Free Splunk SPLK-5002 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

A SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) playbook is a set of automated actions designed to respond to security incidents. Before deploying it in a live environment, a security analyst must ensure that it operates correctly, minimizes false positives, and doesn’t disrupt business operations.

????Key Reasons for Using Simulated Incidents:

Ensures that the playbook executes correctly and follows the expected workflow.

Identifies false positives or incorrect actions before deployment.

Tests integrations with other security tools (SIEM, firewalls, endpoint security).

Provides a controlled testing environment without affecting production.

How to Test a Playbook in Splunk SOAR?

1️⃣Use the "Test Connectivity" Feature – Ensures that APIs and integrations work.2️⃣Simulate an Incident – Manually trigger an alert similar to a real attack (e.g., phishing email or failed admin login).3️⃣Review the Execution Path – Check each step in the playbook debugger to verify correct actions.4️⃣Analyze Logs & Alerts – Validate that Splunk ES logs, security alerts, and remediation steps are correct.5️⃣Fine-tune Based on Results – Modify the playbook logic to reduce unnecessary alerts or excessive automation.

Why Not the Other Options?

❌B. Monitor the playbook’s actions in real-time environments – Risky without prior validation. Itcan cause disruptions if the playbook misfires.❌C. Automate all tasks immediately – Not best practice. Gradual deployment ensures better security control and monitoring.❌D. Compare with existing workflows – Good practice, but it does not validate the playbook’s real execution.

References & Learning Resources

????Splunk SOAR Documentation: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SOAR ????Testing Playbooks in Splunk SOAR: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/soar.html ????SOAR Playbook Debugging Best Practices: https://splunkbase.splunk.com

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a process improvement methodology used to enhance operational efficiency by reducing waste, eliminating errors, and improving consistency.

Primary Function of Lean Six Sigma in a Security Program:

Improves security operations efficiency by optimizing alert handling, threat hunting, and incident response workflows.

Reduces unnecessary steps in SOC processes, eliminating redundancies in threat detection and response.

Enhances decision-making by using data-driven analysis to improve security metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Splunk SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) playbooks automate security processes, reducing response times.

✅1. Defined Workflows (A)

A structured flowchart of actions for handling security events.

Ensures that the playbook follows a logical sequence (e.g., detect → enrich → contain → remediate).

Example:

If a phishing email is detected, the workflow includes:

Extract email artifacts (e.g., sender, links).

Check indicators against threat intelligence feeds.

Quarantine the email if it is malicious.

✅2. Actionable Steps or Tasks (C)

Each playbook contains specific, automated steps that execute responses.

Examples:

Extracting indicators from logs.

Blocking malicious IPs in firewalls.

Isolating compromised endpoints.

✅3. Integration with External Tools (E)

Playbooks must connect with SIEM, EDR, firewalls, threat intelligence platforms, and ticketing systems.

Uses APIs and connectors to integrate with tools like:

Splunk ES

Palo Alto Networks

Microsoft Defender

ServiceNow

❌Incorrect Answers:

B. Threat intelligence feeds → These enrich playbooks but are not mandatory components of playbook development.

D. Manual approval processes → Playbooks are designed for automation, not manual approvals.

????Additional Resources:

Splunk SOAR Playbook Documentation

Best Practices for Developing SOAR Playbooks

Building Effective Dashboards for Program Analytics

Well-designed dashboards help SOC teams visualize security trends, performance metrics, and compliance adherence efficiently.

✅1. Applying Accelerated Data Models for Better Performance (B)

Speeds up dashboard loading times by using pre-aggregated datasets.

Improves SIEM performance when analyzing large volumes of security logs.

Example:

Instead of running a full search, an accelerated data model pre-indexes event counts by severity level.

❌Incorrect Answers:

A. Using predefined templates without modification → Dashboards should be customized for security needs.

C. Avoiding the use of filters and tokens → Filters improve usability by allowing analysts to refine searches.

D. Limiting the number of visualizations → Dashboards should balance performance and visibility rather than limit insights.

????Additional Resources:

Splunk Accelerated Data Models

Building Fast and Efficient Dashboards

In Splunk Enterprise Security (ES), notable events are generated by correlation searches, which are predefined searches designed to detect security incidents by analyzing logs and alerts from multiple data sources. Adding additional context to these notable events enhances their value for analysts and improves the efficiency of incident response.

To incorporate additional context, you can:

Use lookup tables to enrich data with information such as asset details, threat intelligence, and user identity.

Leverage KV Store or external enrichment sources like CMDB (Configuration Management Database) and identity management solutions.

