CCT 301: Practice CISSP Questions - Deep Dive - Zero Trust

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Zero trust isn’t a checkbox or a buzzword; it’s a mindset shift that changes how we design networks, ship code, and protect data. We dig into what “never trust, always verify” actually looks like when you have a messy reality: hybrid clouds, legacy apps living next to microservices, and users hopping on through VPNs that still grant too much access after MFA.

We start with a timely lesson from an AI analytics supplier breach to show why third-party integrations can be your Achilles heel. From there, we map out where policy should live and how it should be enforced: near the workload, with PEPs at gateways or in a service mesh, and a central PDP to keep logic consistent while decisions happen at wire speed. You’ll hear why relying on VLANs, static ACLs, or a “trusted subnet” breaks the zero trust promise, and how to move toward per-request evaluation that accounts for identity, device posture, location, and behavior.

Then we go data-first. Labels, encryption, and rights management let policies travel with sensitive files, so access and usage rules hold even off-network. We contrast ZTNA with legacy VPNs, explain how to avoid turning MFA into a broad hall pass, and share a realistic migration path: start with one critical application, microsegment around it, validate performance and usability, and expand. This is the playbook that reduces lateral movement, shrinks blast radius, and helps you pass the CISSP with real-world understanding.

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TRANSCRIPT
SPEAKER_00: 0:00 

Welcome to the CISP Cyber Training. We might be trading and CISP exam. My name is Sean Gerber. Join me each week as I provide the information you need. CISP exam and grow your cyber checker in the light. Alright.

SPEAKER_01: 0:25 

Good morning, everybody. It's Sean Gerber with CISSP Cyber Training and hope you all are having a beautifully blessed day today. Today is CISSP question Thursday, and we are going to be getting directly into CISSP questions that are tied to Zero Trust or Domain Four. That is the ultimate goal, is around giving you some information you need to pass the CISSP. And we're starting off with some deep dive into some questions. The ultimate goal of these questions is to kind of help guide you and direct you in what you need to do to be able to be able to pass the CISSP the first time. And I got an article, or I should say, I got an email today from one of the guys that have been taking my courses and they passed the CISSP. Once again, I love getting these emails of folks that are actually emailing me in saying, hey, I passed it. Thank you. So it's great, great things that are coming out of CISSP cyber training. And just wanted to kind of let you know things are moving. It's awesome. You all are probably getting ready to head into the Thanksgiving time for this year, and we're getting to Thanksgiving and Christmas. So you know what? Enjoy the time with your families as you can. Also, as you get family close together, yeah, hang on, because sometimes we don't always necessarily agree. Yes, that is a different topic, different podcast altogether, but when you're dealing with everyone together, it can be challenging to say the least. So we're gonna, before we do that, I have an article I wanted to talk to you all about that I think is actually quite interesting. And we have become reliant upon AI. And I use it in my consulting business. Uh, it's very, very helpful to help draft uh policies, to help with certain types of questions related to certain tools. It is amazing and it provides so much value, and I continue to see the value that it provides on a daily basis. And I know many of you are also using this AI capabilities in certain various numerous ways, I'm sure. But an interesting part that came out, and this was just an article that came out in InfoSec or InfoSec Security Magazine, and it is OpenAI warns of mixed panel data breach impacting API users. So, what exactly is that? As I'd never really heard of what mixed panel is, but mixed panel is an analytic provider used by OpenAI. Basically, they're the ones that are bringing information into OpenAI, and they were smished, right? So these folks were ended up having a phishing SMS phishing attack, and then this smished that they had, they had exposed some limited, air quotes, limited analytical data for some users of OpenAI's developer/slash API platform. So because they provide API connections back into OpenAI and they were able to be compromised, they ended up having some level of access into OpenAI's API gateway or API platform of some kind. And as a result, it opened up a potential issue with anyone that was connecting to OpenAI's API environment. So what they're saying is those that there was no critical information that was actually lost, such as passwords, payment information, or anything that had of the actual content or chat that may have occurred via the API connection. So no users of the core chat GPT were basically affected by it. And then there's also a lot of they say just kind of low-level stuff that has occurred. Um, what really it comes down to is this just shows that you know, even though these folks provide a lot of information to us all and they provide a service that is pretty amazing, they are the targets as well. And it's not actually Chat GPT, it's though, as we've mentioned before, time and again in CISSP cyber training, your third-party integrations can be your Achilles heel. As a result, AI, or I should say, open AI, is telling people that any of the developers that might be tied to this incident, he's warning that they're they are warning them not to basically treat this as if there's