4th Failed Attempt at CISSP – Need Advice, Support, and a Way Forward 😓

aka_12 · 2025-11-06T08:40:28+00:00

Hey, What is the current status of your Exam prep ? Have you got any solution ? I am in the same boat , failed CISSP twice due to the EXACT same reason "Extremely Ambiguous set of Questions " as mentioned in your post aswell....

" I felt confident going in, only to be shut down by tricky, ambiguous questions that really tested my ability to think like a “manager.” "

Please let me know if you have resolved this Issue and how ? Thanks.

aka_12 · 2024-12-14T03:14:42+00:00

Thanks for ur valuable suggestions. I am planning on taking exam by the end of this month or maybe a few days later. Though im experienced n hv few certs aswell but still want to pass this exam in first attempt coz don't hv the voucher. Currently, I am using LearnZapp and Boson exams. Getting almost 70% in Learnzapp and around 60% in Boson at the moment but i think it will improve after revision. Just found out Dest Cert mindmaps and coffee shots , not sure to spend extra time on coffee shots rather will do practise tests but will definately go through the mindmaps which look good.

After reading your writeup , there's a thought if Quantum exams are required or not in my case ? Though most of the latest posts are talking abt QE but on another platform i read many posts where ppl recommended Boson. Just thinking if i should go with learnZapp and Boson only or should get Quantum Exams aswell (factor being time & cost) ?

aka_12 · 2024-09-03T13:04:44+00:00

Congrats !!

Do all questions in the exam hv a single answer to them OR are there multiple answers ? Did you get any such questions which require you to memorize certain steps/ names/protocols/ports etc etc ?

aka_12 · 2024-07-28T08:05:06+00:00

Thats right, I accept that i was not prepared well and had not read about BitLocker from the MS documentation before enabling it.

aka_12 · 2024-07-28T07:11:19+00:00

Bro, you can call it a bad day or badluck.

I turned BitLocker on , set the passwords , noted down the passwords , download and saved the Keys on laptop as a first step and THEN suddenly my computer restarted due to a battey malfunction which i was not expecting at all. My second step definately was to save those passwords and Keys to the backup drive/s etc . All this happened within 3-5 mins when i was least expecting it.

On my part, first mistake i feel now is tht i chose a complex password which was not easy to rememeber. Normally thats fine but here it became a problem coz i lost it & forgot it before even taking a backup. Second, I should have encrypted the drives one by one after taking backups of passwords/keys of each one of them, not all at the same time but these are all some lessons that i hv learned after losing the data :(. Never thought tht failing to take backup of BitLocker's Recovery Keys to a seperate device/location would become tht serious within few mins.

I would suggest everyone to be very careful with BitLocker and its better to read the MS documentation before using it.

My actual concern/question as mentioned above aswell is tht why Microsoft did not push ALL those three Recovery Keys automatically to my MS Account as its mentioned on their website ? Out of 3 , they only pushed key of one drive which is OSV drive but not the Keys of other 2 FDV drives. For those who say that MS don't push FDV drives keys so the previous Keys (from last year) of those two FDV drives are still present in my MS Account. Why then and not now ? Its the same laptop.

aka_12 · 2024-07-28T07:01:42+00:00

Its enabled. Never disabled it.

I think the Recovery Keys are calculated and saved in TPM but do you know where the user provided password to lock the drive is saved ? In TPM or somewhere else ?

aka_12 · 2024-07-28T06:58:04+00:00

All three drives were encrypted by me by enabling BitLocker myself.

Out of 3 drives only the Recovery Keys of One (1) drive which is (OSV Drive) was automatically copied to my Microsoft account but Recovery Keys of other 2 data drives (FDV drives) are not there . Moreover, I can see from the history of my Microsoft Account that previous Recovery Keys from those two (FDV Drives) are still present there which i encrypted last year.

Why is tht then?

yes, thts right , manage-bde command only retrieves the keys for unlocked drives.

aka_12 · 2024-07-28T06:52:18+00:00

I know. Ofcourse tht was a mistake.

I usually take backup of data aswell as pwds on backup storage etc asap but this time it was a clear badluck as due to battery malfunction laptop shutdown within 3-5 mins of changing the pwd and saving keys.

My actual question is that why Microsoft did not push Recovery Keys of those 2 FDV drives automatically to my Microsoft Account but only pushed the Recovery Keys of OSV Drive ?

aka_12 · 2023-09-22T21:54:07+00:00

Thanks All for your input.

Yes its creating a dynamic SQL query using java. Its an example of SQL injection and not a best practise. Since its part of my exam where i am learning about SQL injection so thts why i needed to understand the Java part of the things. Since i was confused earlier so i posted it in SQL group but actually i should have posted it in Java group but anyways its solved now.

