300-720 Sample Questions Answers

The PVO cannot be enabled and shows this type of error message.

Unable to proceed with Centralized Policy, Virus and Outbreak Quarantines

configuration as host1 and host2 in Cluster have content filters / DLP actions

available at a level different from the cluster Level.

The error message can indicate that one of the hosts does not have a DLP feature key applied and DLP is disabled. The solution is to add the missing feature key and apply DLP settings identical as on the host that has the feature key applied. This feature key inconsistency might have the same effect with Outbreak Filters, Sophos Antivirus, and other feature keys.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/email-security-appliance/118026-technote-esa-00.html

According to the User Guide for Cisco Secure Email Encryption Service Add-In 1, the ‘Use-Script’ option allows you to use JavaScript in the encrypted message envelope. This option is enabled by default, but you can disable it if you want to send encrypted messages to recipients who have security policies that block JavaScript attachments[2, p. 14].

The other options are not valid because:

• A. Inserting the X-PostX-Use-Script header with a value of false to the encrypted messages is not a supported feature of the Cisco Secure Email Encryption Service Add-in1.
• B. Selecting JavaScript-free option within the Cisco Secure Email Encryption Service Add-in is not a valid option. The add-in does not have such an option1.
• C. Creating an outgoing content filter and adding the Encrypt and Deliver Nov/ action with Use-Script option deselected is not possible. The Encrypt and Deliver Nov/ action does not have a Use-Script option[2, p. 13].

Configuring the outbound firewall rule to permit traffic on port 3237 is the additional action that resolves the issue. AMP file reputation is a feature that allows Cisco ESA to check files attached to messages against a cloud-based database of known malicious files and apply appropriate actions, such as block, deliver, or quarantine.

By default, AMP file reputation uses TCP port 3237 to communicate with the cloud-based database. If this port is blocked by a firewall, AMP file reputation will not work properly.

To resolve this issue, the administrator can configure the outbound firewall rule to permit traffic on port 3237 from Cisco ESA.

The other options are not valid actions to resolve the issue, because they do not affect the port used by AMP file reputation.

References: [User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway], page 7-5 and page 7-6.

The default behavior of any listener for TLS communication is B. off. This means that TLS is not allowed for incoming connections to the listener and connections to the listener do not require encrypted Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) conversations. This is stated in the web search result 1. To enable TLS for a listener, you need to configure the Use TLS option in the mail flow policy settings for the listener on the Mail Policies > HAT Overview page1. You can choose from three different settings for TLS: No, Preferred, or Required1.

Content filter is a component on a Cisco Secure Email Gateway that must be configured to catch attachments, including credit card numbers, and hold them for review until further action is taken. Content filter allows you to define rules based on message content and apply actions such as quarantine, encrypt, or modify. References = [User Guide for AsyncOS 12.0 for Cisco Email Security Appliances - GD (General Deployment) - Content Filters [Cisco Secure Email Gateway] - Cisco]

Outgoing Mail Policy is a mail policy that should be created to accomplish this task. Outgoing Mail Policy is a set of rules that determine how outgoing messages are processed by Cisco ESA, including whether to apply DLP scanning or not.

To create an Outgoing Mail Policy named ‘Sales’ and assign a DLP policy to it, the administrator can follow these steps:

• Select Mail Policies > Outgoing Mail Policies and click Add Policy.
• Enter ‘Sales’ as the policy name and click Submit.
• Select ‘Sales’ from the list of policies and click Edit Settings.
• Under Data Loss Prevention, select Enable Data Loss Prevention Scanning and choose the DLP policy from the drop-down menu.
• Click Submit.

The other options are not valid mail policies to accomplish this task, because they do not apply to outgoing messages or DLP scanning.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 9-2 and page 9-4.

STARTTLS is an SMTP extension that allows email servers to negotiate a secure connection using TLS or SSL encryption. Cisco ESA supports STARTTLS for both inbound and outbound email delivery.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 5-2.

Condition is a component that must be added to the content filter to trigger on failed SPF Verification or DKIM Authentication verdicts. Condition is a criterion that determines whether a message matches a content filter rule or not, such as message size, sender address, attachment type, etc.

