Test workspaces
• Viewer access to the Production workspace

DAX 
Previous Year Sales = 
CALCULATE( 
    [Total Sales], 
    PARALLELPERIOD('DATE'[Month], -1, YEAR) 
)

• CALCULATE evaluates [Total Sales] after modifying the filter context.
• PARALLELPERIOD shifts the current date period. -1 moves it backward, and YEAR specifies a one-year shift.
• 'DATE'[Month] is the date column used for the time calculation. In a proper date table, this should be a real date column or an appropriate calendar column—not merely text such as "January".

• Honeypots: Decoy systems designed to attract attackers. Legitimate users should not access them, so activity there is a strong indication of unauthorized access.
• DNS sinkholes: Redirect requests for known malicious domains to a controlled internal destination instead of the real attacker infrastructure. Security teams can then identify infected systems making those requests.

• Tokenization: Replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens; it protects data but does not detect intruders.
• CI/CD: Software development and deployment processes.
• Threat modeling: Identifies potential threats before or during system design, rather than detecting successful infiltration.
• Data obfuscation: Makes information harder to understand, but is not an attacker-detection mechanism.

• The server accepts unauthenticated image uploads, which creates an opportunity for an attacker to upload a malicious script disguised as an image or using an unexpected file type.
• A web shell is a malicious script placed on a web server that gives an attacker remote command execution through web requests.
• The suspicious process and outbound connection to a low-reputation IP are consistent with the attacker using the web shell to execute commands or establish communication with command-and-control infrastructure.

• Worm: Usually self-propagates across multiple systems; the scenario focuses on the upload page.
• Cryptocurrency mining: Possible, but there is no indication of resource-intensive mining activity or insider involvement.
• Rootkit Trojan over RDP: The evidence points to the vulnerable upload functionality, not an exposed RDP service.

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk and take no additional action.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk through controls.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity or situation causing the risk.
• Transfer: Shift responsibility or financial impact to another party, such as through insurance or a contract.

• /27 (255.255.255.224)

• /26 (255.255.255.192)

• /25: Creates only 2 subnets, not 3
• /28: Provides only 14 usable hosts per subnet

• The job keeps 31 days of regular restore points. A backup from the week of January 1 is older than 31 days by March 20, so it is no longer expected to remain on the performance tier.
• It is also a weekly GFS full backup, retained for 14 weeks. Therefore, it is still protected and has not been deleted.
• In a Scale-out Backup Repository, older backups can be moved from the performance tier to the capacity tier—typically object storage—according to the configured offload policy.
• The archive tier is not selected because the question’s configuration does not indicate that the backup has been archived there.

• sn_si_admin is an SIR administrator role.
• The prefix helps prevent naming conflicts between applications.
• It does not refer to a “Secure Identity token” or an instance security check.

• Three DHCP scopes: Each VLAN has its own IPv4 subnet. DHCP scopes are subnet-specific, so create one scope for:

• Two DHCP relays: DHCP client discovery begins as a broadcast, and broadcasts do not cross routers or VLAN boundaries. Therefore, configure a DHCP relay on the router or Layer 3 switch interface for each client VLAN.

• C — Create a form extension and implement validation

• D — Use Chain of Command (CoC) with a form extension class

• Domain controllers, because the requirement specifically excludes them. However, note that both member servers and domain controllers run Windows Server, so OS targeting alone cannot distinguish them unless the targeting option allows selecting the relevant server role/version. In the usual exam interpretation, target the applicable server OS category.
• Client computers, because they run a client Windows operating system.

• Domain: Targets membership in a domain, not the computer’s operating-system type.
• Security Group: Would require creating and maintaining a group containing all member servers, increasing administrative effort.
• Environment Variable: Not designed to reliably identify member servers.

• Footprinting is reconnaissance used to map an organization’s network, hosts, naming conventions, and services.
• A name such as fshare.int.complia.org suggests an internal file-sharing host (fshare) and an internal naming structure (int).
• This can reveal useful information to an attacker before attempting exploitation.

• ISP-assigned address space: Usually determined through public registration and DNS data, not an internal hostname.
• DNS sinkhole bypass: Would involve avoiding redirected malicious-domain queries.
• Initial access: DNS reconnaissance alone does not compromise the server.
• Data exfiltration: DNS tunneling typically generates many encoded or unusually long subdomain queries, not simply a meaningful internal hostname.

• Training data for potential bias before model training
• Trained models for bias in predictions
• Model features to help explain how they influence predictions

• A: RAG workflows are typically built using services such as Amazon Bedrock, knowledge bases, and data sources.
• B: Monitoring model quality in production is primarily associated with SageMaker Model Monitor.
• C: Documenting model details is handled by capabilities such as SageMaker Model Cards.

1. Initiation

1. Planning

1. Execution

1. Monitoring and controlling

1. Closing

• terraform init is normally required first, especially for a new or changed working directory. It installs providers/modules and configures the backend.
• terraform plan previews the proposed changes.
• terraform apply applies those changes. It also creates a plan internally if you have not supplied a saved plan.

text 
terraform init 
terraform validate       # optional but recommended 
terraform plan 
terraform apply

• Bronze: Raw ingested data
• Silver: Cleaned, validated, and transformed data
• Gold: Business-level data for analytics, dashboards, and reporting

Step 1: Calculate the rights issue price

Step 2: Calculate the number of new shares

Step 3: Calculate the value after the issue and project

• Rights issue proceeds: $21.6m
• Project NPV: $5m

Step 4: Calculate the theoretical ex-rights price

• A is incorrect: Flow Debugger is for debugging Salesforce Flows, not Trust Layer masking.
• B is incomplete/misleading: Requesting audit data may be part of reviewing the results, but collection and storage must first be enabled.
• C is correct: It describes the initial validation step.

