CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) — Concepts, Threats & Attacks flashcards
10 of 70 cards free to study here · 11 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
Domains 1 and 2 of SY0-701 as scenario questions: CIA and AAA, zero trust planes, control categories and types, threat actors and vectors, social engineering, malware, application, network, password and cryptographic attacks, indicators of compromise and vulnerability classes.
Learn deck · part of CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) · written against: Exam SY0-701 objectives; SY0-701 can still be sat in English until 11 June 2027, and SY0-801 launches on 17 November 2026 (as of October 2026). Updated 2026-10-10.
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An attacker alters the amounts in a batch of bank transfers in transit without ever reading them. Which part of the CIA triad has been violated?Integrity — the data was changed without authorization. Confidentiality was not breached because nothing was disclosed, and the service stayed available.Security Concepts
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A patient, well-funded group spends months quietly inside a defense contractor's network collecting design documents. Which threat actor type fits best?A nation-state actor, typically operating as an advanced persistent threat (APT): high sophistication, large resources and long-term espionage goals.Threat Actors
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A USB stick labelled 'Salaries' is found in the office car park. Which threat vector is being exploited if an employee plugs it in?A removable device vector — the drive can run malicious code or impersonate a keyboard to inject commands. The lure itself relies on curiosity (baiting).Threat Vectors
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The CFO receives a personalized email that references a real pending acquisition and asks her to open an attached 'term sheet'. What is this attack called?Whaling — spear phishing aimed at a high-value executive.Social Engineering
Compare: spear phishing targets a specific person or group; plain phishing is sent in bulk. -
Which malware type spreads from host to host across a network with no user action at all?A worm — it self-replicates by exploiting vulnerabilities on reachable systems.Malware
Compare: a virus attaches to a file or program and needs a user to run it. -
Entering
' OR 1=1 --as a username logs the attacker in without a password. Which attack is this, and what is the primary code-level fix?SQL injection — untrusted input was concatenated into a database query. Fix with parameterized queries (prepared statements) plus input validation.Application Attacks -
An attacker tries the password 'Autumn2025!' once against every account in the company. Which attack is this, and why does it evade lockout policies?Password spraying — one or a few common passwords tried across many accounts, keeping each account below its lockout threshold.Password Attacks
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A client is manipulated into negotiating an old, broken TLS version. Which attack is this, and how is it prevented?A downgrade attack — forcing a weaker protocol or cipher so it can be broken. Disable legacy protocol versions and weak cipher suites on both ends.Cryptographic Attacks
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Dozens of failed logins on one account are followed by a success from a foreign IP at 3 a.m. How should an analyst classify this?As an indicator of compromise — account-lockout noise followed by success and out-of-cycle activity points to a brute-force attack that worked.Indicators of Compromise
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A flaw is being exploited in the wild before the vendor even knows it exists. What is this called, and how do defenders cope?A zero-day — no patch exists, so protection relies on compensating controls, behaviour-based detection and rapid patching once a fix ships.Vulnerabilities
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Written for SY0-701, which can still be sat in English until 11 June 2027; its successor, SY0-801, launches on 17 November 2026 (CompTIA's Security+ V7 and V8 pages, as of October 2026).
- Checked against the CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 exam objectives, version 6.0 (topic list only; no text copied).
- Checked against NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture (public domain) for control plane and data plane roles.
- Checked against the OWASP Top 10:2025 and the OWASP Cheat Sheet Series (CC BY-SA 4.0; reference only) for application attacks and fixes.
- Checked against MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise techniques, IETF RFC 4033 (DNSSEC), RFC 8446 and RFC 8996 (TLS), and NIST SP 800-131A Rev. 2 and SP 800-63B-4 (public domain) for attack definitions, cryptographic status and password defences (reference only).
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