Security Operations Professional Intermediate Practice Exam: Medium Difficulty 2025

A SOC is standardizing on Palo Alto Networks security operations tools. They want a single console to search and investigate alerts across endpoints and cloud workloads, and they also want to orchestrate response actions (for example, disable a user, block an IP) through playbooks. Which pairing best meets this requirement?

After onboarding Cortex XDR, an analyst notices that endpoint telemetry is present but firewall-related network context is missing in investigations. The environment uses Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls and the goal is to correlate network and endpoint activity in XDR. What is the most appropriate next step?

An analyst is triaging an alert indicating suspicious PowerShell activity on a workstation. They want to determine whether the behavior is part of a broader campaign affecting multiple endpoints and users. Which approach in Cortex XDR best supports this investigation goal?

A SOC receives a medium-severity XDR alert for a suspicious executable. The file was blocked on one endpoint, but the analyst needs to quickly decide if this should be escalated. Which set of checks provides the best evidence-based escalation decision?

A security engineer wants to reduce false positives for a recurring alert triggered by an internally developed admin script. The script is signed, centrally deployed, and validated as safe. What is the best practice to reduce noise while maintaining detection quality in Cortex XDR?

A SOC manager suspects that multiple seemingly unrelated alerts (a malicious email link click, suspicious browser download, and a new scheduled task) are part of the same incident. Which method best helps correlate these events into a single investigation storyline in Cortex XDR?

Your organization uses Cortex XSOAR for incident response. When a high-confidence phishing incident is created, you want to automatically enrich indicators, open a case, and—if the URL is confirmed malicious—block it at the secure web gateway and create a ticket for IT. What is the best implementation approach?

A SOC wants to automate containment for confirmed ransomware behavior detected on an endpoint. However, they want to avoid disrupting business operations if the alert is a false positive. Which automation design is most appropriate in Cortex XSOAR?

An XSOAR playbook is failing to block malicious domains because the integration command returns an authentication error. The SOC wants a sustainable fix that reduces future outages. What is the best next step?

A SOC lead wants to improve operational effectiveness. They need a way to measure and reduce the time from alert creation to containment, and to identify where incidents commonly stall (triage, enrichment, approval, remediation). Which approach best supports this goal using SOC process and platform capabilities?