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Exam Information
Official specifications published by CompTIA
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Skills this practice test covers
- Build a security program from policies, standards and procedures, with owners set in a RACI matrix.
- Model threats with ATT&CK, CAPEC and STRIDE, and review an architecture's attack surface.
- Secure cloud designs with CASB, protected CI/CD pipelines and zero trust segmentation.
- Automate security work with PowerShell, Bash or Python scripts and SOAR.
- Choose cryptography for a need, from post-quantum algorithms to tokenization and code signing.
- Hunt threats with SIEM data, threat intelligence feeds and detection rules in Sigma or YARA.
Explore related topics
CAS-005 exam content
4 domains · 38 topics · 200 of 935 questions are written for CAS-005
Governance, Risk, and Compliance20%37 questions
This domain treats security as a governed program. Candidates write program documents, apply frameworks such as COBIT and ITIL, assess risk and model threats, and meet industry standards such as PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27000.
Skills tested
- Build policies, procedures, standards and guidelines, and set owners with a RACI matrix.
- Track assets and changes with a CMDB and a configuration management process.
- Run quantitative and qualitative risk assessments, including third-party risk.
- Model threats with ATT&CK, CAPEC and STRIDE, and review data flows and trust boundaries.
- Map controls to several frameworks at once with GRC tools.
Questions by topic
- Summarize risk management processes and concepts8
- Implement data governance processes11
- Explain the importance of business continuity and disaster recovery concepts4
- Explain the use of threat modeling4
- Explain the importance of third-party risk management7
- Analyze and mitigate security risks in AI and machine learning systems2
- Security Program Documentation1
Security Architecture27%55 questions
This domain is about design. Candidates secure cloud capabilities from CASB to serverless workloads, protect cloud data, segment networks, and build zero trust designs that define subject-object relationships.
Skills tested
- Choose between API-based and proxy-based CASB, and detect shadow IT.
- Secure CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code written with Terraform or Ansible.
- Prevent cloud data exposure, leakage and remanence, and manage the encryption keys.
- Design segmentation, microsegmentation and always-on VPN access.
- Move past a fixed perimeter with SASE, SD-WAN and software-defined networking.
Questions by topic
- Implement identity and access management in a cloud/hybrid environment4
- Implement security controls for cloud and hybrid environments4
- Analyze and apply network security architecture concepts12
- Implement secure network designs for specialized systems5
- Design and implement security for containerization and orchestration3
- Design and implement security for specialized systems4
- Implement security controls for serverless and application workloads4
- Implement security for containerization and orchestration4
- Implement secure architectures for data sharing and collaboration6
- Implement identity and access management solutions3
- Design and implement security for cloud and hybrid environments3
- Implement and configure security monitoring solutions1
- Zero Trust Architecture1
- Cloud Security1
Security Engineering31%61 questions
The largest domain turns designs into working controls. Candidates automate with scripts and SOAR, manage vulnerabilities with SCAP, and choose advanced cryptography, from post-quantum algorithms to code signing and cryptographic erase.
Skills tested
- Automate security tasks with PowerShell, Bash or Python, event triggers and SOAR.
- Scan for vulnerabilities and report them with SCAP content such as OVAL, XCCDF, CVE and CVSS.
- Explain post-quantum cryptography, key stretching, homomorphic encryption and forward secrecy.
- Protect data at rest, in transit and in use, and set up certificate-based authentication.
- Apply tokenization, digital signatures, hashing and cryptographic erase where each one fits.
Official topics
- Automation and Scripting
- Vulnerability Management
- Advanced Cryptography
- Cryptographic Use Cases
- Cryptographic Techniques
- PKI and Certificate Management
- Endpoint Security Controls
Security Operations22%47 questions
This domain is daily defense work. Candidates analyze SIEM data and behavior baselines, reduce the attack surface, hunt threats with internal and external intelligence, and analyze malware and other artifacts during incident response.
Skills tested
- Tune SIEM event parsing, correlation and retention to cut false positives.
- Recommend fixes for injection, XSS, insecure configurations and weak ciphers.
- Hunt threats with honeypots, UBA, OSINT and threat intelligence platforms.
- Share indicators of compromise through STIX and TAXII, and write rules in Sigma, YARA or Snort.
- Analyze malware in a sandbox and trace an incident to its root cause.
Questions by topic
- Explain the use of threat intelligence in security operations3
- Implement and maintain a threat hunting program6
- Perform forensic analysis9
- Analyze data as part of security monitoring activities5
- Write and customize detection rules5
- Analyze indicators of compromise7
- Respond to incidents6
- Implement and configure security monitoring solutions1
- Perform malware analysis4
- Given a scenario, use security automation and orchestration to improve efficiency1
Requirements
About the CAS-005 exam
CompTIA built CAS-005 for security architects and senior security engineers who make security design decisions for a whole enterprise. Its four domains run from governance, risk and compliance through architecture and engineering to security operations, with topics such as zero trust, post-quantum cryptography and threat hunting. The exam mixes multiple-choice items with performance-based questions, which ask the candidate to solve a task in a simulated setting. Passing earns CompTIA SecurityX, which CompTIA maps to DoD 8140 work roles such as security architect.
