Questions for the NETSEC-PRO were updated on : Dec 01 ,2025
How can a firewall administrator block a list of 300 unique URLs in the most time-efficient manner?
C
Explanation:
For large lists of specific URLs, creating a custom URL category and importing the list is the most
efficient approach for granular URL filtering.
“You can create custom URL categories to define specific URLs or patterns and enforce policies for
these categories. This is the most efficient way to handle large sets of URLs.”
(Source: Custom URL Categories)
This approach saves time compared to manual rule creation or using generic application filters.
An administrator wants to implement additional Cloud-Delivered Security Services (CDSS) on a data
center NGFW that already has one enabled. What benefit does the NGFW’s single-pass parallel
processing (SP3) architecture provide?
C
Explanation:
The SP3 architecture of Palo Alto NGFWs ensures that additional security services (CDSS) only cause a
minor reduction in performance, as traffic is inspected once in a single pass.
“The single-pass parallel processing (SP3) architecture performs application identification and
security enforcement simultaneously in one pass, resulting in only minor performance impacts when
enabling multiple security services.”
(Source: SP3 Architecture)
Unlike traditional multi-pass engines, SP3 architecture optimizes performance while delivering
comprehensive security.
In a service provider environment, what key advantage does implementing virtual systems provide
for managing multiple customer environments?
D
Explanation:
Virtual systems provide logical separation in a single physical firewall, allowing different customers
(or tenants) to have isolated control and security policies.
“Virtual systems enable service providers to offer logically separated, independent environments on
a single firewall. Each virtual system can have its own security policies, interfaces, and
administrators.”
(Source: Virtual Systems)
This ensures secure, tenant-specific segmentation within multi-tenant environments.
What occurs when a security profile group named “default” is created on an NGFW?
D
Explanation:
A security profile group named “default” is automatically applied to all new security rules unless a
specific profile group is explicitly configured.
“If a security profile group named ‘default’ exists, it will be automatically applied to any newly
created security policy rules to ensure consistent protection.”
(Source: Security Profile Groups)
This behavior ensures that newly created policies are always protected by default security profiles,
minimizing human error.
Which two configurations are required when creating deployment profiles to migrate a perpetual
VM-Series firewall to a flexible VM? (Choose two.)
B, C
Explanation:
When migrating from a perpetual VM-Series firewall license to a flexible VM licensing model, two
critical steps are needed:
Allocate same number of vCPUs – This ensures that the VM-Series capacity remains consistent and
avoids resource bottlenecks.
“When migrating perpetual VM-Series licenses to flexible VM licensing, allocate the same vCPU and
memory resources to ensure equivalent performance.”
(Source: VM-Series Flexible Licensing Migration)
Limit to same security services – Flexible licensing requires maintaining the same security services to
preserve licensing compliance.
“Ensure that you allow only the same security services on the flexible VM instance as were licensed
on the perpetual VM.”
(Source: Flexible Licensing and Service Subscriptions)
What are two recommendations to ensure secure and efficient connectivity across multiple locations
in a distributed enterprise network? (Choose two.)
A, B
Explanation:
Prisma Access for secure remote access
“Prisma Access extends consistent security and optimized connectivity to branch locations, enabling
secure access for mobile and branch users.”
(Source: Prisma Access Overview)
Centralized management for consistent policy enforcement
“Centralized management using Strata Cloud Manager or Panorama ensures security policies and
updates are uniformly applied across distributed locations, preventing policy drift and security gaps.”
(Source: Strata Cloud Manager Best Practices)
These two practices are foundational for modern, distributed enterprise networks to maintain
security posture and performance.
A primary firewall in a high availability (HA) pair is experiencing a current failover issue with ICMP
pings to a secondary device. Which metric should be reviewed for proper ICMP pings between the
firewall pair?
C
Explanation:
Heartbeat polling is a core HA function to monitor connectivity between HA peers, leveraging ICMP
pings to determine link health and availability.
“Heartbeat Polling uses ICMP pings to verify the connectivity and health of the HA peers. If heartbeat
polling fails, the firewall considers the peer to be down and may initiate failover.”
(Source: HA Link and Path Monitoring)
If ICMP pings fail, checking heartbeat polling logs helps identify if link or path monitoring triggers
the failover.
A network security engineer needs to implement segmentation but is under strict compliance
requirements to place security enforcement as close as possible to the private applications hosted in
Azure. Which deployment style is valid and meets the requirements in this scenario?
