Objective 2.2
SY0-701Explain common threat vectors and attack surfaces
Objective 2.2 sits in Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Mitigations, which carries 22% of the Security+ exam. The questions below are original, written from the official objective title above, and each explanation cites the CompTIA page it rests on.
Objective title verbatim from the official objectives. CompTIA exam page ↗
A worked example
Shown solved, with the whole explanation open: this is what every question here carries.
An analyst reviews a targeted email sent to three finance staff that carries a macro-enabled document. Which delivery variant of spearphishing does this message represent?
Correct.
Checked against attack.mitre.org, September 2026Concept
Targeted social engineering is classified by the channel that carries it and by what the message holds. Separating those paths lets a defender match the control to the route: file inspection, link rewriting, gateway coverage or a verification habit for calls.
Why B
The attachment variant is distinguished by the use of malware attached to the mail itself, and a macro-enabled document delivered to named recipients is exactly that shape.
Source
MITRE ATT&CK T1566.001: Spearphishing Attachment, checked September 2026Adversaries may send spearphishing emails with a malicious attachment in an attempt to gain access to victim systems. Spearphishing attachment is a specific variant of spearphishing. Spearphishing attachment is different from other forms of spearphishing in that it employs the use of malware attached to an email.
Now you: objective 2.2 questions
No account needed. The explanation opens when you answer.
Sample question 1 of 3
A company's mail gateway strips every executable attachment, yet targeted staff still receive messages carrying a URL that downloads a payload. Which spearphishing variant is in use?
Sample question 2 of 3
An engineer confirms that targeted messages reached three staff through a social media account, and the mail gateway logged nothing. What explains the gateway's silence?
Sample question 3 of 3
A user reports that a caller claiming to be from the service desk talked her into approving a remote session. Which attack vector does this describe?
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Continue practicingRead the sources
These are the official pages the questions above cite. Reading them is studying the objective from the primary source, which is what the explanations point you toward anyway.