To add a condition to the content filter that triggers on failed SPF Verification or DKIM Authentication verdicts, the administrator can follow these steps:

• Select Mail Policies > Content Filters and click Add Filter.
• Enter a name and description for the content filter.
• Under Conditions, click Add Condition.
• Choose SPF Verification or DKIM Authentication from the drop-down menu.
• Choose Fail from the drop-down menu.
• Click Submit.

The other options are not valid components to trigger on failed SPF Verification or DKIM Authentication verdicts, because they are not part of content filters.

References: [User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway], page 8-3 and page 8-4.

By modifying the mail policies, specifically the recipient matching criteria, you can ensure that email recipients do not match multiple policies simultaneously. When recipients in the email message belong to different domains (e.g., cisco.com and test.com), it can result in multiple policies being triggered simultaneously, leading to inconsistent delivery of emails with attachments.

DLP is for outgoing mail only and not relevant to incoming mail.

To perform DLP scanning on Cisco ESA, two components must be configured:

• Add a DLP policy to the DLP Policy Manager, which is a repository of predefined or custom DLP policies that specify what types of data to scan for and what actions to take if a match is found.
• Enable a DLP policy on the Outgoing Mail Policy, which is a set of rules that determine how outgoing messages are processed by Cisco ESA, including whether to apply DLP scanning or not.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 9-2 and page 9-4.

The graymail management solution in the appliance comprises of two components: an integrated graymail scanning engine and a cloud-based Unsubscribe Service. The integrated graymail scanning engine identifies graymail messages using various criteria and assigns them to different categories. The cloud-based Unsubscribe Service provides an easy mechanism for end users to unsubscribe from unwanted messages by checking the reputation of the unsubscribe links and performing the unsubscribe process on behalf of the end user.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 12.0 for Cisco Email Security Appliances - GD (General Deployment), Chapter: Managing Graymail, Section: Graymail Management Solution in Email Security Appliance

The envelope sender and the envelope recipeint have a higher priority over the sender header when you match a message to a mail policy. If you configure a mail policy to match a specific user, the messages are automatically classified into the mail policy based on the envelope sender and the envelope recipient. https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/esa/esa11- 1/user_guide/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_11_1/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_chapter_01001.html

Outbreak filters and antivirus are two features that can be applied to either incoming or outgoing mail policies on Cisco ESA. Outbreak filters allow Cisco ESA to detect and block messages that contain new or emerging email threats, such as viruses, worms, phishing, or spam, by using real-time updates from Talos intelligence. Antivirus allows Cisco ESA to scan messages for known viruses and malware using one or two antivirus engines (Sophos and McAfee).

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 6-16 and page 7-2.

When Cisco ESA is configured to perform antivirus scanning, the default timeout value is 60 seconds, which means that Cisco ESA will wait for 60 seconds for the antivirus engine to scan a message before applying the configured action for unscannable messages, such as deliver, drop, or quarantine.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 7-3.

To encrypt SMTP with TLS on a Cisco Secure Email Gateway appliance when the sender requires TLS verification, the components that are required are an X.509 certificate and matching private key from a CA. The certificate must be signed by a trusted CA and contain the domain name or IP address of the listener in the Subject or Subject Alternative Name fields. The private key must be unencrypted and match the certificate. References: [Cisco Secure Email Gateway Administrator Guide - Configuring TLS]

To allow the Cisco ESA to encrypt an email using the CRES (Cisco Registered Envelope Service), a provisioned email encryption profile must be configured on Cisco ESA. A provisioned email encryption profile is a type of encryption profile that specifies how messages are encrypted using CRES, such as the encryption key strength, the notification options, the branding settings, etc.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 12-4.

Table Description automatically generated

A content filter action is an operation that Cisco ESA performs on a message if it matches the conditions of a content filter rule, such as headers, envelope, body, attachments, etc.

Quarantine is a valid content filter action that allows Cisco ESA to store the message in a quarantine area for further review or release by an administrator or an end user.

The other options are not valid content filter actions on Cisco ESA.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 8-3 and page 8-7.

The maximum message size that can be configured for encryption on the Cisco ESA is 25 MB. This is the default value for the Maximum Message Size for Encryption setting in the Encryption Profile. Messages that exceed this size will not be encrypted and will be delivered as normal.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 12-6.

