CFA CFA I Exam Prep
CFA Level I Chartered Financial Analyst (Page 15 )

• A. PsFile — Correct: Displays files opened remotely on a system. This reveals shared resources and user activity.
• B. UserInfo — Correct: Gathers information about user accounts, supporting account and privilege enumeration.
• C. PsPasswd — Answer key lists it: This is questionable. PsPasswd is primarily used to change passwords remotely, not enumerate information. The key may classify it broadly as a Windows account-management tool, but it is not a strong enumeration example.
• D. WinSSLMiM — Incorrect: Used for SSL man-in-the-middle activity, not enumeration.

• Correct exam answer: A — HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• The relevant location is associated with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM.
• The SAM does not store passwords in plain text; it stores password hashes.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER contains settings for the currently logged-in user, not the account-password database.
• HKEY_USERS contains user profiles and settings loaded for users.
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGURATION contains hardware/profile configuration information.

• The CSV contains the external users’ email addresses.
• The bulk invitation feature supports inviting many guest users in one operation.
• Each invited user becomes a guest account in contoso.com.

• HTTPS: Secure web traffic, not general command-line server administration.
• SNMPv3: Secure network monitoring and management, not interactive server login.
• RDP: Provides graphical remote desktop access. It can be secure, but it is not the direct replacement for Telnet in this scenario.
• SMTP: Used to send email.

• Preparing and managing datasets
• Building and training machine-learning models
• Testing and evaluating models
• Deploying models as endpoints for predictions

• Process Builder: Automates actions based on record changes; it does not create interactive user forms.
• Approval Process: Routes records for approval and captures approval decisions.
• Outbound Message: Sends information to an external system; it does not provide a user interface.

• The message came from the claimed sender (authentication)
• The message was not altered (integrity)
• The sender cannot easily deny sending it (non-repudiation)

• Attackers can send unsigned phishing emails.
• Attackers may compromise a legitimate account and send signed malicious emails.
• Users may still be tricked by a validly signed message.

• Tokens: Individual units of text processed by a model, such as words, subwords, or characters.
• Models: Systems that learn patterns and generate predictions or outputs.
• Binaries: Data represented using the binary number system, not semantic representations.

• A PostToolUse hook for file writes under src/api/ that runs the linter.
• A separate PostToolUse hook for API/data processing that normalizes payloads to snake_case.

• 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.

• The JSON files contain one billion items, so this is a big-data workload.
• PySpark uses Apache Spark’s distributed, parallel processing, allowing the data to be processed across multiple compute nodes.
• It can read and transform data directly from OneLake, helping minimize unnecessary data movement or duplication.
• A Fabric notebook can also support exploration and visualization, as well as Spark-based analytics and anomaly-detection workflows.

• Pandas is primarily in-memory and generally suited to smaller datasets. One billion records would be impractical on a typical single machine.
• A Power BI report with core visuals is appropriate for visualization and sharing, but it is not the best tool for large-scale transformation, parallel processing, or anomaly detection. It would normally consume prepared data rather than perform the entire workload.

• Access List: controls whether a client is allowed or denied.
• Connect List: controls which wireless networks/APs a station may connect to.

• VLAN 10 for data
• VLAN 20 for voice

• A: Describes physical trunking or logical switch ports, not an SVI.
• B: An SVI can provide management access, but that is only one use—not the best description here.
• D: SVI use is not related to running out of physical ports.

• Recovery Services vault — stores Site Recovery configuration and recovery metadata.
• Hyper-V site — represents the on-premises Hyper-V environment.
• Azure virtual network — the target network where the replicated VM will run after failover. Since Azure VMs already use the same virtual network, that VNet can be selected as the target.
• Storage account or managed-disk target, depending on the ASR configuration and portal version.
• Provider/agent on the Hyper-V server — enables replication from Hyper-V to Azure.

1. Clear principles and boundaries — Employees have freedom, but decisions must remain within clear organizational values, policies and limits.
2. High degree of freedom — Managers are trusted to make decisions rather than seeking continual approval from senior management.
3. Frontline customer responsibility — Customer-facing managers should be empowered to manage customer relationships and respond quickly to needs.
4. Transparent and ethical information — Information should be openly available and used honestly, supporting trust and informed decision-making.

• A — Tables
• B — Named file formats
• C — Schemas
• E — Databases

Why these are correct

• Tables: Can be cloned using CREATE TABLE ... CLONE. The clone initially uses zero-copy cloning, so storage is shared until changes are made.
• Named file formats: Can be cloned as database objects, preserving the file-format definition.
• Schemas: A schema and its eligible objects can be cloned.
• Databases: A database and its eligible schemas and objects can be cloned.

