SCS-C02 AWS Certified Security - Specialty Question and Answers

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation with all AWS References

The simplest and most efficient way to enforce a data retention policy in Amazon S3 is by usingS3 Lifecycle rules:

S3 Lifecycle Rule:

Lifecycle rules allow you to automatically delete objects based on their age or last-modified date.

Specify a rule to delete objects after 45 days to meet the retention policy.

The correct answer is D. Import a new third-party certificate into AWS Certificate Manager (ACM). Associate the certificate with the ALB. Install the certificate on the EC2 instances.

This answer is correct because it meets the requirements of complete encryption of the traffic between external users and the application. By importing a third-party certificate into ACM, the security engineer can use it to secure the communication between the ALB and the clients. By installing the same certificate on the EC2 instances, the security engineer can also secure the communication between the ALB and the instances.This way, both the front-end and back-end connections are encrypted withSSL/TLS1.

The other options are incorrect because:

A.Creating a new Amazon-issued certificate in AWS Secrets Manager is not a solution, because AWS Secrets Manager is not a service for issuing certificates, but for storing and managing secrets such as database credentials and API keys2. AWS Secrets Manager does not integrate with ALB or EC2 for certificate deployment.

B.Creating a new Amazon-issued certificate in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and exporting it from ACM is not a solution, because ACM does not allow exporting Amazon-issued certificates3.ACM only allows exporting private certificates that are issued by an AWS Private Certificate Authority (CA)4.

C.Importing a new third-party certificate into AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is not a solution, because IAM is not a service for managingcertificates, but for controlling access to AWS resources5. IAM does not integrate with ALB or EC2 for certificate deployment.

One can use the CLI command list-access-keys to get the access keys. This command also returns the "CreateDate" of the keys. If the CreateDate is older than 2 months, then the keys can be deleted.

The Returns list-access-keys CLI command returns information about the access key IDs associated with the specified IAM user. If there are none, the action returns an empty list

Option A is incorrect because you might as use a script for such maintenance activities

Option C is incorrect because you would not rotate the users themselves

Option D is incorrect because you don't use IAM roles for such a purpose

For more information on the CLI command, please refer to the below Link:

http://docs.IAM.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/iam/list-access-keys.htmll

The correct answer is: Use a script to query the creation date of the keys. If older than 2 months, create new access key and update all applications to use it inactivate the old key and delete it.

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The correct answer is B. Create an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. Subscribe the third-party ticketing email system to the SNS topic. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that includes an event pattern that matches High severity GuardDuty findings. Specify the SNS topic as the target for the Event-Bridge rule.

According to the AWS documentation1, you can use Amazon EventBridge to create rules that match events from GuardDuty and route them to targets such as Amazon SNS topics. You can use event patterns to filter events based on criteria such as severity, type, or resource. For example, you can create a rule that matches only High severity findings and sends them to an SNS topic that is subscribed by a third-party ticketing email system. This way, you can automate the creation of tickets for High severity findings and notify the security team.

because these are the actions that can improve IAM account root user security. IAM account root user is a user that has complete access to all AWS resources and services in an account. IAM account root user security is a set of best practices that help protect the account root user from unauthorized oraccidental use. Deleting the access keys for the account root user in every account can help prevent programmatic access by the account root user, which reduces the risk of compromise or misuse. Enabling MFA on every account root user in all accounts can help add an extra layer of security for console access by requiring a verification code in addition to a password. Creating a custom IAM policy to limit permissions to required actions for the account root user and attaching the policy to the account root user can help enforce the principle of least privilege and restrict the account root user from performing unnecessary or dangerous actions. The other options are either invalid or ineffective for improving IAM account root user security.

AWS Nitro Enclaves are isolated and hardened virtual machines that run on EC2 instances and provide a secure environment for processing sensitive data. Nitro Enclaves have no persistent storage, interactive access, or external networking, and they can only communicate with the parent instance through a secure local channel. Nitro Enclaves also support cryptographic attestation, which allows verifying the identity and integrity of the enclave and its code. Nitro Enclaves are ideal for implementing data protection solutions such as tokenization, encryption, and key management.

