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- What is the primary goal of configuration management in cybersecurity?
a. To optimize system performance
b. To enforce software licensing
c. To ensure consistency, traceability, and control over system configurations
d. To maximize user convenience
Answer: c (Wikipedia) - Which of the following is not one of the four key processes in software configuration management?
a. Configuration identification
b. Configuration control
c. Configuration integration
d. Configuration audit
Answer: c (Wikipedia) - In a secure configuration approach, disabling unnecessary services is an example of what?
a. Vulnerability scanning
b. System hardening
c. Encryption
d. Access control
Answer: b (FB Pro GmbH) - A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is primarily used to store information about:
a. User credentials
b. Network traffic logs
c. Hardware and software assets and their relationships
d. Encryption keys
Answer: c (Wikipedia) - Which of the following best describes “drift” in configuration management?
a. Strengthening security settings over time
b. Unintended changes causing deviation from baseline configuration
c. Scheduled patch deployment
d. Backup of configuration state
Answer: b - What is “baseline” in configuration management?
a. The most insecure configuration state
b. A configuration state used as a reference point for future changes
c. A deprecated configuration
d. The newest configuration version
Answer: b - Which tool is an example of a configuration management tool that is agentless and uses Python?
a. Chef
b. Puppet
c. Ansible
d. SaltStack
Answer: c (ITExamAnswers.net) - Orchestration in configuration management refers to:
a. Managing version control of configuration files
b. Scheduling automated tasks in correct order and dependencies
c. Storing configuration snapshots
d. Manual configuration review
Answer: b (ITExamAnswers.net) - Agentless configuration management is typically:
a. Pull-based
b. Push-based
c. Peer-to-peer
d. Offline
Answer: b (ITExamAnswers.net) - Which of the following is not typically considered a configuration management tool?
a. SNMP
b. Ansible
c. Chef
d. Puppet
Answer: a (ITExamAnswers.net) - What is the main security benefit of configuration management?
a. Increased throughput
b. Decreased risk by ensuring configurations adhere to policies
c. More features per software version
d. Easier marketing
Answer: b (ExamTopics) - Which of these belongs to the “Protect” function in NIST Cybersecurity Framework relevant to configuration?
a. Detect anomalies
b. Respond to incidents
c. Implement secure configuration settings
d. Recover data
Answer: c (Wikipedia) - What is the role of configuration audits?
a. To automatically deploy code
b. To verify that configurations comply with baseline and policies
c. To delete outdated configurations
d. To generate encryption keys
Answer: b (Wikipedia) - In DevSecOps, configuration as code helps to:
a. Make configurations human-only readable
b. Allow configurations to be versioned, tested, and automated
c. Slow down deployments
d. Isolate configuration from code
Answer: b - What is “granular configuration automation” concerned with?
a. Coarse, broad settings only
b. Visibility and control at the fine/granular level in configurations
c. Only user interface settings
d. Only network firewall rules
Answer: b (Wikipedia) - Which risk is most directly mitigated by configuration management?
a. Insider threat
b. Misconfiguration and configuration drift
c. Denial of Service
d. Physical theft
Answer: b - Configuration validation using schemas helps prevent:
a. Network congestion
b. Invalid configuration parameters from being applied
c. Password reuse
d. Phishing
Answer: b (arXiv) - Configuration testing is the practice of:
a. Only testing the software code, ignoring config values
b. Exercising code with configuration values to observe behavior
c. Rejecting all configuration changes
d. Static inspection only
Answer: b (arXiv) - Which strategy helps reduce differences between development and production configurations?
a. Manual edits in production
b. Using automation and detailed configuration management plans
c. Ignoring configuration drift
d. Random changes
Answer: b (arXiv) - What does version control in configuration management ensure?
a. Only one version exists
b. Traceability of changes over time
c. That no changes occur
d. That encryption is applied
Answer: b - Which practice detects unintended configuration changes?
a. Configuration drift monitoring
b. Increasing user quotas
c. Ignoring logs
d. Hardcoding defaults
Answer: a - Which of these is a configuration item (CI)?
a. A user’s personal preference
b. A software component or hardware asset tracked in CMDB
c. A random number
d. External environment
Answer: b - What is rollback in configuration management?
a. Forwarding configuration changes
b. Reverting to a prior known good configuration
c. Archiving configurations
d. Encrypting configurations
Answer: b - Which of the following is critical for compliance in configuration management?
a. No documentation
b. Tracking changes, approvals, audit trails
c. Only manual changes
d. Frequent unauthorized changes
Answer: b - What form of attack is especially mitigated by secure configuration and hardening?