Why the others are incorrect

• Shares: A share is an account-level data-sharing object, not a normal cloneable database object.
• Users: Users are security principals and cannot be cloned with CLONE.

• Limiting the number of MAC addresses learned on a switch port
• Allowing only specific, approved MAC addresses
• Taking action when the limit is exceeded, such as dropping frames or disabling the port

• Job Links ? URL ID: Mainly summarizes link performance; it is not the easiest place to retrieve individual email addresses by alias.
• Tracking Overview ? Clicks: Provides aggregate click metrics, not a targeted list for one aliased link.
• Click Activity ? Link View: Focuses on link-level reporting, but the question’s intended workflow for locating clicks tied to a specific placement/alias is Email Overlay.

• GPS coordinates
• Date and time the image was taken
• Camera or device model
• Exposure settings

• Log data: Records events or activities, such as system or application activity.
• Encrypted data: Information intentionally encoded to prevent unauthorized access.
• Sensitive data: A broad classification for information requiring protection; geolocation may be sensitive, but the technical type stored in the image is metadata.

• Type 1 hypervisor: Runs directly on the physical hardware (“bare metal”).
• Type 2 hypervisor: Runs inside the host OS as an application.

• Bare-metal installation: Type 1
• Local management only: Not a defining characteristic
• Specific hardware requirements: Not the key distinction

• Red team: Offensive security; attempts exploitation and simulates attackers.
• Blue team: Defensive security; monitors, detects, and responds to attacks.
• Purple team: Combines red- and blue-team activities to improve defenses, but is not the best direct answer here.
• White team: Usually oversees or coordinates an exercise, including rules of engagement and scope.

• Create procurement-manager-role only in the shared services accounts, where procurement managers operate.
• Attach AWSPrivateMarketplaceAdminFullAccess to that role.
• Procurement managers assume the role when they need to administer Private Marketplace.
• Apply a root-level SCP that explicitly denies Private Marketplace administration to everyone except that role. The SCP acts as a maximum-permission boundary across member accounts.
• Add another SCP denying creation of a role with the same name. Otherwise, another administrator might create a similarly named role and bypass the intended exception.

• Creating the role in every account increases administration and creates more opportunities for misuse.
• A permissions boundary on developer roles does not prevent other administrators from managing Private Marketplace.
• Applying the SCP only to shared services accounts would not protect the rest of the organization.

• C — Create a form extension and implement validation

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

sql 
ALTER TABLE dbo.DimCustomer 
ADD CONSTRAINT PK_DimCustomer 
PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (CustomerKey) 
NOT ENFORCED;

1. ALTER TABLE dbo.DimCustomer
2. ADD CONSTRAINT PK_DimCustomer PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (CustomerKey)
3. NOT ENFORCED

• Lower order numbers appear first.
• For example, a variable with order 100 appears before one with order 200.
• The Sequence field is not the control used for catalog variable display order.
• The Default Value sets a value, not placement.
• The Choice field defines selectable options, not the variable’s position.

• Compute: Not used; no virtual warehouse is required.
• Data Storage: Not scanned again.
• Metadata: May help Snowflake manage and validate cached results, but it is not the Snowflake architectural layer identified as serving the request.
• Cloud Services: Handles query coordination, metadata services, authentication, and result-cache access.

• One physical NIC is active and carries traffic.
• Another NIC remains on standby.
• If the active uplink fails, traffic switches to the backup uplink.
• This provides redundancy without requiring special switch-side link aggregation configuration.

• Balance-SLB: Distributes traffic based on source load balancing; not the default.
• Balance-TCP: Uses dynamic TCP traffic balancing and generally requires appropriate network-switch configuration.
• No Uplink Bond: Incorrect because vs0 is normally configured with redundant uplinks.

• Amazon S3 as the origin for static content
• Application Load Balancer (ALB) as the origin for dynamic content
• Amazon Route 53 configured to point the company’s domain name to CloudFront

• /static/* ? S3 origin; cache content at edge locations
• Dynamic paths such as /api/* ? ALB origin; forward requests to the EC2 application

• Share of overall contribution: part of the organization’s total contribution is allocated to the supplying division.
• Dual pricing: the supplying division may record a higher transfer price while the receiving division records a lower price, with central accounts absorbing the difference.
• A centrally imposed price range: this may allow the transfer price to be set above variable cost, helping the supplying division recover fixed costs.

• Microsoft manages the physical datacenter, hardware, and virtualization.
• You manage the virtual machine’s operating system, installed software, configuration, and data.
• You choose the VM size, storage, networking, and scaling options.

• SaaS: You consume a complete application managed by the provider, such as Microsoft 365.
• PaaS: You deploy applications without managing the underlying operating system or VM infrastructure, such as Azure App Service.

