Digital Forensic Certification Practice Exam

In the Apache common log format, which string represents the time when the server receives the request?

1. %t

2. %h

3. %r

4. %s

The correct answer is: %t

In the Apache common log format, the string that represents the time when the server receives the request is indicated as %t. This format allows web servers to log various details about incoming requests, and %t specifically captures the date and time that the request was received. When a request is logged using this format, the timestamp is recorded in a standard format, which typically includes the day of the month, the month, the year, the time in hours, minutes, and seconds, and the timezone. This information is crucial for analyzing server activity and understanding the timing of requests, which can be instrumental for diagnosing issues, tracking user behavior, and managing server load. The other choices represent different aspects of the log entry: %h captures the remote host’s IP address, %r corresponds to the request line from the client, and %s indicates the status code that the server returns in response to the request. Each of these components plays an important role in the overall log entry, but %t is the specific format qualifier for indicating when the server received the request.