CISSP Question #1490: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

Which of the following could cause a Denial of Service (DoS) against an authentication system?

Options

• AEncryption of audit logs
• BNo archiving of audit logs
• CHashing of audit logs
• DRemote access audit logs

Explanation

Audit log mismanagement can inadvertently cause a Denial of Service against an authentication system when logs fill up storage resources. Remote access audit logs are especially high-volume and can exhaust disk space, causing authentication services to fail.

Common mistakes.

• A. Encryption of audit logs affects the confidentiality of log data but does not consume excessive storage or block authentication services from functioning, so it does not cause a DoS.
• B. While failing to archive logs can eventually lead to storage exhaustion, the question asks what 'could cause' a DoS, and the act of not archiving is a contributing condition rather than the direct mechanism that a high-volume source like remote access logs represents.
• C. Hashing of audit logs is an integrity-protection mechanism that adds minimal overhead and does not consume storage in a way that would deny access to the authentication system.

Concept tested. Audit log volume causing authentication system denial of service

Reference. https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-92/final

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