312-50V10 · Question #493
If you are to determine the attack surface of an organization, which of the following is the BEST thing to do?
The correct answer is A. Running a network scan to detect network services in the corporate DMZ. Determining an organization's attack surface requires identifying all externally exposed services and entry points, which a network scan of the DMZ directly accomplishes.
Question
If you are to determine the attack surface of an organization, which of the following is the BEST thing to do?
Options
- ARunning a network scan to detect network services in the corporate DMZ
- BReviewing the need for a security clearance for each employee
- CUsing configuration management to determine when and where to apply security patches
- DTraining employees on the security policy regarding social engineering
How the community answered
(39 responses)- A79% (31)
- B5% (2)
- C13% (5)
- D3% (1)
Why each option
Determining an organization's attack surface requires identifying all externally exposed services and entry points, which a network scan of the DMZ directly accomplishes.
A network scan of the DMZ identifies all active services, open ports, and reachable hosts that an attacker could target, which is the definition of an attack surface. The DMZ is specifically the boundary zone most exposed to external threats. This gives a concrete, technical inventory of exploitable entry points.
Security clearance reviews address insider threat and personnel vetting, not the technical attack surface of systems and services.
Configuration management and patch scheduling is a remediation activity performed after vulnerabilities are identified, not an attack surface discovery method.
Social engineering training is a defensive awareness measure and does not enumerate or map technical attack vectors.
Concept tested: Attack surface identification via network scanning
Source: https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/attack_surface
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