an issue that's out there, that they should be very uh careful about any clicking on anything that occurs, and they should watch out for any unexpected communications that are coming from anyone else. Bottom line, standard phishing type uh activities. And so now you need to be careful. But this is a problem, right? So this is a challenge that we all have, and it's becoming a more adept or I should say adroit problem in that if you are a developer and you're in the developer space, uh, you need to be really truly understanding the security implications of what you're doing. Because in many cases, you have keys of the kingdoms, and so your security person that's within your organization that is helping you, you, you, your company, needs to make sure that they have a good plan on how do you manage your credentials for your organization as well. So that's a whole different conversation. Um, and but bottom line is that this has been attacked by users. So this company called Max MixPanel, and they are a data analytics supplier. Again, developers, be on the wear out because you know what, someone's coming after you, just like everybody else. So let's move on to what we're gonna talk about today. But before we do, I have to throw out a shameless plug for CISSP Cyber Training. Head on over to CISSP Cyber Training and get access to all the content if you're studying for the CISSP exam. I've got various types of products that are out there available for you from free all the way up to my gold package, and that's all available to you depending upon what you need and how you see value in the CISSP. I can provide you value on helping you study for the exam as well as helping you uh get your cybersecurity career going. And if you need any sort of assistance or consulting capabilities, it's all there and available at CISSP Cyber Training. So head on over, get free content, gobs of stuff, get some paid content to help you pass it the first time. You won't regret it at all. I guarantee you, you won't you won't regret it at all. All right, so let's get into what we're gonna talk about. Okay, so as a member of CISSP Cyber Training, you will have access to all of these questions. Uh, these are all for the paid subscribers that are getting with me, but you can have access to these, you can walk through these, and we go through each of each of one of these questions individually. So let's get into this. All right, this is all tied to zero trust. All right, question one: an organization is designing a zero trust architecture, you'll see the acronym ZTA for a hybrid environment such as on-prem and multiple clouds. That is quite normal, and you will see more of this. Which of the following design decisions most accurately reflects a core zero trust principle rather than supporting practice or implementation details? Okay, a segmenting the internal network into multiple VLANs with firewalls between critical subnets. B replacing traditional VPNs with the split tunnel VPN and stronger IPsec ciphers. C implementing full disk encryption on all endpoints and servers connecting the sensitive data, or D making access decisions based on continuous evaluation of the identity, device posture, and context of every request, context, I should say, of every request. So yet again, understand ZTA, understand zero trust architecture. This isn't something that you set and you forget. It's a morphic type of activity, and you want to set the example of zero trust. Trust no one. That's the ultimate thought process behind this. So let's think about that. Which one would it be? Segmenting internal networks into multiple VLANs, well, that is great and that's helpful, but it's probably not the most way, most successful way to do this. That's a traditional way of setting up their networks in a in that type of activity. Replacing traditional VPNs with split tunnel VPNs and stronger IPsec tunnels. Again, that's a great architecture plan, has opportunity, but it's not something necessarily tied to ZTA. Implementing full disk encryption and all endpoints and servers connecting to sensitive data. So again, that's a part that is good would fall into ZTA as far as being an access or a part of it, right? Of trusting no one. You want to have set up some level of encryption, but it wouldn't be the most accurate way to do this. Making access decisions based on continuous evaluation of identity, device posture, and context for every request. Okay, so that's a little bit more around the zero trust concept, right? You trust no one. So the answer would be D. So zero trust assumes the network is always hostile, which we do if we just did an article and we talked about that. And there's no request that is inherently trusted just because it becomes from a trusted network segment. Just like we saw, right? Just because you have someone that's especially in third parties, that means you could actually run a situation where you could compromise you just because of that situation. So every access request is an evaluation based on identity, device posture, context, as far as location, and any sort of behavior patterns that are with them. This is the heart of zero trust. Again, never trust, always verify. Again, TNO, trust no one. So the answer would be D. Question two: a security architect is tasked with evolving a traditional castle and moat environment into a zero trust architecture. So we all know castle and moat is you just you surround the most protected credentials, or not credentials, but your your castle jewels, right? And you just put barriers and levels of protection to help keep the bad guys out. The problem is once you break over the moat and you get through the castle walls, you found a nice gooey center and things are more challenging. So they propose a this company, or