C
Explanation:
In cloud environments like Azure, the VM-Series NGFW is deployed to create Layer 3 segmentation
zones closest to the application workloads.
“In Azure, deploy VM-Series firewalls in Layer 3 mode to enforce security policies closest to private
applications, meeting strict compliance and segmentation requirements.”
(Source: VM-Series in Public Clouds)
Layer 3 segmentation ensures security policies are enforced at the right boundary to isolate traffic
within Azure’s virtual networks.
Which action allows an engineer to collectively update VM-Series firewalls with Strata Cloud
Manager (SCM)?
C
Explanation:
Device grouping rules in SCM allow administrators to organize firewalls into logical groups and
collectively manage updates or configuration pushes across those groups.
“SCM allows you to create device group rules, enabling streamlined management and collective
updates of multiple NGFW instances.”
(Source: SCM Device Grouping)
This approach ensures consistency in software versions and configuration baselines across large
deployments.
Which AI-powered solution provides unified management and operations for NGFWs and Prisma
Access?
A
Explanation:
Strata Cloud Manager (SCM) offers a cloud-based unified management plane for both NGFWs and
Prisma Access, enabling consistent policy enforcement, simplified management, and AI-driven
operational insights.
“Strata Cloud Manager provides a single interface for unified management of NGFWs and Prisma
Access, leveraging AI to optimize security operations and streamline workflows.”
(Source: Strata Cloud Manager Overview)
Unlike Panorama, which is an on-premises management solution, SCM delivers cloud-based, AI-
driven capabilities for centralized oversight.
Which GlobalProtect configuration is recommended for granular security enforcement of remote
user device posture?
A
Explanation:
Host Information Profile (HIP) checks are used in GlobalProtect to collect and evaluate endpoint
posture (OS, patch level, AV status) to enforce granular security policies for remote users.
“The HIP feature collects information about the host and can be used in security policies to enforce
posture-based access control. This ensures only compliant endpoints can access sensitive resources.”
(Source: GlobalProtect HIP Checks)
This enables fine-grained, context-aware access decisions beyond user identity alone.
How do Cloud NGFW instances get created when using AWS centralized deployments?
C
Explanation:
When using AWS centralized deployments for Cloud NGFW, the service deploys NGFW instances into
selected VPCs as additional workloads to secure that traffic.
“In centralized deployments, Cloud NGFW instances are deployed as security appliances within the
selected VPCs, ensuring consistent traffic inspection and protection.”
(Source: Cloud NGFW Deployment Models)
This approach minimizes complexity and ensures direct security policy enforcement within AWS.
Which feature of SaaS Security will allow a firewall administrator to identify unknown SaaS
applications in an environment?
A
Explanation:
App-ID Cloud Engine (ACE) in SaaS Security uses cloud-based signatures to detect unknown and
unsanctioned SaaS applications in the environment.
“App-ID Cloud Engine (ACE) uses real-time cloud intelligence to identify SaaS applications, including
previously unknown or newly introduced applications.”
(Source: ACE for SaaS Visibility)
This feature is key for comprehensive SaaS visibility beyond static signatures.
Which action is only taken during slow path in the NGFW policy?
C
Explanation:
In Palo Alto Networks' Single-Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) architecture, SSL/TLS decryption occurs
only during the slow path when the firewall first encounters a new session.
“SSL/TLS decryption, which requires CPU-intensive cryptographic operations, is performed during the
slow path when establishing new sessions. Once decrypted, traffic is processed in the fast path for
subsequent packets.”
(Source: Packet Flow and SP3 Architecture)
After the initial decryption in the slow path, decrypted traffic is handled by fast path for efficiency.
Which two types of logs must be forwarded to Strata Logging Service for IoT Security to function?
(Choose two.)
B, C
Explanation:
For IoT Security to accurately classify and monitor IoT devices, the following logs must be forwarded
to Strata Logging Service:
Enhanced application logs – provide detailed application usage and behaviors, essential for profiling
device types and roles.
“Enhanced Application logs provide additional context on IoT device behavior and usage patterns,
and must be forwarded to Strata Logging Service for IoT Security to build accurate Device-ID
profiles.”
(Source: IoT Security Logging Requirements)
Threat logs – essential for detecting suspicious or malicious activities by IoT devices.
“Threat logs are critical for identifying potential exploits or suspicious activities involving IoT devices
and are required for accurate threat visibility within IoT Security.”
(Source: IoT Security Logs)
These logs collectively ensure accurate device classification and real-time threat visibility.