CCFA-200 CrowdStrike Certified Falcon Administrator Question and Answers

The most common cause of a Windows Sensor entering Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) is Microsoft updates. RFM occurs when the sensor detects a change in the operating system that requires a reboot to complete. Microsoft updates are one of the common causes of such a change. The other options are either incorrect or not related to RFM. Reference: CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide, page 30.

The Machine Learning Prevention Monitoring report in the Prevention Policy Management option allows you to monitor the impact of machine learning (ML) prevention settings on your environment. You can view the number of ML detections and preventions by severity, policy, and host group. You can also drill down into specific events and hosts to see more details. This report can help you determine the appropriate ML levels to set in a prevention policy based on your risk tolerance and security posture1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

Prevention Policies are created based on the OS (Windows, MAC and Linux policies). Once a prevention policy is created, three options appear on top: Settings, Assigned Host Groups and Assigned Custom IOAS (tested on Crowdstrike). Therefore, Host Groups and Custom IOAS are the two different types of groups a prevention policy can be aligned to.

The option that will enable Next-Gen Antivirus Prevention sliders and “Quarantine & Security Center Registration” is to enable Malware Protection and Windows Anti-Malware Execution Blocking. Malware Protection is a feature that enables the Next-Gen Antivirus Prevention sliders, which allow you to adjust the level of sensitivity and aggressiveness of the Falcon sensor’s machine learning engine, which uses artificial intelligence to identify and stop unknown threats. Windows Anti-Malware Execution Blocking is a feature that enables the “Quarantine & Security Center Registration” setting, which allows you to quarantine malicious files and register them in the Windows Security Center1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The report that lists counts of sensors in Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) for all operating system types, and tracks how long a sensor version will be supported is Sensor Coverage Lookup. The Sensor Coverage Lookup report allows you to view and compare the sensor versions and coverage status for each operating system type in your environment. You can use this report to identify any sensors that are in RFM or are approaching end-of-life (EOL) support. You can also view the release date and EOL date for each sensor version3.

References: 3: How to Become a CrowdStrike Certified Falcon Administrator

The purpose of precedence with respect to the Sensor Update policy is that hosts assigned to multiple policies will assume the highest ranked policy in the list (policy with the lowest number). This means that if a host belongs to more than one group that has different Sensor Update policies assigned, it will use the policy that has the highest precedence (lowest number) among them. The other options are either incorrect or not related to precedence. Reference: CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide, page 38.

IOA Exclusion says - Stop all behavioral detections and preventions for an IOA that’s based on a CrowdStrike-generated detection. Source: https://falcon.crowdstrike.com/documentation/68/detection-and-prevention-policies#exclusions

The option that is not an available action for an API Client is Retrieve an API Client Secret. An API Client is an entity that represents a user or application that can access the Falcon platform programmatically via the Falcon APIs. An API Client has an API Client ID and an API Client Secret, which are used for authenticating and authorizing API requests. You can create and manage API Clients in the API Clients and Keys page in the Falcon console. The available actions for an API Client are Edit an API Client, Reset an API Client Secret, and Delete an API Client. You cannot retrieve an API Client Secret after it has been created, as it is only displayed once during creation for security reasons2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

It is important to know your company’s event data retention limits in the Falcon platform because you will not be able to search event data into the past beyond your retention period. The retention period is the amount of time that event data is stored in the Falcon Cloud, and it may vary depending on your subscription plan and settings. The other options are either incorrect or not related to knowing your retention limits. Reference: CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide, page 48.

The reporting interval is predefined and cannot be changed. You can only enable/disable the custom alert feature and add/remove recipient email client for the alert/detection.

The page that provides a count of sensors in Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) by Operating System is Sensor Health. The Sensor Health page allows you to view and monitor the health and status of all sensors in your environment. You can use this page to identify any sensors that have issues or errors, such as RFM, which is a mode that limits the sensor’s functionality due to license expiration, network connectivity loss, or certificate validation failure. You can filter the sensors by operating system, sensor version, last seen date, health events, detections, and preventions3.