I should say, this question they say propose deploying a centralized policy decision point, PDP, and a policy enforcement point, P E P. So Papa Delta Papa, Papa Echo Papa. Which design choice best aligns with zero trust for east-west traffic inside the data center? Okay, so you got east and west traffic. North and south is in and out. Uh, you've got east-west is your lateral traffic within the data center. So which one best aligns with zero trust for internal network traffic? A implement PEPs for each application gateway or service mesh proxy that evaluates requests per session using identity and posture before forwarding. Okay, so this is something that's a gateway that's set up inside. That's basically it's like it's like a toll booth in between the conversations that are occurring, the internal network traffic. Question B, or I should say answer B. Place the PEP only at the internal edge and enforce access decisions for inbound traffic. Internal traffic flows are allowed once inside. Okay, so that maybe fits more the castle remote thought process. C, use the PDP dynamically to push ACLs to core routers once a day based on the user group memberships. Okay, so that potentially has that's more of a security mechanism. It's not really something to help deal with your internal traffic per se. It does, but it's uh it's not as good. Configure the PDP to authorize all traffic from RFC 1918 addresses and deny all public IP addresses by default. That would probably that could cause you some issues, right? Because if you've got external stuff, it's basically saying in all allowing all internal traffic that's meeting the RFC 1918 requirements, and then if there's any public IP addresses that are coming in that need lateral left and right traffic, you would deny that, which isn't the right idea because of the simple fact that you may have some sort of public IP addresses that have communications in your network. Now, that is a good thought process, and I think that it's probably one of the more better ones, potentially, depending upon the organization that you're in. However, there anytime you start denying public IP addresses internal to your network, you can run into breaking things that you didn't anticipate, especially in a network that's more legacy, it's been around for a while. So the answer is A. Implement PEPs on each application gateway or service mesh proxy that evaluates requests per session using identity and posture before forwarding. So again, we talk about this. It's zero trust. It encouraged placing enforcement closest to the resource or with the workload path. So again, you want to basically limit, trust no one, you know, trust but verify piece of this. And so, therefore, every time that some application is using a gateway, then it would have to verify who it is. Um, application gateways, sidecar proxies, or other service mesh components are ideal places for PEPs just because every transaction is being seen by them. Now, again, you're gonna have to have someone who really truly understands ZTR or a zero trust, ZTA, I should say. Should really understand ZTA before you start putting these things in. Because if you put them in again and you don't know what you're doing, you're gonna start breaking stuff. So just something to think about. Per request, per session evaluations are there. You need to look at those. Um, and then these also are dealing with fine-grained uh least privileged access as well. So understand PDP and PDP. Now, what is PDP? I should have gone into this PDP a little bit. PDP will centralize your policy logic, right? So the your PEP's query or cache, what's going on between it, the PDP will actually understand that logic between the two. And it's the one that opens up the gate or lets the gate go back down. So this pattern is exactly what ZTA reference architecture describes as modern environments. API gateways plus a service mesh. Now, I would say most companies out there will struggle with this, and it's not many that are like that. The government is pushing in that path. If you are forcing yourself or wanting to go down the ZTA route, uh, then you need to really get some an architect who really truly understands it. I would say I understand the concepts. I would not be the right person to architect that, just because that's it's a bit beyond where my knowledge had begun when I left being in architecture. But it doesn't mean you can't learn it. It's just it's it's pretty substantial, and you need to have a really good plan around it, and you need to find the right person to help you do that. Okay, question three: a financial institution claims to have implemented zero trust by requiring multi-factor authentication, MFA, for all VPN access. Yay! Once authenticated, users receive an IP in a trusted subnet that has broad access to internal systems. Hmm. Which statement best describes a zero trust gap if it still exists? Okay, so this is saying we have a problem, Houston. What is it? It's a zero trust gap that still exists. A MFA is not sufficient because it does not encrypt data in transit between the users and the internal systems. Okay, so if you listen to that again, it is not sufficient because it doesn't encrypt data. Well, that doesn't make sense, so we throw that one out. B, zero trust is incomplete because trust is still primarily granted based on the network location after authentication. So again, multi-factor setup for all VPN access. Once that is done, they receive an IP in a trusted network. So the authentication piece is happening because they got a VPN and they have MFA. So now they're good to go, right? But because it's still granted on the network location, because it's probably tied to that based on your VPN location, then that is just still opening you wide up. And