Free CCSP flashcards

What makes tokenisation the right fit when a value must keep its exact length and layout yet be reversible only by an authorised service holding a mapping?

Tokenisation stores a format-matching surrogate that has no algorithmic link to the original value, removing the sensitive data from the processing environment. Reversal is possible only through the separately protected token vault, so it satisfies both the preserved-format and controlled swap-back requirements at once.

Format-preserving encryption with a symmetric key stored in the application config is a sound way to keep card layout while allowing reversal.

Format-preserving encryption does keep the layout and is reversible, but storing the key in plaintext application config defeats the protection. That makes it the weaker choice the requirement does not describe, even though the format is preserved.

Which NIST essential characteristic lets a consumer provision compute and storage unilaterally, without contacting provider staff?

On-demand self-service. It is defined by the consumer provisioning capabilities such as compute and storage unilaterally and automatically, with no human interaction required with the service provider.

The provider patches the guest OS in IaaS because it owns the physical hosts and hypervisor beneath the VMs.

The provider does patch the hypervisor and physical layer, but in IaaS the guest operating system sits above the provider's boundary and remains the customer's responsibility.

In cloud infrastructure, what is the management plane and why is its compromise so damaging?

The management plane exposes the administrative and orchestration APIs and consoles that create, configure and destroy compute, storage and network resources. Because controlling it means controlling the whole environment, a single compromise grants broad authority over provisioning and configuration, which is why it is guarded so heavily.

The management plane is the tenant-facing application layer where end users authenticate and consume running workloads.

That describes the application or workload layer that consumers interact with. The management plane sits beneath it and controls the resources rather than serving the application to users, so this confuses the consumption layer with the control layer.

What is the primary purpose of a hardware security module (HSM) in cloud infrastructure?

An HSM is a validated, tamper-resistant hardware boundary within which cryptographic keys are generated and used so that private key material is never exported in plaintext outside the device. This is what separates it from software key stores and from a TPM.

An HSM's main job is to measure firmware and boot components at startup so a host can attest to its trusted state.

Boot integrity measurement and attestation describe a trusted platform module (TPM), not an HSM. This confuses two distinct hardware roots of trust; the HSM's core function is protecting keys during generation and use.