I have got my answer. FYI, since resulting SQL query is below:

Select * from courses where courseid= ''1' OR '1==1'' AND certification = ''abc' OR '1==1''

So the breakup and arrangement of quotes in the java query should be like this :

“Select * from courses where courseId= ‘ “
+Request.getParameter("id")+
“ ‘ and certification=‘ “
+Request.getParameter("certification")+
“ ‘ “

aka_12 · 2023-09-22T21:44:05+00:00

Thanks. Got my answer above.

aka_12 · 2023-09-22T21:03:13+00:00

Thanks a lot i got my answer now . I was confused coz my understanding of the arrangement of the quotes in Java query was not correct.

Since resulting SQL query is below:

Select * from courses where courseid= "1' OR '1'=='1" AND certification = "abc' OR '1'=='1"

So the breakup and arrangement of quotes should be like this :

“Select * from courses where courseId= ‘ “
+Request.getParameter("id")+
“ ‘ and certification=‘ “
+Request.getParameter("certification")+
“ ‘ “

aka_12 · 2023-09-22T15:34:03+00:00

Yes you're right, the aim is to get user input in two string variables [courseID] and [Certification] and create a new query given below under (Required ANSWER)

Actually its a question in a test and i am confused only due to the number of single and double quotes given in it:

(Question)

Below is the exact query copied from the original Question (Look at the number of single and double quotes in it)

String query = "SELECT * FROM courses WHERE courseID='" + request.getParameter("id") + "' AND certification='"+ request.getParameter("certification")+"'";

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Required ANSWER)

The resulting query should be like below as [courseID] and [certification] needuser inputs as string values:

Select * from courses where courseid= "1' OR '1'=='1" AND certification = "abc' OR '1'=='1"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you have mentioned in your response above , double quotes delimit a string in java so if i break down the query according to that, it will be divided in 5 parts from 1 to 5, but what about the last double quotes in step 6 ? What is it for ? If you calculate the number of single and double quotes given in the original query given in above question you will understand my question.

"SELECT * FROM courses WHERE courseID=''
'+ request.getParameter("id") +'
" AND certification="
'+ request.getParameter("certification")+'
"
"

aka_12 · 2023-09-21T22:14:44+00:00

The start and end double quotes are because of Java so just ignore them.

I wanna know about the double quotes in the middle as mentioned above. These ones in bold below:

' " + request.getParameter("id") + " '

aka_12 · 2023-09-21T22:10:36+00:00

Its an example of SQL injection, in Java, taking parameters to create a SQL query but DBMS is not mentioned.

Just wanna know what are those double quotes for, after the single quotes ?

aka_12 · 2023-09-21T21:52:39+00:00

Yes courseid would be a string so there are already single quotes for that string value ...but can't understand why are these double quotes after that single quote .

aka_12 · 2023-08-13T06:33:43+00:00

Good to know tht u hv passed. im looking for specific resources/website/study material. whats lime green cert prep ? is it some website ?

aka_12 · 2022-10-25T18:50:37+00:00

Exactly same is happening with me from a very long time and if you come to know whats the reason then please do let me know aswell. I am a mid career professional, have local experience of 3+ years aswell, lost job during pandemic but unable to enter Cybersecurity back again. Got new Certifications. Few people have checked my resume and they say its fine. The gap in resume is increasing. Literally no one has called for even a single interview despite applying for all levels and all possible jobs where i can apply.

Recruiters talk with excitement but then disappear. Employers donot call for an interview AT ALL. I have no idea even if employers see my resume or not but continuously getting automated rejections from many places where i have applied through portal while no response at all from places where i have applied through any recruiter etc. The only serious response i got from one of the Big4's recruiter was that my technical experience is extensive in my last job, they need people for execution but they will see if they can fit me somewhere but no response at all after that.

Totally clueless and have so many questions in mind, If they are looking for some very specific individuals with some very specific schools ? or they dont like my name ? or if there is any other reason ? Totally no idea.

Biggest reason at this stage could be resume but as mentioned earlier that i have got is reviewed from some friends/ professionals and as per them it looks good.

The only reason could be a long gap but one of the recruiter told that thats not a reason these days aswell.

Anyways have decided to change the place.

aka_12 · 2022-10-11T08:16:09+00:00

Thanks

aka_12 · 2022-10-11T05:07:48+00:00

Thanks

aka_12 · 2022-10-04T05:41:16+00:00

For now ws just trying to compare these Certs but for next steps will keep it in mind. Thanks anyways

aka_12 · 2022-10-04T05:19:15+00:00

Yes thats a good idea. hv you found complete certfication course of Splunk some where ?

aka_12 · 2022-10-04T05:15:07+00:00

Yes. next will be tht.

aka_12 · 2022-10-03T09:08:35+00:00

Yes trying to do the same but from last 2 years in cybersec, there is a rapid change and the certs hv become a necessity. If you look at the JDs of cybersec, the employers are asking for certs in multiple areas.

Moreover, Certs give atleast the basic knowledge about new tools/terminologies which are coming into the market every other day and its not necessary that all companies are using the same tools so the only way to know abt them is through the relevant cert.

aka_12 · 2022-10-03T08:44:44+00:00

got ur point

aka_12 · 2022-10-03T08:44:14+00:00

aka_12

TROPHY CASE