End user safelist is a feature that allows end users to specify email addresses or domains that they want to receive messages from, regardless of the spam verdict or action assigned by Cisco ESA. Messages from senders on the end user safelist are delivered to the end user’s inbox without any spam filtering.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 10-13.

According to the [Cisco Secure Email User Guide], you can create a text resource of type Disclaimer Template and use the code view option to insert HTML code into the text box. Then, you can use this text resource in a content filter to prepend or append the HTML message to the email body[1, p. 15-16].

The other options are not valid because:

• A. Creating a text resource type of Disclaimer Template and pasting the HTML code into the text box without changing to code view will not work, as the HTML code will be treated as plain text and not rendered properly[1, p. 15].
• C. Creating a text resource type of Notification Template and pasting the HTML code into the text box will not work, as Notification Templates are used for sending notifications to senders or recipients, not for modifying the email body[1, p. 17].
• D. Creating a text resource type of Notification Template and changing to code view to paste the HTML code into the text box will not work, as Notification Templates are used for sending notifications to senders or recipients, not for modifying the email body[1, p. 17].

The altsrchost command enables an engineer to deliver a flagged message to a specific virtual gateway address in the most flexible way. This command allows you to specify an alternate source host for messages that match a message filter. You can use this command to route messages to different virtual gateways based on the message content or attributes.

References: Securing Email with Cisco Email Security Appliance (SESA) v3.1, Module 5: Using Message Filters to Enforce Email Policies, Lesson 1: Using Message Filters

Enabling regional scanning improves security for this organization when most of the received email originates from a specific region. Regional scanning is a feature that allows Cisco ESA to apply different spam thresholds and actions based on the geographic region of the sender’s IP address, using a database of IP addresses and regions.

To enable regional scanning on Cisco ESA, the administrator can follow these steps:

• Select Security Services > IronPort Anti-Spam and click Edit Settings.
• Under Regional Scanning, select Enable Regional Scanning.
• Click Submit.
• Select Security Services > IronPort Anti-Spam > Regional Settings and click Add Region.
• Choose a region from the drop-down menu, such as Asia Pacific.
• Enter a spam threshold and an action for that region, such as 80 and Drop.
• Click Submit.

To enable domain protection for the organization, the administrator must configure an outgoing mail policy that matches the sender and the from headers of the email. The sender header is the envelope sender address that is used by SMTP to route the email. The from header is the address that is displayed to the recipient as the source of the email. These headers are used to generate and verify a DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signature, which is a cryptographic method of validating the authenticity and integrity of an email message.

The other headers are not relevant for domain protection. The message-ID header is a unique identifier for each email message. The URL reputation header is a score that indicates the likelihood of a URL being malicious. The mail-from header is an alias for the sender header.

The allow list is a feature that allows Cisco ESA to accept messages from specific email addresses or domains, regardless of their sender-based reputation score or other reputation filters.

To allow inbound email from that specific domain, the administrator should add the domain into the allow list on Cisco ESA, which can be done from the web user interface by selecting Security Services > Safelist/Blocklist and clicking Add Entry.

The other options are not valid solutions to allow inbound email from that specific domain, because they do not affect the sender-based reputation score or the reputation filters on Cisco ESA.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 6-13 and page 6-14.

The content filter condition that checks to see if the “From: header” in the message is similar to any of the users in the content dictionary is Forged Email Detection. This condition compares the sender’s name or email address with a list of names or email addresses in a content dictionary and triggers an action if they match or are similar. References: [Cisco Secure Email Gateway Administrator Guide - Forged Email Detection]

According to the Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense User Guide, the No Authentication option is only available if you are using a Cisco Secure Email Gateway (SEG) as your message source. This option allows visibility only, no remediation1.

The other options are not valid because:

• A. Basic Authentication is not a visibility and remediation mode for Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. It is a method of authenticating users with a username and password2.
• C. Microsoft 365 Authentication is a visibility and remediation mode that allows you to use Microsoft 365 credentials to access Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. It has two sub-options: Read/Write and Read. This mode is available for both Microsoft 365 and Gateway message sources1.
• D. Cisco Security Cloud Sign On is not a visibility and remediation mode for Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. It is a service that manages user authentication for Cisco security products, including Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense3.