References: 3: How to Become a CrowdStrike Certified Falcon Administrator

"ProvNoWait=1

The sensor does not abort installation if it can't connect to the CrowdStrike cloud within 20 minutes (10 minutes, in Falcon sensor version 6.21 and earlier). (By default, if the host can't contact our cloud, it will retry the connection for 20 minutes. After that, the host will automatically uninstall its sensor.)"

"ProvWaitTime=3600000

The sensor waits for 1 hour to connect to the CrowdStrike cloud when installing (the default is 20 minutes)."

When performing targeted filtering for a host on the Host Management Page, the filter bar attribute that is not case-sensitive is Hostname. The Hostname attribute allows you to filter hosts by their computer name or DNS name. The Hostname filter is not case-sensitive, meaning that it will match hosts regardless of the capitalization of their names. For example, filtering by hostname=DESKTOP-1234 will match hosts with names such as DESKTOP-1234, desktop-1234, or Desktop-12342.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

The information that the API Audit Trail Report provides is a list of actions taken via Falcon OAuth2-based APIs. The API Audit Trail Report allows you to view and audit the activity and usage of the Falcon APIs by different API clients and users in your organization. You can use this report to monitor who accessed what data, when, and how via the Falcon APIs2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

The statement that is true regarding disabling detections on a host is that hosts with detections disabled will not alert on anything until detections are enabled again. As explained in question 127, disabling detections for a host will stop the sensor from sending any detection or prevention events to the Falcon console, and remove any existing events for that host from the console. This means that the host will not alert on anything, including blocklisted hashes, machine learning detections, or indicator of attack (IOA)-based detections. The host will remain in this state until detections are enabled again1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

After agent installation, an agent opens a permanent TLS connection over port 443 and keeps that connection open until the endpoint is turned off or the network connection is terminated. TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a protocol that provides secure and encrypted communication between the agent and the Falcon cloud. Port 443 is the standard port for HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) traffic. The agent uses this connection to send and receive data, commands, policies, and updates from the Falcon cloud2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

The Machine Learning (ML) slider that will only detect or prevent high confidence malicious items is Cautious. The ML slider allows you to adjust the level of sensitivity and aggressiveness of the Falcon sensor’s ML engine, which uses artificial intelligence to identify and stop unknown threats. The Cautious setting will enable the sensor to detect and prevent only high-confidence malicious events, while allowing low-confidence events to run without interference. This setting will also generate less noise and false positives than higher settings, such as Moderate or Extra Aggressive1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

A workflow condition consists of a parameter, an operator, and a value. A workflow condition is a rule that defines when a workflow should be triggered based on certain criteria or filters. A parameter is a variable or attribute that can be used to filter or match detection events, such as severity, tactic, or host group. An operator is a symbol or word that specifies how to compare or evaluate the parameter and the value, such as equals, contains, or greater than. A value is a constant or expression that provides the expected or desired result for the parameter, such as high, credential dumping, or default group1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The option that best describes the general process for installation of the Falcon Sensor on MacOS is to install the Falcon package, use falconctl to license the sensor, approve the system extension, grant the sensor Full Disk Access. The Falcon package contains the sensor binary and the kernel extension, which can be installed by double-clicking on it or using a command-line tool such as installer. The falconctl tool is a command-line utility that allows you to configure and manage the sensor on MacOS systems. You can use falconctl to license the sensor by providing your Customer ID (CID) and optionally your Sensor Group ID (SGID). After licensing the sensor, you need to approve the system extension in the Security & Privacy settings of your system preferences, which will require a restart. Finally, you need to grant the sensor Full Disk Access in the Privacy settings of your system preferences, which will allow the sensor to monitor and protect your files and folders1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The administrator can create a detection-only policy by setting the Next-Gen Antivirus detection settings to the desired detection level and all the prevention sliders to disabled in the policy’s settings. This will allow Falcon to detect but not prevent threats on the hosts using this policy. Do not activate any of the other blocking or malware prevention options, as they will enable prevention actions. The other options are either incorrect or not related to creating a detection-only policy. Reference: [CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide], page 35.

