Digital Forensics: Network Security Architecture and Cryptographic Protocols

This FACT-aligned mock test exercises the network security architecture and cryptographic protocols block of the digital forensics syllabus. Thirty single-best-answer questions sweep IPSec including AH (RFC 4302), ESP (RFC 4303), transport versus tunnel mode, and IKEv2 (RFC 7296). It covers VPN families from PPTP, deprecated since the MS-CHAPv2 break of 2012, through L2TP over IPSec, OpenVPN, and modern WireGuard, and contrasts site-to-site with remote-access deployments. Firewall types from packet filtering through stateful inspection to next-generation firewalls appear alongside the default-deny philosophy of NIST SP 800-41 and the DMZ or screened-subnet pattern. IDS versus IPS, signature-based versus anomaly-based detection, password storage under bcrypt, scrypt, and Argon2, the EAP family with EAP-TLS and PEAP, Kerberos with its AS, TGS, and KDC roles under RFC 4120, X.509 certificate fields under RFC 5280, and LDAP distinguished names under RFC 4514 round out the authentication and directory block.

This mock is intended for MSc and BSc forensic science aspirants targeting the FACT entrance examination and for working professionals preparing for CISSP, Security+, or CHFI papers. The Indian PKI material covering the Controller of Certifying Authorities under Section 17 of the IT Act 2000 and Class 3 Digital Signature Certificates is included.

Topics covered:

• IPSec architecture: AH, ESP, IKEv2 and transport versus tunnel mode
• VPN protocols and topologies including PPTP, L2TP over IPSec, OpenVPN, WireGuard
• Firewall design, default-deny policy, DMZ and IDS versus IPS
• Password storage, the EAP family, Kerberos AS-TGS-KDC and LDAP DN structure
• Digital signatures, X.509 fields and PKI components CA, RA, CRL, OCSP
• CCA India and Digital Signature Certificates under the IT Act 2000
• TLS 1.3, the TLS handshake, Secure Electronic Transaction and HSTS
• 802.1X NAC, multi-factor authentication and Zero Trust under NIST SP 800-207

Use this set as a calibration exercise before attempting full-length FACT digital forensics papers. Allow 30 minutes.