CS0-004 Exam Dumps : CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst CySA+ V4 (New Version)

/var/log/auth.log is the appropriate source because it records authentication and authorization activity on Debian/Ubuntu-style Linux systems, including password-related events, SSH logins, PAM authentication, and other authorization events. Canonical's Ubuntu documentation specifically identifies /var/log/auth.log as the authorization log used for password prompts, sudo, and remote logins.

The command performs three operations. cat /var/log/auth.log sends the log contents to standard output. The pipe forwards that data to grep "User1", which selects records containing the required username. Finally, > linux-events.txt redirects the resulting matching records into the requested flat-file report. Because auth.log can contain both accepted and rejected authentication activity, the command can capture successful and unsuccessful events associated with User1.

sssd is not the general authentication log path shown in the scenario and may contain only SSSD-specific events. A faillog-oriented source emphasizes failed logins and therefore does not satisfy the requirement to collect both successful and failed activity. /var/log/syslog contains broad system messages but is less precise than the dedicated authentication log.

Study Guide Reference: Security Operations → Linux Log Analysis → /var/log/auth.log → cat → grep → Output Redirection → Authentication Investigation.

Windows Security Event ID 4624 records a successful logon session. Therefore, querying the Security log for event 4624 provides the analyst with historical evidence of successful logins to the affected workstation.

Get-WinEvent is the appropriate PowerShell cmdlet for retrieving Windows event records. The FilterHashtable parameter allows efficient server-side filtering using attributes such as LogName and ID, rather than retrieving an entire event log and filtering the results afterward. Microsoft specifically documents LogName and ID as valid FilterHashtable keys and recommends this approach for efficient event-log querying.

The command then uses Sort-Object TimeCreated -Descending so the newest login events appear first, and Export-Csv preserves the resulting records for investigation.

Option A does not use the correct PowerShell event-query syntax shown. Options C and D search inappropriate log channels and unrelated event IDs. The evidence needed is authentication history, making the Windows Security log and successful-logon identifier 4624 the correct combination.

Study Guide Reference: Incident Response and Management → Evidence Collection → Windows Event Logs → PowerShell → Get-WinEvent → Security Event ID 4624 → Timeline Reconstruction.

The analyst should prioritize tlindy because the activity associated with that account presents the strongest anomaly in the supplied access-log evidence. Web access-log analysis is fundamentally contextual: an analyst compares source information, request behavior, authentication activity, timestamps, response codes, geographic indicators, user-agent characteristics, and established behavioral expectations to determine which entry warrants immediate investigation.

The fact that the organization is explicitly identified as being based in the United States is an important contextual clue. Geographic or behavioral activity inconsistent with the expected operating profile of an account can raise investigative priority, particularly when combined with unusual authentication or web-request characteristics. Importantly, geographic deviation alone does not prove compromise; VPN services, business travel, cloud infrastructure, and remote-working arrangements can produce legitimate anomalies. The correct SOC action is therefore investigation rather than immediate attribution.

This question tests the analyst's ability to distinguish normal activity from anomalous activity using log context , rather than simply searching for a particular HTTP status code or username. CySA+ expects analysts to correlate multiple data points before establishing whether activity represents an indicator of compromise.

The uploaded examination material identifies tlindy as the account requiring first investigation.

Study Guide Reference: Security Operations → Log Analysis → Web Application Logs → Behavioral Indicators → Anomaly Detection → User and Entity Context.