ISC2 Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) Practice Question

A security team ingests authentication, application, and network intrusion logs into its SIEM but still misses multi-stage attacks in which an external host performs a rapid series of failed logins and, minutes later, successfully runs a high-privilege command on an application server. Which SIEM capability should they implement first to automatically generate a single alert when both conditions occur within a 10-minute window from the same source IP?

Enable log normalization so that messages from different devices use a common schema.
Extend the SIEM's log retention to one year to ensure historical data is always available.
Create a field-based correlation rule that chains failed login events and high-privilege commands from the same source IP within a defined time window.
Design a real-time dashboard that displays authentication and intrusion events side by side.

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Answer Description

Detecting complex, multi-step attacks requires the SIEM to recognise relationships among events that are dispersed across different log sources and over time. Creating a correlation rule (often called a correlation search or rule-based correlation) lets analysts define logic that matches a pattern-such as several failed logins followed by a privileged action from the same IP within ten minutes-and produces one consolidated alert. Simple log normalization only harmonizes field names and formats; it does not by itself link separate events. Long-term retention and dashboard visualizations improve storage and situational awareness but likewise do not perform the analytic linkage needed to surface the attack chain. Therefore, configuring a field-based correlation rule in the SIEM is the correct action.

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