VPNs, as we know, are very can be very promiscuous. They can allow a lot of things to happen within your organization unless you have very have very strict tight controls around VPNs. So what does this mean? Well, actually, let's go into the next question. Zero trust requires biometric authentication. The current MFA methods must be upgraded to FIDO-based biometrics to be compliant. Again, the MFA will allow you in, but once you're in, you're in the soft GUI center. Zero trust is incomplete because VPNs must terminate in the DMZ and currently terminate directly on internal servers. So that isn't necessarily bad if they had controls in place, but it's saying at the DMZ, then it would be that wouldn't really work either. So that you wouldn't want that one. So then we know the answer is B. Zero trust is incomplete because trust is still primarily granted based on network location after authentication. So what does all this mean? Once the user authenticates to join the trusted subnet, they are effectively inside, obviously, the moat, right? Our castle and moat thought process, and the soft GUI center is now available to them. This is an implicit trust based on the network location, right? So this is what Zero Trust does not want you to do. ZTA is a continuous and granular authentication or authorization, and therefore it must expect to basically trust but verify. And the I should say verify, then trust. The MFA at the door, then once you get there, it's wide open. So you don't want that to happen. A single VPN connection should not equal broad, long-lived access. This is a very past type of activity that has occurred for many, many, for a millennia. It has been around for a long time. And especially it's bad if you start throwing your contractors into the mix. All right, question four. An enterprise wants to extend zero trust principles to the data layer. Sensitive documents are frequently copied outside the corporate network onto contractor devices, which is which control best aligns with the zero trust principles aligned to or applied to data rather than just networks or applications. A using host-based firewalls to block outbound connections from contractor devices to unknown IP addresses. B implementing full tunnel VPN and blocking all split tunneling on contractor devices. C applying persistent data classification and rights management to enforce access controls and usage restrictions even off corporate networks, or D enforcing stricter password complexity policies for all contractor accounts. Okay, so we want to know which one best aligns with the zero trust principles applied to data rather than just the networks or applications. So that it'll narrow it down. We're focusing on the data. So the answer would be well, should I say that yet? No, let's go into A. Is A the right answer? No, it's not. Using host-based firewalls to block outbound connections from contractor devices to unknown IP addresses. Okay, that's great. That's a network thing, but it's not focused on the data. So that's not what you want. Implementing full tunnel VPNs and blocking all split tunneling on contractor devices. Well, that yeah, you don't want that. You do not want split tunneling on contractor devices. Um, and but full tunnel VPNs, that is not what you want, and that's not data focused. D, enforcing stricter password complexity requirements for all contractor accounts. Okay, so again, that's that's a great control, but that's not tied to the best aspects of data rather than just network or applications, because your password control would be focused primarily on your application. So the answer would be C, applying persistent data classification and rights management to enforce access controls and usage restrictions even off corporate network. Yeah, baby, data classification. It is what you want. Risk management, most definitely, understand it, but most people don't do it and they just really struggle with it. Data classification is hard, especially if you have an already existing network and you just really want to make sure that your people are happy. So, what are we talking about here? Okay, so when you're dealing with a data-centric environment, zero trust can and should be applied to all at all the data levels. So it should, it should not be limited. Now, I've seen it where the data levels may be not as applied to zero trust because of uh connectivity challenges and because of access issues. So, but that being said, you should apply it to the data itself and it carries policies and protections wherever it goes, wherever it stays, regardless of the location. Situation I had, it was dealing with intellectual property that was stored in locations outside the United States. Anytime it was outside the United States, it was become unavailable. You could not use it because of the data classification labeling that was tied to it. And this is where you would get into public, internal, confidential, highly restricted, etc. Now the risk management aspects, this is where you're dealing with attribute-based access controls, which is your A back, which we've talked about numerous times on CISSP cyber training. And this is where you want to have that tied to your data. Also, why don't you want to have encryption obviously tied to your data and identity policies? Because again, certain roles with certain devices can open the files. Certain roles and certain devices cannot open the files. So it's really important that you decouple the trust from the network, meaning that if you're on the network, oh, you're trusted, you want to get it down to the data level and be granular because people are on the move. It's like out of a movie, coins travel. That's the out of the movie, Sahara. Coins travel, you don't know where they go. Same with data. Data