Question

Difficulty: EasyAuthentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)

A security analyst is categorizing corporate IT procedures according to the core components of the AAA framework. Match each operational scenario to the AAA component it primarily demonstrates.

  • A remote employee enters a username, password, and a time-based one-time password (TOTP) from an authenticator app to log into the corporate VPN.Authentication
  • The network gateway checks an employee's group membership and grants read-only access to HR records while denying edit rights.Authorization
  • A syslog server records time-stamped entries detailing every database table queried during an administrator's remote database session.Accounting

Answer

Matching credential verification to Authentication, permission enforcement to Authorization, and activity logging to Accounting.
Authentication handles proof of identity (passwords, multi-factor tokens). Authorization manages permission policies and resource boundaries (read/write rights based on roles). Accounting captures historical logs, metrics, and audit records of user actions.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the purpose of credential verification (username, password, TOTP).
Confirming the user's identity corresponds to Authentication.
Authentication asks 'Who are you?' and validates claims with credentials.
2
Analyze the process of checking access rights and group policies for resource usage.
Restricting access levels based on roles corresponds to Authorization.
Authorization asks 'What are you allowed to do?' and enforces permissions.
3
Examine the function of recording timestamps and user queries into audit logs.
Tracking active usage and generating audit trails corresponds to Accounting.
Accounting asks 'What did you do?' and maintains records for tracking and auditing.

Key Concept

Core Pillars of Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)
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