HPE7-A10 Sample Questions & Answers
Zero trust implementation, PKI, and role-based access control take up most of the ground covered, with analyzing logs and alerts, classifying endpoints, and remediating risk close behind, and a small forensics section on documented threat investigation.
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- Question 1Intermediate
Forensics · Comprehensive Threat Investigation
During a forensic investigation into a data breach, a security professional has collected disk images and log files from several Aruba systems. To ensure the admissibility of this evidence in legal proceedings, it is crucial to maintain a verifiable record that the collected data has not been altered. Which cryptographic process should be applied to each piece of evidence to create a unique digital fingerprint for integrity verification?
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Correct answer: C
Cryptographic hashing algorithms like SHA-256 are used to create a fixed-size, unique digital fingerprint (hash value) of a piece of data. Any change to the original data, no matter how small, will result in a completely different hash value. In digital forensics, hashing is fundamental for proving data integrity. The hash of the evidence is calculated upon collection and recorded in the chain of custody; it can be recalculated later to prove the evidence has not been tampered with.
- Question 2Intermediate
Protect and Defend · Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS)
A retail company is using Aruba WIPS to protect its wireless environment. An alert is generated for a rogue AP operating on the same SSID as the corporate network. The security team needs to contain this threat immediately to prevent employees and customers from connecting to it. What is the most effective and direct containment technique available within the Aruba WIPS solution?
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Correct answer: A
Deauthentication containment is Aruba WIPS's direct, over-the-air containment method: Aruba APs and air monitors near the rogue disrupt its associations by sending spoofed 802.11 deauthentication frames - a broadcast deauthentication, followed by unicast deauthentication frames from the AP to the station and from the station to the AP - so clients cannot stay connected to it. (Tarpit and wired containment are Aruba's other containment methods; containment may be subject to regulatory restrictions such as FCC rules.) Blocking the rogue's MAC in the gateway firewall does not stop clients associating over the air, physically removing it is not immediate, and raising transmit power does not prevent association to the rogue.
- Question 3Advanced
Analyze · Network Analytic Engine (NAE) Scripts
An administrator is creating an NAE script to monitor Control Plane Policing (CoPP) statistics on an AOS-CX switch to detect potential Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. After deploying the script and creating the agent, alerts are being generated. Which protocol traffic, when seen in excessive amounts hitting the control plane, is a primary indicator of a reconnaissance attempt or the precursor to a larger attack?
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Correct answer: C
Control Plane Policing (CoPP) is designed to protect the switch's CPU from being overwhelmed. A flood of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests, often seen in an 'ARP scan,' is a common reconnaissance technique used by attackers to map out the active hosts on a subnet. An NAE agent monitoring CoPP would see a spike in the ARP queue, which is a strong indicator of a potential attack and should be alerted on.
- Question 4AdvancedSelect 3
Protect and Defend · Zero Trust Security Implementation
A hospital is deploying a secure network for its Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices, such as infusion pumps and patient monitors. The primary security goal is to enforce a strict Zero Trust policy where these devices can only communicate with their designated management server and nothing else. Which THREE Aruba security features are essential to build this solution? (Select THREE).
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Correct answers: B, D, E
The solution needs identification, policy and enforcement. (1) ClearPass Device Insight discovers and classifies the headless IoMT devices (active scans plus passive traffic analysis) and shares the classification and tags with ClearPass. (2) ClearPass Policy Manager uses that context in role mapping and enforcement policies to assign a restrictive role (for example, 'Infusion-Pump'). (3) The role is enforced in the network: the Policy Enforcement Firewall on the AP (bridged WLAN) or gateway (tunneled WLAN/UBT) applies stateful role-based rules, and AOS-CX switches apply the role's local or downloadable user-role policy (stateless ACLs), so the device can reach only its management server. EdgeConnect SD-WAN traffic shaping and NAE performance monitoring provide neither device identification nor segmentation.
The solution needs identification, policy and enforcement. (1) ClearPass Device Insight discovers and classifies the headless IoMT devices (active scans plus passive traffic analysis) and shares the classification and tags with ClearPass. (2) ClearPass Policy Manager uses that context in role mapping and enforcement policies to assign a restrictive role (for example, 'Infusion-Pump'). (3) The role is enforced in the network: the Policy Enforcement Firewall on the AP (bridged WLAN) or gateway (tunneled WLAN/UBT) applies stateful role-based rules, and AOS-CX switches apply the role's local or downloadable user-role policy (stateless ACLs), so the device can reach only its management server. EdgeConnect SD-WAN traffic shaping and NAE performance monitoring provide neither device identification nor segmentation.