a. SQL injection
b. Buffer overflow always
c. Exploitation of default or insecure settings
d. Side-channel timing attacks
Answer: c - Which methodology uses immutable infrastructure in configurations?
a. Constant in-place updates
b. Always patching manually
c. Replace entire system rather than altering existing one
d. Frequent manual edits
Answer: c - What is the relationship between patch management and configuration management?
a. They are unrelated
b. Patch management is a sub-process of configuration management in securing systems
c. Configuration management only deals with hardware
d. Patch management defeats configuration management
Answer: b - Which domain in ISO standard emphasizes configuration control for security?
a. Information classification only
b. Configuration management for system security
c. Only physical security
d. Marketing
Answer: b (ISO) - What role does automation play in configuration management?
a. It slows down deployment
b. It eliminates consistency and introduces errors
c. It helps ensure consistency, repeatability, and reduce human error
d. It removes auditability
Answer: c - Which of the following is a benefit of CM for disaster recovery?
a. No backup
b. Having documented and recoverable configuration states
c. Uncontrolled changes
d. Ignoring configurations
Answer: b - What is configuration identification?
a. Ignoring changes
b. Defining and labeling configuration items and versions
c. Deleting old configs
d. Random naming
Answer: b - What does “configuration status accounting” involve?
a. Only financial accounting
b. Recording and reporting on configuration items and change status
c. Physical security only
d. Deleting history
Answer: b - Which of these is an example of a push-based configuration model?
a. Agent polling master
b. Master pushes configuration scripts to target systems
c. Peer updates
d. Pull from server without master
Answer: b - What is “drift remediation”?
a. Letting drift persist
b. Automatically returning system to baseline if drift detected
c. Logging only
d. Ignoring drift
Answer: b - Why is traceability essential in configuration management?
a. It isn’t needed
b. To link configuration changes to change requests, users, and impact
c. To obfuscate history
d. To remove accountability
Answer: b - Which is a challenge often encountered in configuration management?
a. Too little complexity
b. Managing configuration differences across environments
c. No changes ever
d. Unlimited resources
Answer: b (arXiv) - What is the impact of misconfiguration in distributed cloud applications?
a. No effect
b. System failures or security vulnerabilities
c. Always improvement
d. Only aesthetic issues
Answer: b (arXiv) - Which key principle ensures only authorized changes occur?
a. Anarchy
b. Configuration control with approvals
c. Open editing by all
d. Untracked changes
Answer: b - What is the difference between configuration management and asset management?
a. They are identical
b. CM focuses on controlling and tracking configurations, AM focuses on inventory of assets
c. AM is broader than CM always
d. CM only for hardware
Answer: b (Wikipedia) - What is the function of a configuration audit in cybersecurity?
a. Introduce changes
b. Check that configuration is consistent, compliant, and accurate
c. Disable logging
d. Remove backups
Answer: b - Which approach helps enforce secure configurations at scale?
a. Manual login on each machine
b. Use centralized configuration tools and policies
c. Ignore remote devices
d. Rely on users
Answer: b - What is “drift detection”?
a. Ignoring changes
b. Identification of deviations from baseline configuration
c. Automatic upgrades
d. Physical movement
Answer: b - How often should configuration audits and validation be performed?
a. Only once ever
b. Periodically, and after significant changes
c. Never
d. Only after breaches
Answer: b - Which of these is a good practice when dealing with secrets (passwords, keys) in configuration?
a. Hardcode them in plain text
b. Use secret management tools and encryption
c. Share them freely
d. Store with code openly
Answer: b - What is a “golden image” in configuration management?
a. A corrupt configuration
b. A tested, baseline system image used for deployment
c. An image of gold bars
d. An unverified snapshot
Answer: b - Which metric helps measure effectiveness of configuration management?
a. Number of unapproved changes
b. Number of songs in playlist
c. Random number of users
d. None
Answer: a - What is “configuration drift prevention” technique?
a. Doing nothing
b. Enforcing desired state via continuous monitoring and enforcement
c. Manual rework only
d. Ignoring drift
Answer: b - What is the difference between mutable vs immutable infrastructure in configuration?
a. Mutable is unchanged, immutable is changed
b. Mutable allows changes in place, immutable replaces entire system rather than altering existing one
c. Both are the same
d. Only relevant in legacy systems
Answer: b - Which role typically approves configuration changes in an organization?
a. Unprivileged user
b. Configuration control board or change advisory board
c. External visitor
d. Random employee
Answer: b - Which of the following best describes the relationship between configuration management and cybersecurity?
a. Configuration management is irrelevant to cybersecurity
b. Proper configuration management enforces security policies, helps reduce vulnerabilities, and supports auditability
c. Configuration management only helps performance
d. Cybersecurity replaces configuration management
Answer: b
