352-001 Question #47: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

The correct answer is B: allow authentication by management station. The Community String in an SNMP trap PDU is a plaintext shared secret that allows the receiving management station to authenticate the source of the trap before processing it.

Question

What is the function of the Community String field defined in a trap PDU?

Options

Aenable the routing of messages
Ballow authentication by management station
Cenable reliable delivery of messages
Disolate the PDU within a defined region of the network

Explanation

The Community String in an SNMP trap PDU is a plaintext shared secret that allows the receiving management station to authenticate the source of the trap before processing it.

Common mistakes.

A. Community strings are not used by the network infrastructure to route SNMP messages - routing decisions are made by the underlying IP layer, independent of SNMP community strings.
C. SNMP traps are transmitted over UDP and provide no delivery guarantee - the community string is purely an authentication field and adds no reliability or acknowledgment mechanism.
D. Community strings do not segment or confine PDUs to a network region - network segmentation is achieved through VLANs, ACLs, or SNMP views, not community strings.

Concept tested. SNMP community string authentication in trap PDUs

Reference. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1157

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