The No Action option can be assigned to a hash in IOC Management when you want to save the indicator for later action, but do not want to block or allow it at this time. This option will neither detect nor prevent the execution of the hash, but will keep it in the IOC list for future reference. The other options are either incorrect or not related to the No Action option. Reference: CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide, page 44.

When a user initiates a sensor install, the logs can be found in %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp. This folder contains temporary files and folders created by the system or applications, including the sensor installation logs. The sensor installation logs have names that start with CSFalconContainer and end with .log, such as CSFalconContainer-2023-08-31_11-23-21.log. These logs can help you troubleshoot any issues or errors that may occur during the sensor installation process3.

References: 3: How to Become a CrowdStrike Certified Falcon Administrator

 The way an API client secret can be viewed after it has been created is that the API client secret must be reset or a new client created as the secret cannot be viewed after it has been created. As explained in question 137, an API client secret is only displayed once during creation for security reasons. If you lose or forget your API client secret, you cannot view it again in the Falcon console. You have two options to resolve this issue: either reset your API client secret or create a new API client. Resetting your API client secret will generate a new secret for your existing API client, which will invalidate any previous secret. Creating a new API client will generate a new API client ID and secret, which will require you to update any applications or scripts that use the Falcon APIs2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

When a Linux host is in Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM), the sensor would provide minimal protection. RFM is a mode that limits the sensor’s functionality due to license expiration, network connectivity loss, or certificate validation failure. When a Linux sensor is in RFM, it will only provide basic prevention capabilities, such as blocking known malware hashes and preventing script execution from the /tmp directory. The sensor will not send any telemetry or detection events to the Falcon platform, and will not receive any policy or update changes from the Falcon cloud1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The best way to ensure that a list of 100 hashes that are not malicious but your company has deemed to be inappropriate for work computers are not allowed to run in your environment is to use IOC Management, gather the list of SHA256 or MD5 hashes for each binary and then upload them. Set all hashes to “Block” and ensure that the prevention policy these computers are using includes the option for “Custom Blocking” under Execution Blocking. This will allow Falcon to block the execution of these hashes on the hosts using this policy. The other options are either incorrect or not efficient to achieve this goal. Reference: [CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide], page 44.

From a command line, running the sc query csagent -version command is not a way to determine the sensor version installed on a specific endpoint. This command will only show the status of the csagent service, not the sensor version. The other options are valid ways to determine the sensor version installed on a specific endpoint using Falcon UI or API. You can use the Sensor Report, the Host Search, or the Host Management features to filter, search, or select the desired endpoint and view the sensor version information12.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike 2: How to Become a CrowdStrike Certified Falcon Administrator

The role that allows a user to connect to hosts using Real-Time Response is Real Time Responder – Active Responder. This role allows users to use the “Connect to Host” feature to gather additional information from the host, as well as execute commands and scripts on the host. The other roles do not have this capability. Reference: [CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide], page 18.

The maximum number of patterns that can be added when creating a new exclusion is one. Each exclusion can only have one pattern, which can be a file path, a hash, a command line or a user name. The other options are either incorrect or not related to creating exclusions. Reference: CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide, page 37.

Audit logs --> Machine-learning prevention monitoring It shows the count of ML expected detections based on the detection levels for a defined time period and the list of files that would be detected on each detection level.

The best settings to configure the Machine Learning levels of the Prevention Policy so it does not interfere with existing solutions during the testing phase are Cautious for both Detection and Prevention sliders. This setting will enable the sensor to detect and prevent only high-confidence malicious events, while allowing low-confidence events to run without interference. This setting will also generate less noise and false positives than higher settings, such as Moderate or Extra Aggressive1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The reason why you would assign hosts to a static group instead of a dynamic group is that you do not want the group membership to change automatically. A Static Group is a group that requires manual assignment or removal of hosts. A Static Group will not update its membership based on any criteria or filters. This way, you can have more control over which hosts belong to the group and prevent any unwanted changes1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The option that would need to be configured to allow remote connections from specified IP’s after network containing a host is IP Allowlist Management. IP Allowlist Management allows you to define a list of trusted IP addresses that can communicate with your contained hosts. This way, you can isolate a host from the network while still allowing your incident response team or other authorized parties to remotely connect to the host for investigation or remediation purposes2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