• Denial-of-service: Prevents users from accessing a service; it does not normally redirect them.
• Social engineering: Manipulates people into taking an action, such as clicking a malicious link, but does not directly alter DNS resolution.
• ARP spoofing: Associates the attacker’s MAC address with another device’s IP address on a local network. It can intercept traffic, but the described website redirection is most specifically DNS poisoning.

DAX 
Blue Sales = 
CALCULATE( 
    [Total Sales], 
    KEEPFILTERS('Product'[Color] = "Blue") 
)

• CALCULATE evaluates [Total Sales] after applying an additional filter.
• 'Product'[Color] = "Blue" restricts the calculation to blue products.
• KEEPFILTERS ensures the existing filter context is preserved. For example, filters for year, region, or customer remain active. If Color is already filtered, the blue condition is applied as an intersection rather than replacing the existing filter.
• Avoid ALL, because it removes filters and would not maintain the existing context.

• On VirtualNetworkA: enable Allow gateway transit.
• On VirtualNetworkB: enable Use remote gateways.

• C. An auto-labeling policy for a retention label
• D. A retention label

1. Create a retention label configured to:

1. Create an auto-labeling policy that detects the built-in Credit Card Number sensitive information type (SIT) and automatically applies the retention label to matching messages and documents.

• Sales process: Controls which Opportunity Stage values are available.
• Record type: Associates the appropriate sales process with a business scenario and controls available picklist values.
• Page layout: Controls which fields are displayed and whether they are required or read-only.

• Energy Market Team 1 ? Record Type 1, Sales Process 1, Page Layout 1
• Energy Market Team 2 ? Record Type 2, Sales Process 2, Page Layout 2
• Services/Installation Team ? Record Type 3, Sales Process 3, Page Layout 3

• Create a CodeCommit repository in the secondary Region.
• Use CodeBuild to run a Git mirror operation from the primary repository to the secondary repository.
• Use EventBridge to detect relevant repository events, such as a pull request being merged.
• Invoke a Lambda function, which starts the CodeBuild project.

• B: Amazon S3 is object storage, not a Git repository that developers can use as a CodeCommit remote.
• C: CodeArtifact is intended for packages and artifacts, not source-code repository mirroring.
• D: An AWS Cloud9 environment is not an appropriate automated replication mechanism and would require manual or persistent infrastructure management.

• Data Cloud combines data from multiple systems.
• It resolves and organizes that data into a unified customer view.
• That unified view enables downstream actions such as personalized campaigns, segmentation, analytics, and activation.

• A = core platform value
• D = a resulting business use case or benefit

• C: Develop the rule in the Rules Editor, define the events, match, and condition sections, then use the test rule feature. This directly validates the YARA-L rule without enabling it in production.
• A: UDM Search can help investigate data and refine filters, but it does not fully test YARA-L logic—especially complex event joins, match windows, and conditions.

• Due diligence: Investigating and evaluating a third party before entering into or continuing a business relationship.
• Attestation: An independent party provides assurance about an organization’s claims or controls. A SOC 2 examination is an example of an attestation engagement, but the analyst requesting and reviewing the report is performing due diligence.
• Internal audit: Reviews the organization’s own internal controls.
• Penetration testing: Actively tests systems for exploitable vulnerabilities.

• Initial Intrusion: The compromised VPN account and stolen phishing credentials describe how the attacker first gained access, but that happened months earlier.
• Persistence: The scheduled tasks and recurring C2 connections show how the attacker maintained and automated continued access.
• Search and Exfiltration: This would involve locating and transferring data. The scenario does not primarily describe data discovery or theft.
• Cleanup: Cleanup involves removing evidence or covering tracks. Obfuscated scripts may make detection harder, but the main behavior here is maintaining access.

1. Version 1.0.0.0 — original published version
2. Version 2.0.0.0 — newly created and published version
3. Version 3.0.0.0 — new version created when version 1 is restored

1. insert con; ? 1
2. Database.setSavepoint(); ? 2
3. update con; ? 3
4. Database.rollback(sp_admin); ? 4

• Unsafe images: Requires image/content moderation before the image is processed.
• Hidden instructions embedded in images: These are indirect prompt injections contained in untrusted image content or extracted text, not necessarily in the user’s typed prompt.

• state preserves the client’s original context, such as the specific idea URL the user requested.
• The portal sends that value in the OAuth authorization request.
• Salesforce returns it after authorization, allowing the portal to redirect the user to the original idea rather than the Ideas home page.

• Label applied does not automatically exclude a file from Copilot.
• Encryption/usage rights determine whether Copilot can access the file’s content.
• If the user has no permission under Label2, File3 should be unavailable to Copilot for that user.
• File3’s label might be inherited by derived content only if File3 was actually processed and contributed by an authorized user; it should not be treated as contributing merely because it exists in the source set.