ZDTA Questions and Answers

The Zscaler Client Connector provides the authentication token to the Zscaler Client Connector Portal to enable the portal to register the user’s device and pass the registration to Zscaler Internet Access. This registration process is crucial for device posture assessment and policy enforcement, ensuring that only registered and compliant devices receive appropriate access.

Firewall Filtering policies govern network‑level application traffic, so access to a Network Application is blocked by a Firewall Filtering rule.

Zscaler’s short‑lived intermediate CA certificates on the ZIA Service Edges are valid for 14 days and are automatically rotated every 7 days, minimizing the window of exposure even if a private key is compromised.

By deploying multiple, overlapping security controls at different layers, you force adversaries to overcome each barrier, significantly raising the cost, complexity, and time required for a successful attack.

SCIM is optional for ZIA user provisioning - you can onboard users via manual CSV import, SAML attributes, or other identity integrations without implementing SCIM.

The ATP workflow focuses on protecting users from security threats such as phishing, malware, and malicious URLs through mechanisms including IPS coverage on client and server sides, categorization of URLs (especially newly registered domains), and prevention of risky file downloads like password-protected zip files. However, reporting on network performance issues such as high latency on a Teams call caused by low WiFi signal is outside the scope of ATP. This type of issue relates to digital experience or network performance monitoring, not threat protection.

A primary business risk introduced by legacy firewalls is performance issues. Traditional firewalls are often unable to efficiently handle modern high-volume and encrypted traffic, leading to latency, bottlenecks, and reduced network performance. This negatively impacts user experience and security posture. The study guide points out that legacy firewalls struggle with scalability and speed in today’s cloud-centric environment, making performance a key concern.

The graph in the Security Alerts section displays the Top 5 Threats by Systems Impacted, highlighting which threats have affected the most endpoints over the selected time period.

Beyond email, Alert Rule notifications can be pushed via Webhooks to integrate with ITSM platforms or UCaaS tools, enabling real‑time incident management and collaboration in your existing service desks or messaging systems.

URL Filtering remains the most widely deployed web filtering method, serving as the first line of defense by categorizing and controlling access to websites before any deeper inspection or cloud‑based security service takes over.

The user risk score enables organizations to configure stronger user-specific policies to monitor and control user-level risk exposure. This score reflects a user's risk posture based on behaviors and detected anomalies and helps in tailoring security policies to address individual risk levels.

While the score gives insight into user risk, it is primarily designed for adaptive policy enforcement rather than direct compromise detection or cross-company comparison. The study guide highlights that user risk scores drive policy adjustments to better secure user activity.

ZDX collects Wi‑Fi signal strength as part of its Endpoint Monitoring metrics and also displays it in Cloud Path Probe results, so you can spot low signal quality either in the device health Wi‑Fi indicator or when examining the Cloud Path visualization.

When a ZDX custom application is configured with the type set to 'Network', the administrator will not get Disk I/O metrics for users. Disk I/O metrics relate to local client device performance and are not part of network-type application probes which focus on network latency, server response, and other network-centric measurements.

The study guide notes that Disk I/O is part of endpoint-level monitoring and is not collected by network-type probes, unlike metrics such as Server Response Time or ZDX Score which are network related.

ZDX supports two probe types: Web Probes and Cloud Path Probes. Web Probes actively retrieve web objects to measure application health, while Cloud Path Probes map the end‑to‑end network path to pinpoint transit issues.

Z-Tunnel 2.0 is the technology designed to secure all IP unicast traffic. It establishes encrypted tunnels between clients and Zscaler cloud edges, providing secure, transparent forwarding of all IP-based traffic, beyond just HTTP/S, ensuring comprehensive protection of network communications.

Tenant Restriction is the ZIA feature that enforces access control policies to prevent access to certain SaaS applications from unmanaged or non-compliant devices. This ensures that only authorized and managed devices can access sensitive corporate SaaS resources, enhancing security posture.

The study guide highlights Tenant Restriction as an essential control for enforcing device compliance in SaaS access policies.

Z-Tunnel 2.0 upgrades over 1.0 by carrying all ports and protocols through the Cloud Firewall for inspection - rather than being limited to just HTTP/HTTPS - ensuring full visibility and control.

Zscaler’s IPS engine and Yara‑style content signatures specifically detect and block botnet command‑and‑control traffic, stopping infected hosts from communicating with C2 servers.

Zscaler’s Workflow Automation integrates with collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack to send real‑time DLP violation alerts directly to end‑users.

A Watering Hole Attack targets users by compromising a website or service that is commonly visited by the intended victims. The attacker injects malicious content such as malicious JavaScript or malware into the website, so when the user visits the site, their system gets infected. This attack relies on the trust users have in popular or legitimate websites and exploits it by turning those sites into infection vectors.