The option that may prevent a user from logging into Falcon via single sign-on (SSO) is that the SSO username doesn’t match their email address in Falcon. SSO is a feature that allows you to use an external identity provider (IdP) to authenticate and authorize users to access the Falcon platform. SSO simplifies and streamlines the login process, as users only need to remember one set of credentials for multiple applications. However, SSO requires that the username in the IdP matches the email address in Falcon for each user. If there is a mismatch between the username and the email address, the user will not be able to log into Falcon via SSO.

References: : [Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike]

According to documentation (documentation/detections/technique/sensor-based-ml-cst0007): CrowdStrike sensor-based machine learning (ML) identifies and analyzes unknown executables as they run on hosts. This technique is triggered by files and file attributes associated with known malware. This is similar to the [Cloud-based ML](/support/documentation/detections/technique/cloud-based-ml) technique. Cloud-based ML is informed by global analysis of executables that classifies and identifies malware. The key difference is that it doesn't run on hosts when they're offline.

The administrator can choose a specific sensor version number in the Sensor Update policy to manually control when the sensor version is upgraded or downgraded. This will allow the Falcon Cloud to push out sensor version changes, but only when the administrator changes the version number in the policy. The other options will either automate the sensor version updates or turn them off completely. Reference: [CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide], page 38.

The place where you can find the history of the successes and failures for any Falcon Fusion workflows is the Workflow Execution log. The Workflow Execution log in the Workflow Management option allows you to view the status and results of workflow executions triggered by detection events. You can filter the log by workflow name, status, start and end time, and detection ID. You can also view the details of each execution, including the actions performed, the output received, and any errors encountered. This log can help you troubleshoot potential failures or issues with your workflows1.

References: 1: Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike

The administrator can assign a policy to a specific group of hosts by creating a group containing the desired hosts using “Static Assignment.” Then, go to the Assigned Host Groups tab of the desired policy and click “Add groups to policy.” Select the desired Group(s). This will apply the policy to the selected group(s) of hosts. The other options are either incorrect or not applicable to static assignment. Reference: [CrowdStrike Falcon User Guide], page 33.

When editing an existing IOA exclusion, the IOA name cannot be edited. An IOA (indicator of attack) exclusion allows you to define custom rules for excluding suspicious behavior from detection or prevention based on process execution, file write, network connection, or registry events. The IOA name is a predefined name that identifies the type of IOA behavior that you want to exclude, such as “Suspicious Process Execution - Script Interpreter Executing File”. The IOA name cannot be changed when editing an existing IOA exclusion, as it is linked to a specific IOA rule in the Falcon platform. However, you can edit other parts of the IOA exclusion, such as the exclusion name, the hosts groups, and the filter criteria2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

"Disable Detections. This is helpful for users who want to set up hosts to test detections in the Falcon console and who later want to remove those old test detections from the"

The Unique Hosts Connecting to Countries Map helps an administrator to visualize global network communication. The map shows the number of unique hosts in your environment that have established network connections to different countries in the past 24 hours. You can use this map to identify unusual or suspicious network activity, such as connections to high-risk countries or regions, or connections from hosts that are not expected to communicate with external entities2.

References: 2: Cybersecurity Resources | CrowdStrike

The option that describes how sensor update precedence is determined when a host belongs to more than one host group is that all of the host’s groups are examined in aggregate and the policy with highest precedence is applied to the host. A Sensor Update policy is a policy that controls how and when the Falcon sensor is updated on a host. You can create and assign custom Sensor Update policies to different hosts or groups in your environment. Each Sensor Update policy has a precedence value, which determines its priority over other policies. The higher the precedence value, the higher the priority. If a host belongs to more than one host group, each with a different Sensor Update policy assigned, then all of the host’s groups are examined in aggregate and the policy with highest precedence among them is applied to the host.

References: : [Falcon Administrator Learning Path | Infographic | CrowdStrike]