just travels everywhere, it goes everywhere. So therefore, you should have protections based on the data, not necessarily on the access or the network itself. All right, question five: the last melon. Okay, question five. The large healthcare provider is transitioning from a flat internal network to a zero trust architecture. Yay! Resources are a mix of legacy client server applications, modern microservices. Oh man, it's all the Gucci stuff. Which phased approaches most closely reflect a realistic and effective zero trust migration strategy. So, how would you understand this? So we go A. Immediately decommission the existing perimeter firewalls and rely solely on identity and device posture to control access to all the internal resources. That's a great idea. You don't do that one. B, start with critical business applications, applying micro segmentation and identity aware access controls around them while gradually extending the zero trust techniques to other systems. Maybe. B, migrate all legacy applications to microservices before implementing a zero trust concept or controls, ensuring architectural consistency. Okay, but that isn't necessarily bad, but that probably wouldn't be your that wouldn't be the last step here. B or D replace all existing VPNs with cloud-based zero trust network access, ZTNA solutions, and consider zero trust mitigation or migration complete. Yeah, the first part was good, second part, not so good. Okay, so what is a realistic and effective zero trust migration strategy from the from your perspective, from a CISSP? Why would you study for this? What would you do? Okay, so if you're looking to migrate to zero trust, the some of those are good, some of those are not so good. First one, not so good. But B is a correct answer. Start with the critical business applications, applying micro-segmentation, identifying identity aware access controls around them, while gradually, key word, gradually extending zero trust techniques to other systems. Again, business critical applications. And I would say that that's probably one of the most effective things to do. Why is it business critical? Because that's what makes you the money, baby. Without those, you're not making money. So you want to make sure that you start with those and you apply micro-segmentation. Those also are the ones that become the most disruptive. So you really want to start slowly in that environment. Start with one application that maybe isn't tied to your entire company's business portfolio, right? So you don't pick the biggest one. You pick one that's tiny, try it, work on it, let everybody know this is going to be a journey. Once you figure that out, then what ends up happening is you start slowly and begin migrating those to other business critical applications. Once that is determined, then you can start moving out to the different other levels within your network. Again, this is a journey. I can't stress this enough. And you need to set the expectation with your leadership that this is a journey. Because uh, and I say it slow and like methodical like that, like that really cool voice that's on a beer commercial. Um, no, you you you have to let them know this is gonna take some time. And they will want it done yesterday because what ends up happening is, and and this is something you'll run into from a security professional, you may get into the situation of going, well, now it's it's one more thing, and this may actually outlive you. So you're gonna have to have a really good strategy long term, how you're gonna migrate to this, and then also make sure everybody's aligned from the beginning of the company on down. Because if you're a very large organization, this will take years. If you're not a very large organization, this can happen within a period of six months, maybe 12 months, and you can be there. Uh, but uh again, it's a journey. So it's not a race, believe me. But if you don't do this well, I'm gonna kind of harp on this just a little bit. If you don't do this well uh and you don't have a really good plan around it, it will fall flat. Everybody will hate IT. They will kick you out and they will have pitchforks and torches to run you out of town. So please think wisely before doing this and have a really good strategy. You can also reach out to me at CISSP Cyber Training, and I'll see if I can help you. I'm happy to help you with this in any way possible. Okay, this is John Gerber with CISSP Cyber Training. I again, I hope you enjoyed this today. Uh, man, CISSP training, CISP Cyber Training is growing. The podcast is growing. Getting lots of great feedback from the podcast, it just keeps exploding. And uh go out to CISSP Cyber Training, check out what's out there. There's a bunch of free stuff. There's also a really great paid content that is out there. I have actually been remiss. I guess it's Black Friday here yet tomorrow, and I don't have anything out for Black Friday. So you may see something in your inboxes if you've signed up for Black Friday to get a reduction on some of the products that I have out there. Yeah, I just didn't even think about that. It's kind of spaced out of my mind. But go to CISSP Cyber Training, check it out, you will love it, and we will catch you all on the flip side. See ya. Thanks so much for joining me today on my podcast. If you like what you heard, please leave a review on iTunes as I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Also, check out my videos that are on YouTube, and just head to my channel at CISSP Cyber Training, and you will find a plethora or a conocopia of content to help you pass the CISSP exam the first time. Lastly, head to CISSP Cyber Training and sign up for 360 free CISSP questions to help you in your CISSP journey. Thanks again for listening.