Using Nitro Enclaves for the tokenization component of the application meets the requirements of isolating the sensitive data from other parts of the application, encrypting and storing the credit card numbers securely, and issuing tokens to replace the numbers. Other components of the application will not be able to access or store the credit card numbers, as they are only available within the enclave.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/tutorial_cross-account-with-roles.html

Adjusting the IAM policy attached to the IAM role used by EC2 instances to include the necessary AWS Logs API actions for publishing logs to CloudWatch Logs addresses the issue. This ensures that the EC2 instances have the required permissions to interact with CloudWatch Logs, facilitating the successful publication of logs from the instances.

Option C is the best solution to ensure the durability and availability of log data from EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. By using an Amazon CloudWatch agent, the logs can be sent to Amazon CloudWatch Logs, which is a fully managed service that can store, monitor, and analyze log data. CloudWatch Logs also allows you to set retention policies for your log groups, so you can keep the logs for a minimum of 1 year for auditing purposes. CloudWatch Logs also supports encryption,access control, and compliance features to protect your log data12

AWS Organizations and SCPs:

SCPs allow centralized control over permissions across all accounts in an AWS Organization.

Use SCPs to prevent specific actions, such as S3 bucket deletion, across all accounts.

Create an SCP for S3 Bucket Deletion:

Define an SCP that explicitly denies thes3:DeleteBucketaction.

Example SCP:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Deny",

"Action": "s3:DeleteBucket",

"Resource": "*"

}

]

}

Attach SCP to the Root or Specific OUs:

Attach the SCP to the root of the organization or specific organizational units (OUs) as needed.

Advantages:

Scalability: Applies to all accounts in the organization without the need for individual configuration.

Compliance: Ensures sensitive S3 buckets are protected from accidental or malicious deletion.

AWS Organizations SCP Documentation

Restricting S3 Actions with SCPs

To mitigate a credential stuffing attack against a web-based application behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB), creating an AWS WAF web ACL with a custom rule to block requests containing the known malicious user agent string is an effective solution. This approach allows for precise targeting of the attack vector (the user agent string of the device emulator) without impacting legitimate users. AWS WAF provides the capability to inspect HTTP(S) requests and block those that match defined criteria, such as specific strings in the user agent header, thereby preventing malicious requests from reaching the application.

AWS WAF Geo Match Condition:

Use AWS WAF to create a web access control list (web ACL).

Add a geo match condition to block traffic originating from the specified countries.

Associate Web ACL with CloudFront:

Attach the web ACL to the CloudFront distribution.

Requests from blocked countries will be denied at the CloudFront edge locations, ensuring compliance with data regulation policies.

Advantages of Using AWS WAF:

Cost-effective: Only pay for WAF rules, which are more economical than alternative solutions.

Scalable: Automatically handles global traffic without additional configuration.

Alternative Options:

Using CloudFront's geo-restriction feature (Option C) is also possible but lacks the flexibility and granularity of WAF rules.

AWS WAF Geo Match Conditions

Using AWS WAF with CloudFront

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The GuardDuty finding “IAMUser/InstanceCredentialExfiltration” indicates that temporary credentials from the instance metadata service have been stolen and used from an unusual location. The immediate priority is to revoke all existing IAM sessions for that instance profile to block the compromised credentials.

This is considered a critical containment action. IAM allows active session revocation, which invalidates credentials associated with a compromised instance profile.

This is explicitly covered under the Incident Response domain in the AWS Security Specialty study material, which emphasizes session revocation and credential rotation in response to exfiltration events.

To see Security Hub findings for accounts that are outside the organization that includes the Security Hub administrator account, the following steps are required:

Send invitations to accounts that are outside the company’s organization from the Security Hub administrator account. This will allow the administrator account to view and manage findings from those accounts. The administrator account can send invitations by using the Security Hub console, API, or CLI.For more information, see Sending invitations to member accounts.

Send an administration request from the member accounts. This will allow the member accounts to accept the invitation from the administrator account and establish a relationship with it. The member accounts can send administration requests by using the Security Hub console, API, or CLI.For more information, see Sending administration requests.

This solution will enable the company to see Security Hub findings for many AWS accounts and AWS Regions, including accounts that are outside its own organization.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not establish a relationship between the administrator and member accounts (A, B), do not enable Security Hub for all member accounts (D), or do not use a valid service for Security Hub (F).

Verified References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/securityhub/latest/userguide/securityhub-member-accounts.html

To stream data using an existing Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream and encrypt it in transit using a private network, the company should do the following:

Create a VPC endpoint for Kinesis Data Firehose. This allows the company to use a private connection between their VPC and Kinesis Data Firehose without requiring an internet gateway or NAT device.

