Master the Check Point Certified Security Expert R81.20 156-315.81 Exam with Confidence!

ClusterXL is a clustering technology that provides high availability and load sharing for Security Gateways. ClusterXL uses a proprietary protocol called Check Point Cluster Protocol (CCP) to communicate between cluster members. CCP has two main functions: Health Check and State Synchronization. Health Check is the mechanism that monitors the status and availability of each cluster member and determines which member is the active one. State Synchronization is the mechanism that synchronizes the connection and NAT tables between cluster members to ensure a smooth failover in case of a member failure. CCP uses UDP port 8116 for both Health Check and State Synchronization messages. The other options are not correct because:

• A. CCP and 18190: This option is incorrect because CCP does not use port 18190. Port 18190 is used by Secure Internal Communication (SIC) between Security Gateways and Management Servers.
• B. CCP and 257: This option is incorrect because CCP does not use port 257. Port 257 is used by Check Point Security Management Protocol (CPM) for communication between SmartConsole and Management Servers.
• D. CPC and 8116: This option is incorrect because there is no such protocol as CPC in ClusterXL.

References: ClusterXL R81.20 Administration Guide, ClusterXL Administration Guide R80.40, sk25977 - Ports used by Check Point software

Each instance of VRRP running on a supported interface may monitor the link state of other interfaces. The monitored interfaces do not have to be running VRRP.

If a monitored interface loses its link state, then VRRP will decrement its priority over a VRID by the specified delta value and then will send out a new VRRP HELLO packet. If the new effective priority is less than the priority a backup platform has, then the backup platform will begin to send out its own HELLO packet.

Once the master sees this packet with a priority greater than its own, then it releases the VIP.

References:

Capsule Connect and Capsule Workspace are both components of Check Point's remote access solution, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features:

A. Capsule Connect provides a Layer 3 VPN, which allows remote users to connect securely to their corporate network. It typically provides network-level access, allowing users to access resources on the corporate network. On the other hand, Capsule Workspace provides a secure workspace environment, including a virtual desktop with usable applications. It is more focused on providing application-level access to users in a secure manner.

B. This statement is partially true. Capsule Workspace is designed to provide secure access to a wide range of applications and resources, not limited to specific applications.

C. Capsule Connect does provide business data isolation by creating a secure VPN tunnel for remote users, ensuring that their network traffic is isolated from the public internet.

D. Capsule Connect usually requires an installed application or VPN client on the client device to establish a secure connection to the corporate network. This statement is not entirely accurate because an installed application or client is typically required.

Therefore, option A is the correct answer as it accurately distinguishes between Capsule Connect and Capsule Workspace based on their primary functionalities.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) R81 documentation and learning resources.

The command "fw tab -s" is used to display information about the state of various kernel tables in a Check Point firewall. It provides a perspective on the number and status of these tables, which can be helpful for troubleshooting and monitoring firewall performance.

Option B correctly identifies the command that gives a perspective of the number of kernel tables, making it the verified answer.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) R81 documentation and learning resources.

SecureXL is a technology that improves the performance of Security Gateway by offloading the processing of some packets from the Firewall kernel to the SecureXL device driver1. SecureXL can handle packets in three different paths, depending on the type and state of the packet2:

• Firewall Path: This is the slowest path, where packets are processed by the Firewall kernel and all the inspection blades. This path is used for packets that require full inspection, such as the first packet of a connection, packets that match a rule with a UTM blade, or packets that are not eligible for acceleration.
• Accelerated Path: This is the fastest path, where packets are processed by the SecureXL device driver and bypass the Firewall kernel. This path is used for packets that belong to an established connection that is marked for acceleration, and do not require any further inspection by the Firewall or other blades.
• Medium Path: This is a hybrid path, where packets are processed by both the SecureXL device driver and the Firewall kernel, but skip some inspection steps. This path is used for packets that belong to an established connection that is not marked for acceleration, but do not require full inspection by all the blades.

The other options are not correct because:

• A. Initial Path; Medium Path; Accelerated Path: There is no such thing as Initial Path in SecureXL terminology. The initial packet of a connection is always handled by the Firewall Path.
• B. Layer Path; Blade Path; Rule Path: These are not paths of traffic flow, but components of the unified policy in R80 and above versions. The Layer Path refers to the order of layers in the policy, the Blade Path refers to the order of blades within a layer, and the Rule Path refers to the order of rules within a blade3.
• C. Firewall Path; Accept Path; Drop Path: These are not paths of traffic flow, but possible actions that the Firewall can take on a packet. The Firewall Path is one of the paths of traffic flow, but the Accept Path and Drop Path are not. The Accept Path means that the packet is allowed to pass through the Firewall, and the Drop Path means that the packet is blocked by the Firewall4.

References: Part 3 - SecureXL, What is CoreXL & SecureXL, SecureXL Fast Accelerator (fw fast_accel) for R80.20 and above, QUANTUM 7000 SECURITY GATEWAY

The blades of Threat Prevention in Check Point include:

Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)

AntiVirus

AntiBot

SandBlast Threat Emulation/Extraction

So, the correct answer is D, which includes all the mentioned blades.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) R81 documentation and learning resources.

