Palto Alto PCNSE Practice Exam Questions

Explanation :
In a Palo Alto Networks firewall, the management plane handles tasks such as configuration, logging, reporting, and communication with external systems (e.g., Panorama), while the data plane processes traffic, including security enforcement. Operations that impact the management plane’s performance are those that consume its CPU and memory resources, such as generating reports or processing logs. Among the options, generating a SaaS Application report involves the management plane analyzing traffic logs and application data to create detailed reports, which can significantly tax its resources, especially during peak usage or with large datasets. The Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide notes that report generation, particularly for application usage, is a management plane function that can lead to performance degradation if resource-intensive.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
A. Decrypting SSL sessions:
SSL decryption is performed by the data plane, which handles packet processing, including cryptographic operations. While it can increase data plane CPU usage, it does not directly impact the management plane. The PCNSE Study Guide confirms decryption is a data plane task
C. Enabling DoS protection:
DoS Protection profiles, which mitigate flood attacks, are enforced by the data plane through rate-limiting and packet inspection. The initial configuration occurs on the management plane, but the ongoing operation affects the data plane. The PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide specifies DoS protection as a data plane function.
D. Enabling packet buffer protection:
Packet buffer protection addresses data plane resource exhaustion due to excessive buffering, managed entirely by the data plane. It does not involve management plane processing. The PCNSE Study Guide identifies this as a data plane optimization.

Practical Steps:
Monitor management plane performance via Device > High Availability > Resources or CLI command show running resource-monitor.
Schedule SaaS Application report generation (Monitor > Reports > SaaS Application Usage) during off-peak hours to minimize impact.
Optimize report settings (e.g., reduce time range or data granularity) if performance issues persist. Commit changes and verify resource usage post-generation.

Additional Considerations:
Management plane performance can also be affected by high log rates or frequent Panorama syncs, but these are not listed options.
As of 11:23 AM PKT on Thursday, August 21, 2025, ensure any ongoing report generation aligns with current traffic patterns to assess impact accurately.

References:
Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide: Details management plane tasks, including report generation.
Palo Alto Networks PCNSE Study Guide: Differentiates management plane (e.g., reporting) from data plane (e.g., decryption, DoS) functions.

Explanation:
Palo Alto Networks publishes Threat Prevention Best Practices that define recommended settings for Security Profiles (Vulnerability, Anti-Spyware, AV, URL, etc.).

For Anti-Spyware Profiles, best practices include:
Enable single-packet capture for severities Medium, High, and Critical
→ This allows administrators to analyze malicious sessions more effectively without capturing unnecessary benign traffic.
Do NOT enable packet capture for Low or Informational severities
→ These typically represent lower-risk or informational events that would unnecessarily consume disk space and processing.
🔹 So, Medium + High + Critical = the three severity levels where single-packet capture should be enabled.

Why not the others?
A. Low ❌ → Too much noise, not best practice.
D. Informational ❌ → Only logs metadata, doesn’t require packet capture.

Reference:
Palo Alto Networks TechDocs: Anti-Spyware Profile Best Practices
Best Practice Guidance: Enable Single-Packet Capture for medium, high, and critical severities.

Explanation:
When installing the Windows-based User-ID Agent, Palo Alto Networks recommends using a Dedicated Service Account in Active Directory. This account should have just enough privileges to perform the necessary tasks — specifically:
Read access to security event logs on domain controllers
Permission to query user login events
Access to group membership information (if using group mapping)
This approach follows least privilege principles, reducing risk while ensuring functionality.
📚 Reference:
Palo Alto Networks – Configure the Windows User-ID Agent

❌ Why Other Options Are Wrong:
B. System Account:
Not usable for domain-level access; it's local to the machine.
C. Domain Administrator:
Overly privileged; not recommended for security reasons.
D. Enterprise Administrator:
Even more privileged than Domain Admin — unnecessary and risky.