Apply Splunk macros orevalcommands to transform and enhance event data dynamically.

Use Adaptive Response Actions in Splunk ES to pull additional information into a notable event.

The correct answer is A. By adding enriched fields during search execution, because enrichment occurs dynamically during search execution, ensuring that additional fields (such as geolocation, asset owner, and risk score) are included in the notable event.

References:

Splunk ES Documentation on Notable Event Enrichment

Correlation Search Best Practices

Using Lookups for Data Enrichment

MITRE ATT&CK is a threat intelligence framework that helps security teams map attack techniques to detection rules.

✅1. Develop Custom Detection Rules Based on Attack Techniques (A)

Maps Splunk correlation searches to MITRE ATT&CK techniques to detect adversary behaviors.

Example:

To detect T1078 (Valid Accounts):

index=auth_logs action=failed | stats count by user, src_ip

If an account logs in from anomalous locations, trigger an alert.

❌Incorrect Answers:

B. Use it only for reporting after incidents → MITRE ATT&CK should be used proactively for threat detection.

C. Rely solely on vendor-provided threat intelligence → Custom rules tailored to an organization’s threat landscape are more effective.

D. Deploy it as a replacement for current detection systems → MITRE ATT&CK complements existing SIEM/EDR tools, not replaces them.

????Additional Resources:

MITRE ATT&CK & Splunk

Using MITRE ATT&CK in SIEMs

If a user queries an index during a high-priority incident but sees incomplete results, it is likely that the indexers are overloaded, causing queue bottlenecks.

Why Indexer Queue Capacity Issues Cause Incomplete Results:

When indexing queues fill up, incoming data cannot be processed efficiently.

Search results may be incomplete or delayed if events are still in the indexing queue and not fully written to disk.

Heavy search loads during incidents can also increase pressure on indexers.

How to Fix It:

Monitor indexing queues via the Monitoring Console (indexing>indexing performance).

Checkmetrics.logon indexers formax_queue_size_exceededwarnings.

Increase indexer capacity or optimize search scheduling to reduce load.

The Splunk REST API allows programmatic access to Splunk’s features, helping automate security workflows in a Security Operations Center (SOC).

Key REST API Actions for Automation:

POST for creating new data entries (A)

Used to send logs, alerts, or notable events to Splunk.

Essential for integrating external security tools with Splunk.

GET for retrieving search results (C)

Fetches logs, alerts, and notable event details programmatically.

Helps automate security monitoring and incident response.

Splunk allows dynamic field extraction to enhance data analysis without modifying raw indexed data.

Search-Time Field Extraction:

Extracts fields on-demand when running searches.

Uses Splunk’s Field Extraction Engine (rex,spath, or automatic field discovery).

Minimizes indexing overhead by keeping the raw data unchanged.

Why Are These Practices Essential for SOP Development?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)are crucial for ensuring consistent, repeatable, and effective security operations in aSecurity Operations Center (SOC). Strengthening SOP development ensuresefficiency, clarity, and adaptabilityin responding to incidents.

1️⃣Regular Updates Based on Feedback (Answer A)

Security threats evolve, andSOPs must be updatedbased onreal-world incidents, analyst feedback, and lessons learned.

Example: Anew ransomware variantis detected; theSOP is updatedto include aspecific containment playbookin Splunk SOAR.

2️⃣Collaborating with Cross-Functional Teams (Answer C)

Effective SOPs requireinput from SOC analysts, threat hunters, IT, compliance teams, and DevSecOps.

Ensures thatall relevant security and business perspectivesare covered.

Example: ASOC team collaborates with DevOpsto ensure that acloud security response SOPaligns with AWS security controls.

3️⃣Including Detailed Step-by-Step Instructions (Answer D)

SOPs should provideclear, actionable, and standardizedsteps for security analysts.

Example: ASplunk ES incident response SOPshould include:

How to investigate a security alertusing correlation searches.

How to escalate incidentsbased on risk levels.

How to trigger a Splunk SOAR playbookfor automated remediation.

Why Not the Other Options?

❌B. Focusing solely on high-risk scenarios–All security events matter, not just high-risk ones.Low-level alertscan be early indicators of larger threats.❌E. Excluding historical incident data– Past incidents providevaluable lessonsto improveSOPs and incident response workflows.

References & Learning Resources

????Best Practices for SOPs in Cybersecurity:https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity-framework ????Splunk SOAR Playbook SOP Development: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SOAR ????Incident Response SOPs with Splunk: https://splunkbase.splunk.com