CompTIA Security+ (SY0-501) — Question 655

An application developer is working on a new calendar and scheduling application. The developer wants to test new functionality that is time/date dependent and set the local system time to one year in the future. The application also has a feature that uses SHA-256 hashing and AES encryption for data exchange. The application attempts to connect to a separate remote server using SSL, but the connection fails. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause and next step?

Answer options

• A. The date is past the certificate expiration; reset the system to the current time and see if the connection still fails
• B. The remote server cannot support SHA-256; try another hashing algorithm like SHA-1 and see if the application can connect
• C. AES is date/time dependent; either reset the system time to the correct time or try a different encryption approach
• D. SSL is not the correct protocol to use in this situation; change to TLS and try the client-server connection again

Correct answer: A

Explanation

The correct answer is A because SSL certificates have expiration dates, and if the system time is set to a future date, the certificate may appear expired, causing the connection to fail. The other options are incorrect because SHA-256 is widely supported, AES is not date-dependent in this context, and SSL is a valid protocol, though TLS is often preferred for security, it wouldn't directly solve the certificate issue.