The solution needs identification, policy and enforcement. (1) ClearPass Device Insight discovers and classifies the headless IoMT devices (active scans plus passive traffic analysis) and shares the classification and tags with ClearPass. (2) ClearPass Policy Manager uses that context in role mapping and enforcement policies to assign a restrictive role (for example, 'Infusion-Pump'). (3) The role is enforced in the network: the Policy Enforcement Firewall on the AP (bridged WLAN) or gateway (tunneled WLAN/UBT) applies stateful role-based rules, and AOS-CX switches apply the role's local or downloadable user-role policy (stateless ACLs), so the device can reach only its management server. EdgeConnect SD-WAN traffic shaping and NAE performance monitoring provide neither device identification nor segmentation.
- Question 5Beginner
Protect and Defend · Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
When designing a role-based access control (RBAC) policy in ClearPass for a large enterprise, a network architect wants to ensure that access privileges are determined by an employee's department, which is stored in Active Directory. What is the correct ClearPass component to configure to fetch this department attribute and use it for policy decisions?
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Correct answer: D
In ClearPass, the Authentication Source configuration is where you connect to external identity stores like Active Directory. Within this configuration, you define which attributes to fetch during the authentication process. By adding the 'department' attribute to the list of fetched attributes in the AD Authentication Source, it becomes available for use in subsequent Role Mapping and Enforcement policies.
- Question 6Beginner
Protect and Defend · Enterprise Firewall Policies
A security team is reviewing an IPv4 access control list (ACL) applied on their core AOS-CX switches. The first ACE explicitly denies all traffic from a known malicious IP subnet, and the following ACEs permit specific business-critical traffic. The team wants to add an explicit 'deny any any any count' ACE so that all other dropped traffic is counted. Where must this ACE be placed?
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Correct answer: A
AOS-CX processes ACEs from the lowest to the highest sequence number and stops at the first match; traffic that matches no ACE is dropped by the implicit deny. An explicit deny-all ACE is therefore optional, but adding one - for example '100 deny any any any count' - is the documented way to count (or log) the dropped traffic, as in the guide's example '20 deny any any any count'. It must be the last ACE (highest sequence number): placed earlier, it would match all remaining traffic and the permit ACEs after it would never be reached. AOS-CX fully supports explicit deny-all ACEs.
- Question 7Intermediate
Protect and Defend · Secure Remote Access
A consultant is designing a secure remote access solution for a highly distributed, work-from-anywhere workforce. The requirements are a single cloud-delivered, centrally managed service; identity- and device-posture-based Zero Trust access to private applications for users connecting from untrusted networks, without a traditional VPN; and inspection of users' web and SaaS traffic. Which Aruba product provides these capabilities as the security service edge of a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework?
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Correct answer: B
HPE Aruba Networking SSE (Security Service Edge, formerly Axis Atmos) is the cloud-delivered security half of Aruba's SASE offering. A single, centrally managed cloud service provides Zero Trust Network Access (per-application access based on identity, device posture and context, regardless of the user's location or network, without a traditional VPN), a Secure Web Gateway and an inline CASB for SaaS traffic, with cloud points of presence and smart routing so user traffic is not backhauled. EdgeConnect SD-WAN is the branch WAN-edge half of SASE (application-aware routing, segmentation, zone-based firewall) and is not in the path of a remote worker at home; Aruba Central and ClearPass manage or authenticate on-premises infrastructure but do not deliver ZTNA/SWG/CASB to remote users.
- Question 8Intermediate
Protect and Defend · Threat Hunting Techniques
A security analyst is performing proactive threat hunting by analyzing network flow data. The analyst hypothesizes that a compromised internal host may be exfiltrating data to an external server. Which pattern in the flow data would be the strongest Indicator of Compromise (IoC) for this type of activity?
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Correct answer: C
Data exfiltration is the unauthorized transfer of data from a network. The most direct indicator of this activity in network flow data is observing an unusually large and sustained amount of data being sent from an internal host (especially a client workstation that typically consumes data) to a single, unknown external destination. This pattern is highly anomalous and a classic IoC for data theft.
- Question 9Intermediate
Protect and Defend · Compliance and Regulations
A European company must ensure its network access control system complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When configuring ClearPass Guest for visitor Wi-Fi access, which feature is most important to implement to align with GDPR's principles of data minimization and consent?
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Correct answer: B
GDPR requires that personal data collection is minimized, and that users give explicit consent for their data to be processed. ClearPass Guest allows for the creation of customizable self-registration portals. To comply with GDPR, this portal must be configured to ask for only the minimum necessary information, clearly state the purpose of data collection, include a mandatory checkbox for consent, and be tied to an automated data purging policy that deletes guest accounts after a defined period.
- Question 10Beginner
Protect and Defend · Enterprise Firewall Policies
True or False: The Aruba Policy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) is a stateful firewall that can identify and filter traffic based on application signatures (Layer 7), in addition to source/destination IP addresses and ports (Layers 3/4).
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Correct answer: A
This statement is true. A key feature of the Aruba Policy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) is its integration with AppRF technology, which provides deep packet inspection (DPI) capabilities. This allows PEF to identify traffic based on application signatures, enabling granular Layer 7 policies such as 'allow Salesforce but deny Facebook' for a specific user role, in addition to traditional Layer 3/4 filtering.
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