User and routing are two query types that are available when an LDAP profile is configured on Cisco ESA. User queries are used to validate end-user credentials, such as for Spam Quarantine End-User Authentication or SMTP Authentication. Routing queries are used to determine the destination mail server for a recipient, such as for Mail Flow Policies or Delivery Methods.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 10-7.

The default port to deliver emails from the Cisco ESA to the Cisco SMA using the centralized Spam Quarantine is 6025. This is the default value for the Port setting in the External Spam Quarantine configuration on Cisco ESA. This port must be open on both Cisco ESA and Cisco SMA for the communication to work.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 10-4.

The global setting that is configured under Cisco ESA Scan Behavior is the actions for unscannable messages due to attachment type. This setting allows the administrator to specify what action to take when a message contains an attachment that cannot be scanned by the appliance, such as encrypted or password-protected files. The possible actions are:

• Deliver - Deliver the message normally.
• Drop - Drop the message silently without notifying the sender or recipient.
• Quarantine - Quarantine the message in a specified policy quarantine.
• Bounce - Bounce the message back to the sender with a specified reason.

Safelists and blocklists are features on Cisco ESA that allow you to control email delivery based on the sender. Safelists are lists of sender addresses or domains that you want to accept or exempt from certain filtering actions. Blocklists are lists of sender addresses or domains that you want to reject or drop3. References = Securing Email with Cisco Email Security Appliance (SESA) v3.1

Message Handling Settings:

Repaired Message Handling

Messages are considered repaired if the message was completely scanned and all viruses have been repaired or removed. These messages will be delivered as is.

Encrypted Message Handling

Messages are considered encrypted if the engine is unable to finish the scan due to an encrypted or protected field in the message. Messages that are marked encrypted may also be repaired.

Unscannable Message Handling

Messages are considered unscannable if a scanning timeout value has been reached, or the engine becomes unavailable due to an internal error. Messages that are marked unscannable may also be repaired.

Virus Infected Message Handling

The system may be unable to drop the attachment or completely repair a message. In these cases, you can configure how the system handles messages that could still contain viruses.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/esa/esa12-0/user_guide/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_12_0/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_chapter_01011.html#con_1132282

To ensure that executive messages are originating from legitimate sending addresses, the administrator must take two steps:

• Create an incoming content filter with the Forged Email Detection condition. This will allow the administrator to detect and block messages that have a forged “From: header” that matches or is similar to any of the names in a content dictionary.
• Create a content dictionary including a list of the names that are being spoofed. This will allow the administrator to specify the names of the executives that are being targeted by spoofing attacks and use them in the Forged Email Detection condition. The other options are not relevant or sufficient for this task. References: [Cisco Secure Email Gateway Administrator Guide - Forged Email Detection] and [Cisco Secure Email Gateway Administrator Guide - Creating Content Dictionaries]

When DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signing is configured on Cisco ESA, the DNS record that must be updated to load the DKIM public signing key is the TXT record. The TXT record is used to store arbitrary text information in the DNS, such as the DKIM public key, which can be retrieved by the recipients to verify the DKIM signature in the message header.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 11-3.

Before a custom quarantine that is being used can be deleted, it must be removed from the message action of any filter that is using it on Cisco ESA. Otherwise, an error message will appear stating that the quarantine cannot be deleted because it is in use.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 10-5.

The appliance enforces your organization’s policies for messages sent to and from your users through the use of mail policies. These are sets of rules that specify the types of suspect, sensitive, or malicious content that your organization may not want entering or leaving your network. This content may include:

-spam

-legitimate marketing messages

-graymail

-viruses

-phishing and other targeted mail attacks

-confidential corporate data

-personally identifiable information

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/esa/esa11-1/user_guide/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_11_1/b_ESA_Admin_Guide_chapter_01001.html?bookSearch=true

A policy quarantine is a type of quarantine that allows Cisco ESA to store messages that match certain criteria, such as virus, spam, or DLP verdicts, for further review or release by an administrator or an end user.

A scenario that prevents a message from being sent to the quarantine as an action in the scan behavior on Cisco ESA is when a policy quarantine is missing, which means that no policy quarantine has been created or enabled on Cisco ESA.

The other options do not prevent a message from being sent to the quarantine as an action in the scan behavior on Cisco ESA.

References: User Guide for AsyncOS 15.0 for Cisco Secure Email Gateway, page 10-2 and page 10-3.