1. Open the Microsoft Entra Connect wizard.
2. Select Configure.
3. Choose Customize synchronization options.
4. Authenticate when prompted.
5. On the Domain and OU filtering page, select:

1. Complete the wizard.

• Start-ADSyncSyncCycle only starts synchronization; it does not change which OUs are included.
• Manage federation configures federation settings, which are unrelated to OU filtering.
• Add-ADSyncConnectorAttributeInclusion concerns connector attributes, not selecting additional OUs for synchronization.

• Required response and resolution times
• Availability or uptime targets
• Performance standards
• Support obligations
• Remedies or penalties for failing to meet the terms

• SOW (Statement of Work): Defines the project’s scope, tasks, deliverables, and schedule.
• MOA (Memorandum of Agreement): Describes agreed responsibilities between parties, often for a specific activity.
• MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): Records a mutual understanding or intention, usually less formal than a contract.

• Customer information must not be revealed ? PII Detection
• Malicious instructions embedded in images/documents must be blocked ? Prompt Shields

• If the question allows multiple selections, choose PII Detection and Prompt Shields.
• If it requires one selection specifically for the image-based threat, choose Prompt Shields.

• Early units show relatively large time savings.
• Later units still take less time, but the reduction becomes progressively smaller.
• The curve therefore becomes flatter as production approaches 256 units.

• B: The reduction is not constant; learning normally diminishes over time.
• C: Time does not reduce at an increasing rate.
• D: A steady state may eventually be reached, but the question concerns the first 255 units while learning is still occurring.

• 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.

• Two-part tariff pricing: $10 per unit
• Dual pricing: $20 per unit

Two-part tariff pricing

Dual pricing

• Division X, the seller, is credited with the market price: \(\$20\)
• Division Y, the buyer, is charged the marginal cost: \(\$10\)

• The Intune device limit restriction does not apply in the normal way; DEM enrollment supports up to 1,000 devices.
• However, the Microsoft Entra maximum number of devices per user setting can still impose a limit when the enrollment creates an Entra device object.
• Therefore, a DEM account is not automatically unlimited. The effective limit depends on the Entra device setting and the enrollment/join type.

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.

• Creating and training machine-learning models
• Testing and evaluating models
• Deploying models as usable endpoints

• A. IDS attack signatures: An IDS mainly detects suspicious network traffic. It is not the best control for scanning uploaded documents.
• C. Load balancer: Distributes traffic among servers and can improve availability, but does not specifically detect malware.
• D. WAF: Protects web applications from attacks such as SQL injection and command injection. It may inspect web requests, but malware scanning of PDF files is not its primary function.

• A Screen Flow can present a form that inspectors complete and submit on an Experience Cloud page.
• It can collect inspection findings, validate the input, and create or update records.
• An Autolaunched Flow has no user interface, so it cannot directly provide the form.
• A Related List only displays related records, and Record Detail is primarily for viewing or editing an existing record—not for a custom inspection submission form.

• Review administrative-role membership ? PIM access reviews
• Require justification for continued membership ? PIM can require justification when activating or maintaining privileged access
• Alerts about administrator assignment changes ? PIM alerts and notifications
• History of administrator activation ? PIM audit history
• See changes made to Azure resources ? PIM activation/audit information can be correlated with Azure Activity Logs

• COE: Identifies the Center of Excellence, such as Payroll or Benefits.
• Topic Detail: Classifies the HR service within its COE; it does not identify the catalog item.
• Template: Supplies default values or case configuration.
• Record Producer: Represents the catalog item that employees use to submit the request and create the case.

• Tracking who accessed or changed customer information
• Detecting unauthorized activity
• Supporting accountability and investigations
• Providing evidence for compliance and incident response

• Single sign-on not enabled: SSO improves convenience and centralized authentication, but it is not essential for access control.
• Complex passwords not required: This weakens authentication, but other controls may reduce the risk.
• Security baseline not consistently applied: A concern, but it is less specific and less immediately damaging than having no activity records at all.

• Due diligence: Researching and evaluating a third party before entering or continuing a business relationship.
• Internal audit: Evaluates controls within the organization itself.
• Penetration testing: Actively tests systems for exploitable vulnerabilities.
• Attestation: A formal statement or report—such as a SOC 2 report—provided by an independent party about an organization’s controls.

• Sustainability
• Performance efficiency
• Reliability

• Install unauthorized or unsupported software
• Access features blocked by the manufacturer or operating system
• Customize system behavior beyond normal settings

1. Create Workspace2 with Lakehouse2 — F
2. Migrate the Employee table to Lakehouse2 — E
3. Assign the data engineer the Contributor role for Workspace1 — D

Why

• Sharing Lakehouse1 would not provide the required isolation.
• Viewer access would not allow writing to Customer.
• Giving Contributor access to Workspace2 would expose the sensitive table.