CyberOps Professional 300-215 Exam Dumps

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The log entry contains the following key elements:

The timestamp:(04/Jan/2022:20:18:06 +0000)

HTTP method and URI:"GET /%60%60%60%60%60%60/ HTTP/2.0"

HTTP status code:404

User-Agent:Mozilla/5.0 ... Firefox/95.0

The status code404indicates that the requested resource was not found on the server. This is a standard HTTP response that signifies the server could not locate the requested URI (in this case, likely due to a malformed or invalid path/\`````/, where%60is the URL-encoded form of the backtick character "").

There is no clear evidence of SQL injection, WAF detection, or redirection in this log. The use of encoded backticks may suggest probing behavior, but the log does not show a definitive attack signature.

Therefore, the correct interpretation is:

Answer: D. The requested page was not found.

The hexadecimal representation in the exhibit does not match the Base64 encoding format, which uses ASCII characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /) and often includes padding with=. This string is clearly hex and is more aligned withCharcode, where hexadecimal values represent individual characters based on ASCII values.

The Cisco CyberOps Associate guide refers to such encodings during forensic analysis and emphasizes identifying patterns in memory dumps, payloads, or logs. "Security professionals often decode hexadecimal strings to reveal ASCII representations, particularly when inspecting encoded payloads or character obfuscation techniques used in malware".

The metadata in the exhibit reveals a strong indicator that this .LNK file (shortcut) is malicious:

The shortcut file is named "ds7002.pdf" but actually points to the execution of PowerShell:→ Full path: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Arguments include:→ -noni -ep bypass $z = '...'; indicating an attempt to run a PowerShell script with execution policy bypassed (a known tactic for fileless malware delivery).

The file is masked as a PDF (common social engineering technique), and PowerShell execution via .LNK is a signature technique used by many malware families to initiate second-stage payloads or scripts.

Given this, the correct and safest course of action is to:

→ Open the .LNK file in a sandbox environment (D).

This enables safe behavioral analysis to observe what actions it attempts upon execution without endangering live systems.

Other options are inappropriate:

A (ignoring the threat due to extension) is dangerous — .LNKs can trigger code.

B (upload to virus engine) is only helpful for known malware and lacks behavioral context.

C (quarantine) is preventive but not investigative — sandboxing provides visibility.

This scenario describes asubstitution cipher, where data is made unreadable or less recognizable without altering its functionality. According to the Cisco CyberOps Associate guide, obfuscation includes techniques such as shifting, encoding, and symbol manipulation to mask the true nature of data or code:

"A very well-known cipher, the Caesar cipher... shifts the letter of the alphabet by a fixed number... This technique is a form of data obfuscation used to bypass detection mechanisms.".