CPC-SEN CyberArk Sentry - Privilege Cloud Question and Answers

In large-scale environments, to enable the Central Policy Manager (CPM) to focus its search operations on specific Safes instead of scanning all Safes it sees in the Vault, the AllowedSafes parameter on each platform policy is used. This parameter can be configured within the platform settings in the CyberArk administration interface. By specifying safes in the AllowedSafes parameter, the CPM will only manage credentials within those designated safes, thereby optimizing performance and managing resources more efficiently by not scanning unnecessary safes. This setting is crucial for large environments where the CPM needs to be as efficient as possible due to the volume of managed accounts.

The correct CyberArk user to use when installing the Privilege Cloud Connector software is typically formatted as <subdomain>_admin. This username format indicates a privileged administrative account associated with the specific subdomain of the CyberArk Privilege Cloud installation. It ensures that the user has sufficient permissions to perform installation tasks across the environment, which are crucial for setting up and configuring the connectors correctly. Details about user roles and permissions can be found in the CyberArk Privilege Cloud installation and configuration guide.

In the directory lookup order for the CyberArk Privilege Cloud solution, the "CyberArk Cloud Directory" is always looked up first. This directory service is a part of the CyberArk Privilege Cloud infrastructure and is specifically designed to handle identity and access management within the cloud environment efficiently. It prioritizes the CyberArk Cloud Directory for authentication and identity resolution before consulting any external directory services.

To configure a platform to work with load-balanced Privileged Session Managers (PSMs), you should:

• Create a new PSM definition that targets the load balancer IP address and assign it to the platform (Option B). This approach involves configuring the platform settings to direct session traffic through a load balancer that distributes the load across multiple PSM servers. This is effective in environments where high availability and fault tolerance are priorities.

For LDAP integration with CyberArk Privilege Cloud Standard, the correct statement is that only the Issuing CA certificate is required for certificate trust to your directory server. This setup simplifies the process of establishing a trusted connection between CyberArk and the LDAP server by necessitating only the certification of the issuing Certificate Authority (CA), rather than needing multiple certificates from different levels of the trust chain. This approach ensures that the SSL/TLS communication between CyberArk and the LDAP server is secured based on the trust of the issuing CA’s certificate.

The default authentication profile to access CyberArk Identity is typically the Default New Device Login Profile. This profile is used to manage the authentication settings and security measures for devices accessing CyberArk services for the first time. It includes configurations such as authentication methods, security checks, and compliance requirements, ensuring that new devices meet the organization’s security standards before gaining access.

For large implementations of CyberArk Privilege Cloud Connectors in AWS and Azure environments, each connector can handle between 31-60 concurrent RDP/SSH sessions. This capacity is specified in the CyberArk documentation concerning Privilege Cloud Connectors and their scalability options. It is designed to support a higher volume of concurrent sessions to meet the needs of larger enterprise environments, ensuring that multiple users can securely access resources without significant performance degradation.

For retrieving the LDAPS certificate when not using the CyberArk provided LDAPS certificate tool, the supported certificate format is .der. The DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules) format is a binary form of a certificate rather than the ASCII PEM format. This format is widely supported across various systems for securing LDAP connections by providing a mechanism for LDAP servers to authenticate themselves to users. This information can be verified by checking LDAP configuration guides and CyberArk's secure implementation documentation which outline supported certificate formats for LDAP integrations.

In CyberArk Privilege Cloud, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) can be configured to enhance security by requiring multiple methods of authentication from independent categories of credentials to verify the user's identity. The available authentication methods include:

• Windows Authentication: Leverages the user's Windows credentials.
• PKI (Public Key Infrastructure): Utilizes certificates to authenticate.
• RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service): A networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting management.
• CyberArk: Uses CyberArk's own authentication methods.
• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): Protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services.
• SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language): An open standard that allows identity providers to pass authorization credentials to service providers.
• OpenID Connect (OIDC): An authentication layer on top of OAuth 2.0, an authorization framework.

Reference for this can be found in the CyberArk Privilege Cloud documentation, which details the integration and setup of MFA using these methods.

When installing the PSM and CPM components on the same Privilege Cloud Connector and considering the hardening process, it's important to note that PSM settings override the CPM settings when referring to the same parameter. This hierarchy is crucial in ensuring that the more stringent security settings required by PSM, which typically handles direct interaction with end-user sessions, take precedence over CPM settings. This setup helps maintain robust security practices by applying the most restrictive configuration where conflicts occur.

When installing the first CyberArk Privilege Management (CPM) instance in the Privilege Cloud using the Connector Management Agent, the installation mode should be set to "Active". This configuration sets the CPM to be actively involved in password management and task processing without being in a standby or passive mode. Here are the step-by-step details:

• Download the Connector Management Agent: Obtain the installer from the CyberArk Marketplace or your installation kit.
• Run the Installer: Start the setup and select the CPM component to install.
• Choose Installation Mode: When prompted, select "Active" as the installation mode. This sets up the CPM as the primary node responsible for handling password management operations.

This setup ensures that the CPM is immediately active and capable of handling requests without waiting for manual intervention or failover.

In a PSM Load Balanced Virtual Server Configuration, the default service ports/protocols used are RDP/3389 and HTTPS/443. RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) typically uses port 3389 for remote desktop services, which is essential for PSM functionalities involving remote sessions. HTTPS, which utilizes port 443, is used for the PSM Health Check service to ensure secure and encrypted communication during the monitoring and health verification processes of the PSM services.