Explanation:

What Device Telemetry Does:
Device Telemetry in PAN-OS allows Palo Alto Networks to collect information from firewalls to improve product reliability, threat prevention, and customer support.
Data types include device health, configuration usage, feature adoption, threat samples, and system statistics.

Privacy/Security Consideration:
Since the data goes outside the company’s infrastructure, an organization must ensure compliance with local data privacy and data storage laws (e.g., GDPR in EU).

Option Review
A. Telemetry feature is automatically enabled during PAN-OS installation. ❌
→ False. By default, Device Telemetry is disabled. It must be explicitly enabled by an administrator.
B. Telemetry data is uploaded into Strata Logging Service. ✅
→ Correct. Data is stored in Palo Alto’s Strata Logging Service (SLS), which may be hosted in specific regions (e.g., US, EU). If regulations restrict data export, the company must review this.
C. Telemetry feature is using Traffic logs and packet captures to collect data. ❌
→ Incorrect. Device Telemetry does not use packet captures or forward raw traffic logs. It collects metadata/statistics/configuration health only.
D. Telemetry data is shared in real time with Palo Alto Networks. ✅
→ Correct. Because telemetry data is streamed to PAN in near-real time, companies under strict privacy laws must confirm whether this sharing complies with legal requirements.

Reference:
Palo Alto Networks TechDocs – About Device Telemetry
Palo Alto KB – Device Telemetry FAQ

Explanation:

1.Problem Context
The organization is coming from an L2–L4 firewall vendor (so their legacy policies are mostly port-based).
They want to start leveraging Palo Alto Networks’ App-ID for Layer 7 visibility and control.
They also want to identify policies that are no longer needed (e.g., unused or shadowed rules).

2.Policy Optimizer in Panorama
Policy Optimizer helps administrators:
Convert legacy port-based rules → into App-ID based rules.
Find rules that are unused (never hit).
Find rules that are too broad (allowing "any app" or "any service").
Refine rules to improve security posture and reduce attack surface.

Why not the others?
A. Application Groups ❌
→ Just a way to group multiple App-IDs together for easier policy management. Does not help identify unused/port-based rules.
C. Test Policy Match ❌
→ Used for testing which rule a specific traffic flow would match. It won’t optimize policies.
D. Config Audit ❌
→ Compares running vs. candidate configurations (or between snapshots). Good for change tracking, not for identifying unused policies.

Reference
Palo Alto TechDocs – Policy Optimizer
PANW Best Practices – Security policy migration guide

Explanation:
The server team has identified a high volume of logs forwarded to their syslog server, with DNS traffic (using port 53) being the primary contributor. The risk and compliance team requires that Traffic logs indicating port abuse on port 53 (destination port 53) still be forwarded to syslog, while all other DNS Traffic logs should be excluded. In Palo Alto Networks firewalls, log forwarding to external servers like syslog is configured to filter specific log types and conditions. The correct approach is to use a Traffic log filter within the Device > Log Settings to exclude logs where the destination port is not 53 (i.e., non-port-53 DNS traffic), ensuring only relevant port 53 abuse logs are sent. The filter syntax (port dst neq 53) means "destination port not equal to 53," effectively excluding non-port-53 DNS logs while allowing port 53 logs to pass. The Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide details that log filters in Device > Log Settings control which logs are forwarded, making option B correct.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
A. With (port,dst neq 53)’ Traffic log filter Object > Log Forwarding:
This is incorrect due to a syntax error (missing quotes and incorrect comma usage; should be (port dst neq 53)). Additionally, Objects > Log Forwarding defines where logs are sent (e.g., syslog server), not the filter conditions. The PCNSE Study Guide clarifies that filters are set in Device > Log Settings.
C. With ‘(app neq dns-base)’ Traffic log filter inside Device > Log Settings:
This is incorrect because excluding the dns-base application (which matches DNS traffic regardless of port) would remove all DNS-related logs, including those with port 53 abuse that the compliance team requires. The PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide notes that app neq dns-base is too broad for this requirement.
D. With ‘(app neq dns-base)’ Traffic log filter inside Objects > Log Forwarding:
This is incorrect for two reasons: the app neq dns-base filter excludes all DNS logs (including port 53), violating the requirement, and Objects > Log Forwarding is for defining forwarding profiles, not applying filters. The PCNSE Study Guide confirms filters belong in Device > Log Settings.