CoreXL is a performance-enhancing technology that enables the processing CPU cores to concurrently perform multiple tasks on Security Gateways with multiple CPU cores. CoreXL replicates the Firewall kernel multiple times, creating multiple Firewall instances that run on different CPU cores. These Firewall instances handle traffic concurrently, and each Firewall instance is a complete and independent Firewall inspection kernel. To show the current connections distributed by CoreXL FW instances, you can use the command fw ctl multik stat on the Security Gateway. This command will display information such as the number of connections, packets, bytes, drops, and errors handled by each CoreXL FW instance, as well as the CPU utilization and affinity of each instance. The other options are not correct because:

• B. fw ctl affinity -l: This command will show the CPU affinity of all processes and IRQs on the Security Gateway. It will not show the current connections distributed by CoreXL FW instances.
• C. fw ctl instances -v: This command will show the details of all CoreXL FW instances on the Security Gateway, such as their ID, type, state, priority, and interfaces. It will not show the current connections distributed by CoreXL FW instances.
• D. fw ctl iflist: This command will show the list of all interfaces on the Security Gateway, along with their names

References: Part 3 - SecureXL, What is CoreXL & SecureXL, SecureXL Fast Accelerator (fw fast_accel) for R80.20 and above

The Check Point daemon that monitors the other daemons is cpwd (Check Point Watchdog). It is responsible for monitoring the health and status of various Check Point daemons and processes running on the Security Gateway. If any daemon or process stops responding or encounters an issue, cpwd can restart it to ensure the continued operation of the Security Gateway.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) R81 documentation and learning resources.

In SmartDashboard, Threat Prevention profiles can be assigned to one or more rules. This means that you can have multiple profiles assigned to a single gateway, and each of these profiles can be associated with one or more rules. This allows for granular control over threat prevention settings for different rules or scenarios.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert R81 documentation and learning resources.

 For ClusterXL to work properly, one of the mandatory requirements is that the Magic MAC number must be unique per cluster node. The Magic MAC number is a MAC address that is used by ClusterXL to hide the physical MAC addresses of the cluster members from the network. This way, the cluster can present a single virtual MAC address to the network, and avoid ARP issues when a failover occurs. The Magic MAC number is derived from the Cluster Virtual IP address, which must also be unique per cluster. 

 DES (Data Encryption Standard) is a symmetric block cipher that uses a 56-bit key to encrypt and decrypt 64-bit blocks of data. It was developed by IBM in 1975 and adopted by the US government as a standard for encryption. However, DES has been proven to be insecure and vulnerable to various attacks, such as brute force, differential cryptanalysis, and linear cryptanalysis. A brute force attack can break DES in a matter of hours using modern hardware. Differential cryptanalysis can reduce the number of keys to be searched by a factor of four, and linear cryptanalysis can reduce it by a factor of two. Therefore, DES is the least secure encryption algorithm among the options given.

References: Types of Encryption, Secure Organization’s Data With These Encryption Algorithms, Comparative study of symmetric cryptographic algorithms

The command vpn tu tlist shows detailed information about VPN tunnels, such as the peer IP address, encryption domain, IKE phase 1 and phase 2 status, encryption algorithm, and tunnel uptime. The command vpn tu is an interactive tool that allows users to list, delete, or reconnect VPN tunnels. The command cpview is a real-time performance monitoring tool that shows various statistics about the system and network. References: VPN Administration Guide, SK97638 - What is cpview Utility and How to Use it

VPN Link Selection is a feature that allows the Security Gateway to select the best link for each VPN tunnel based on the network topology and the Link Selection configuration1. When the primary VPN link goes down, the Firewall can update the Link Selection entries to start using a different link for the same tunnel, as long as the remote peer supports this feature and has multiple IP addresses configured2. This way, the VPN tunnel can be maintained without interruption or renegotiation. The other options are not correct because:

Firewall

• A. The Firewall will not drop the packets, but will try to send them over another link if possible.

Firewall

• C. The Firewall will not send out the packet on all interfaces, but will use the routing table to determine the best interface for each destination.

Firewall

• D. The Firewall will not inform the client that the tunnel is down, but will try to keep the tunnel up by switching to another link.

References: IPSec VPN - Link Selection, Outgoing VPN Link Selection on a gateway with multiple external interfaces

The secure application for Mail/Calendar for mobile devices in Check Point is called "Capsule Workspace." Capsule Workspace provides secure access to email and calendar data on mobile devices while maintaining security policies and controls.

References: Check Point Certified Security Expert R81 documentation and learning resources.

 Threat Extraction is a technology that removes potentially malicious features that are known to be risky from files (macros, embedded objects and more), rather than determining their maliciousness. By cleaning the file before it enters the organization, Threat Extraction preemptively prevents both known and unknown threats, providing better protection against zero-day attacks1. Any active contents of a document, such as JavaScripts, macros and links will be removed from the document and forwarded to the intended recipient, which makes this solution very fast2. The other options are either incorrect or irrelevant to the mechanism behind Threat Extraction. References: Threat Extraction (CDR) - Check Point Software, Check Point Document Threat Extraction Technology