Question 180
During a security incident tabletop exercise at Aster Mutual, engineers say that they resolved this finding: A cloud service gives every employee broad administrative API permissions after single sign-on. Which result provides the STRONGEST acceptance evidence?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Ordinary employees cannot call administrative endpoints; approved time-bound elevation works. This is the decisive evidence for the original problem: A cloud service gives every employee broad administrative API permissions after single sign-on. It verifies that the intended corrective control—Apply role-based least privilege and just-in-time privileged elevation with auditable conditions—works in the relevant environment; a completed change ticket alone would not prove the outcome at Aster Mutual.
Incorrect Answers
A service reaches only its approved dependency regardless of its assigned subnet. This would be relevant evidence for a different failure: Network segmentation is based only on data-center VLAN placement, leaving workload identities unverified, usually addressed by Apply identity-aware microsegmentation and explicit workload-to-workload policies. It does not demonstrate that the current problem at Aster Mutual was resolved. The specific required evidence is: Ordinary employees cannot call administrative endpoints; approved time-bound elevation works.
A contractor reaches only assigned applications and unrelated services remain inaccessible. This would be relevant evidence for a different failure: Remote contractors can access every internal service after a single perimeter VPN login, usually addressed by Adopt application-specific zero-trust access based on user, device, and resource policy. It does not demonstrate that the current problem at Aster Mutual was resolved. The specific required evidence is: Ordinary employees cannot call administrative endpoints; approved time-bound elevation works.
A posture-change event terminates the sensitive session before additional data access. This would be relevant evidence for a different failure: A user authenticated in the morning keeps privileged access after the endpoint becomes compromised, usually addressed by Continuously reassess session risk and device posture and revoke or reauthorize when conditions change. It does not demonstrate that the current problem at Aster Mutual was resolved. The specific required evidence is: Ordinary employees cannot call administrative endpoints; approved time-bound elevation works.