Practical Steps:
Navigate to Device > Log Settings.
Select the Traffic log type.
Add a filter with the condition (port dst neq 53) to exclude non-port-53 DNS logs. Ensure the syslog server is configured under Objects > Log Forwarding and linked to the Traffic log settings.
Commit the configuration.
Verify via Monitor > Logs > Traffic that only port 53 logs are forwarded to syslog.

References:
Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.1 Administrator’s Guide: Details log filtering in Device > Log Settings.
Palo Alto Networks PCNSE Study Guide: Explains log forwarding configuration and filter syntax.

Explanation:
GlobalProtect Clientless VPN is designed to allow users to securely access internal web applications without installing the GlobalProtect agent. It works by proxying traffic through the firewall using a browser-based interface.

The protocol it natively supports is:
HTTPS — because Clientless VPN is web-based and only proxies web applications that use secure HTTP.
📚 Reference:
Palo Alto Networks – Configure Clientless VPN

❌ Why Other Options Are Wrong:
A. HTP:
Typo — not a valid protocol.
B. SSH:
Not supported natively via Clientless VPN.
D. RDP:
Requires the full GlobalProtect agent or other remote access tools — not supported via Clientless VPN.

Explanation:
The question asks where to define additional information to be included in each forwarded log. This is the exact purpose of a Custom Log Format.

Here’s the breakdown:
1.Location: The path is Device > Server Profiles > Syslog. Here, you create or edit a syslog server profile that defines where to send the logs.
2.Feature: Within each syslog server profile, there is a section called "Custom Log Format".
3.Function: This feature allows you to build a custom template for the log message that will be sent to the syslog server. You can add, remove, and rearrange the fields (variables) that are included in the log.
You can add fields that are not in the standard format, such as action, app-category, rule-name, src-vm-name, dst-vm-name, and many more.
This provides the flexibility to include the exact "additional information" requested by the audit team.

Steps to Configure:
Navigate to Device > Server Profiles > Syslog.
Edit an existing profile or create a new one.
Click the "Custom Log Format" toggle to enable it.
Use the drop-down menus to add the desired fields to the log format template.

Detailed Analysis of the Other Options:
A. Data Patterns within Objects > Custom Objects
Why it's wrong: Data Patterns are used to define custom strings of data (like credit card numbers or employee IDs) for use in Data Filtering profiles to detect and prevent data exfiltration. They are not used to modify the structure or content of log messages sent to syslog.
C. Built-in Actions within Objects > Log Forwarding Profile
Why it's wrong: This is a distractor. There is no menu called "Objects > Log Forwarding Profile". Log forwarding profiles are server profiles created under Device > Server Profiles > Syslog. "Built-in Actions" is not a term associated with log formatting.
D. Logging and Reporting Settings within Device > Setup > Management
Why it's wrong: This path (Device > Setup > Management) is where you configure fundamental logging parameters, such as:
The number of logs to store on the firewall.
The log export schedule.
The IP address of the Panorama management server.
It does not contain any settings for customizing the content or format of individual log messages forwarded to a syslog server.

Reference & Key Takeaway:
Core Concept: Understanding the difference between where to send logs (the server profile) and what to send (the log format). The Custom Log Format feature gives you granular control over the "what".
Use Case: This is essential for integration with third-party SIEM systems that may require a specific log format or need additional contextual fields for correlation and analysis.
Syntax: The custom format uses variables like $action, $rule, etc., to represent the data fields in the log message.