Pre-existing Compromise refers to attacks where the target environment is already compromised before the attack is recognized, but it does not specifically describe malicious content injected into popular websites. Phishing Attack involves deceiving users to click malicious links or reveal credentials, not compromising websites directly. Exploit Kits are automated tools that scan for vulnerabilities and deliver exploits but are not characterized by the use of commonly used websites hosting malicious scripts.

The study guide clearly explains Watering Hole Attacks as a method where attackers infect trusted websites frequented by target users to deliver malicious payloads.

Multiple distributed DNS resolvers providing local results connect Zscaler users to the nearest Microsoft 365 servers. This approach ensures users get localized DNS resolution, which directs them to the closest Microsoft 365 endpoint, improving performance and reducing latency.

The study guide highlights the importance of distributed DNS resolution in optimizing cloud application performance for users.

Cloud application control is the feature that allows an administrator to distinguish and enforce policies specifically on the corporate instance of a SaaS application. This enables granular control, allowing users to access the approved corporate SaaS while restricting access to personal or unauthorized instances. Out-of-band CASB generally provides visibility but does not enforce real-time distinctions in this context. URL filtering with SSL inspection and Endpoint DLP serve different purposes, such as content inspection and endpoint data protection, respectively.

The study guide explains that Cloud Application Control policies identify and enforce controls based on SaaS application instances, providing precise policy enforcement aligned with corporate SaaS usage requirements.

Administrators can build custom dictionaries by defining the exact keywords, phrases, or regex patterns that reflect their organization’s sensitive data. Zscaler then uses these dictionaries in its data‑in‑motion policies to accurately identify and block or protect matching content.

Downloaders are a specific type of malware whose primary purpose is to download and install other malicious software onto a victim's machine. Unlike standalone threats, downloaders typically establish initial access and then retrieve payloads like ransomware, trojans, or spyware from a command and control server. Their role in the malware chain is fundamental for multi-stage attacks.

Certificate pinning prevents SSL interception by validating a server’s certificate against known values. When ZIA performs SSL inspection, it substitutes the certificate with one signed by Zscaler’s CA. This causes the handshake to fail for pinned applications. To troubleshoot, an administrator should review SSL logs to identify handshake failures, which indicate certificate pinning issues. Logs will show the TLS negotiation details, including any disruptions.

Zscaler Client Connector automatically checks for software updates every 2 hours by default.

In API architecture, an Endpoint is defined as a URL or URI that provides access to a specific resource or service within the API. It acts as a point of interaction where clients send requests and receive responses. This is a standard definition across API implementations, including Zscaler's API framework, where each endpoint represents a distinct function or data resource accessible via the API.

Option A refers to physical devices, which are not considered endpoints in API terms. Option C describes network infrastructure components but not API endpoints. Option D describes an API gateway, which manages API traffic but is not itself an endpoint.

This explanation is consistent with the Zscaler Digital Transformation study guide’s section on Integration and APIs, which clarifies that API endpoints are URLs pointing to specific resources or services within the API framework.

Zscaler Bandwidth Control shapes and buffers only the outbound traffic from the user’s device, ensuring smooth egress flow, while inbound and localhost traffic remain unshaped.

The preferred method for authentication to access Zscaler's oneAPI is OpenID Connect (OIDC). OIDC is an identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol and provides a modern, secure, and scalable way to authenticate users and services interacting with the API.

The study guide notes that OIDC supports flexible and secure authentication, making it the recommended choice for API access management within Zscaler’s platform.

Server Groups in ZPA use Dynamic Server Discovery to supply Connector Groups with the application endpoints’ DNS names or IPs. The Connector Groups then resolve those addresses and perform health checks to ensure the applications are reachable before steering user traffic.

By reviewing the user’s ZDX score for AWS and running “Analyze Score,” the Y‑Engine automatically correlates metrics (network, client, and application) to pinpoint the root cause, delivering targeted insights far faster than manual tracing or external outage checks.

The feature that allows Zscaler to apply URL filtering even when a Cloud App control policy explicitly permits a transaction is called Allow Cascading. This feature ensures that even if a cloud application is permitted by the Cloud App control policy, the URL filtering policy can still be enforced. This is useful in cases where granular URL control is needed on top of cloud app permissions, providing layered security controls.

The study guide clearly explains that Allow Cascading enables URL filtering policies to cascade or take precedence and thus still inspect and potentially block URLs even if the cloud app is allowed by policy. This allows administrators to fine-tune access and ensure additional inspection layers on web traffic .