Each PlanetCert practice question has an explanation, which helps most where two controls look alike, such as API-based and proxy-based CASB, or tokenization and encryption. Study Mode suits Security Engineering, the largest domain, where the automation and cryptography questions reward a slow read. Flashcard mode helps with the many acronyms, from SASE and SOAR to STIX and TAXII. Brainy AI Assistant can explain how SCAP parts such as OVAL and XCCDF fit together, or which detail in a scenario points to SASE instead of a plain VPN.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- CompTIA SecurityXExpert
The certification is good for three years. CompTIA's continuing education program keeps it current.
- Before
- N10-009 CompTIA Network+
Recommended networking base for the segmentation, VPN and SD-WAN topics.
- SY0-701 CompTIA Security+
Recommended. It covers the core security ideas that SecurityX takes to expert level.
- CS0-004 CompTIA CySA+
Recommended for the operations side: detection, threat hunting and incident response.
- CV0-004 CompTIA Cloud+
Recommended for the cloud capabilities and cloud data security topics.
- PT0-003 CompTIA PenTest+
Recommended for the attacker's view behind the attack surface and threat modeling questions.
- N10-009 CompTIA Network+
How to prepare for CAS-005
- 1
Map each objective to past work
SecurityX assumes years of practice, so match every topic in CompTIA's objectives to a project or an incident. Topics with no match, such as post-quantum cryptography or homomorphic encryption, go to the top of the study list.
- 2
Build a cloud lab that logs to a SIEM
Deploy a small cloud setup with Terraform or Ansible, send its logs to a SIEM, and write a few correlation rules. Then weaken one control and see what the SIEM catches.
- 3
Script one check in three languages
Write the same short check, for example for an outdated cipher, in PowerShell, Bash and Python. The automation topics in Security Engineering name all three languages.
- 4
Rehearse a threat hunt end to end
Take one indicator from an external feed, describe it in STIX, write a Sigma or YARA rule for it, and search the lab logs. One exercise touches several Security Operations topics.
- 5
Practise scenarios under exam timing
Use the CAS-005 practice test in Study Mode until each domain feels steady, then switch to Timed Mode. Ask Brainy AI Assistant to explain the scenario clue behind each missed question.
Start a timed CAS-005run
CompTIA offers CertMaster Perform for SecurityX, which includes live labs, along with CertMaster Practice for SecurityX and the CompTIA SecurityX (CAS-005) Certification Study Guide.
Who CAS-005 is for
- Security architects who design controls for cloud, on-premises and hybrid systems.
- Senior security engineers who build and automate enterprise defenses.
- Experienced analysts and penetration testers who want to move into architecture work.
- Staff in DoD 8140 work roles such as security control assessor or systems requirements planner.
Typical job titles: Security architect · Senior security engineer · Security control assessor · Systems requirements planner · Security consultant
CAS-005 glossary
20 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Always-on VPN
- A VPN that connects a device to the company network automatically whenever the device is online.
- Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)
- A service between users and cloud apps that enforces security policy, either through the apps' APIs or as a proxy in the traffic path.
- Code stylometry
- Finding out who wrote a piece of code, such as malware, from its style and habits.
- Cryptographic erase
- Destroying data by deleting its encryption keys, so that the encrypted data left on the media can no longer be read.
- Data remanence
- Data that stays readable on storage after it was deleted, a risk when cloud storage is reused or released.
- Deperimeterization
- The move away from one hard network edge toward security that follows users, devices and data wherever they are.
- Forward secrecy
- A property of key exchange in which a stolen long-term key cannot decrypt earlier sessions, because each session used its own key.
- Homomorphic encryption
- Encryption that lets a system compute on data while it stays encrypted, so the data is never exposed during processing.
- Key stretching
- Making a weak secret, such as a password, harder to crack by running it through many rounds of a slow function.
- Microsegmentation
- Dividing a network into very small zones, often down to single workloads, so that each flow can be allowed or blocked.
- Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)
- Encryption and signature methods designed to stay secure against attacks by future quantum computers.
- RACI matrix
- A table that shows who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for each security task.
- SASE
- Secure access service edge: networking and security functions delivered together from the cloud, close to each user.
- SCAP
- Security Content Automation Protocol: a set of standards, such as OVAL, XCCDF, CPE, CVE and CVSS, for automated security checks.
- Shadow IT
- Cloud apps and other technology that staff use without approval from the IT or security team.
- SOAR
- Security orchestration, automation and response: tools that run playbooks to handle alerts and routine security tasks automatically.
- STIX
- Structured Threat Information Expression: a standard format for describing threat intelligence, often shared between organizations over TAXII.
- Subject-object relationships
- In zero trust design, the defined links between who or what asks for access and the resource it wants to reach.
- Tokenization
- Replacing sensitive data, such as a card number, with a random token that means nothing outside the system that maps it back.
- UBA
- User behavior analytics: tools that learn each user's normal activity and flag actions that differ from it.