Configure the application to connect to the VPC endpoint. This allows the application to stream data using Kinesis Data Firehose over AWS PrivateLink, which encrypts all traffic with TLS.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Using AWS WAF with an Application Load Balancer (ALB) allows you to mitigate SQL injection attacks quickly by deploying managed rule groups designed for common web exploits. This method allows the existing EC2 instances to continue operating without changes, minimizing disruption.

By fronting the EC2 instances with an ALB, you can then:

Apply WAF rules

Redirect DNS records from Route 53 to the ALB

Restrict direct EC2 access via security groups

This approach is rapid, low effort, and preserves availability, making it ideal for critical, time-sensitive security mitigations.

Option A: This option meets the requirements of following security best practices and configuring sensitive database credentials in the CloudFormation template. A dynamic reference is a way to specify external values that are stored and managed in other services,such as Secrets Manager, in the stack templates1. When using a dynamic reference, CloudFormation retrieves the value of the specified reference when necessary during stack and change set operations1. Dynamic references can be used for certain resources that support them, such as AWS::RDS::DBInstance1. By using a dynamic reference to reference the database credentials in Secrets Manager, the company can leverage the existing integration between these services and avoid hardcoding the secret information in the template. Secrets Manager is a service that helps you protect secrets needed to access your applications, services, and IT resources2. Secrets Manager enables you to rotate, manage,and retrieve database credentials, API keys, and other secrets throughout theirlifecycle2.

CloudHSM allows full control of your keys such including Symmetric (AES), Asymmetric (RSA), Sha-256, SHA 512, Hash Based, Digital Signatures (RSA). On the other hand, AWS Key Management Service is a multi-tenant key storage that is owned and managed byAWS1.

Understanding Gateway VPC Endpoint:

A gateway VPC endpoint allows traffic from the VPC to specific AWS services (e.g., Amazon S3) without traversing the public internet.

Key Configuration Points to Verify:

The route table is correctly configured to send traffic for Amazon S3 through the gateway VPC endpoint.

IAM permissions and bucket policies are correct and allow access to the specific S3 bucket.

Verify the Endpoint Policy:

Check the VPC endpoint policy to ensure it allows access to the S3 bucket. The policy might be restricting access to certain buckets, prefixes, or IAM principals.

Example VPC Endpoint Policy:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Principal": "*",

"Action": "s3:*",

"Resource": [

"arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket",

"arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"

]

}

]

}

Testing and Validation:

Modify the endpoint policy if required and test access again from the EC2 instance.

Gateway VPC Endpoints Documentation

VPC Endpoint Policies for Amazon S3

NACL acts as a firewall at the subnet level of the VPC and we can deny the offending IP address block at the subnet level using NACL rules to block the incoming traffic to the VPC instances. Since NACL rules are applied as per the Rule numbers make sure that this rule number should take precedence over other rule numbers if there are any such rules that will allow traffic from these IP ranges. The lowest rule number has more precedence over a rule that has a higher number.

The IAM Documentation mentions the following as a best practices for IAM users

For extra security, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for privileged IAM users (users who are allowed access to sensitive resources or APIs). With MFA, users have a device that generates a unique authentication code (a one-time password, or OTP). Users must provide both their normal credentials (like their user name and password) and the OTP. The MFA device can either be a special piece of hardware, or it can be a virtual device (for example, it can run in an app on a smartphone).

Options C is invalid because these options are not available

Option D is invalid because there is not root access for users

For more information on IAM best practices, please visit the below URL:

https://docs.IAM.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html

The correct answer is: Modify the Network ACLs associated with all public subnets in the VPC to deny access from the IP Address block.

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https://docs.IAM.amazon.com/kms/latest/developerguide/services-parameter-store.html#parameter-store-cmk-fail

the reason why there were no alerts on the sudo commands. Sudo commands are commands that allow a user to execute commands as another user, usually the superuser or root. CloudWatch Logs agent is a software agent that can send log data from an EC2 instance to CloudWatch Logs, a service that monitors and stores log data. The CloudWatch Logs agent needs an IAM instance profile, which is a container for an IAM role that allows applications running on an EC2 instance to make API requests to AWS services. If the IAM instance profile on the EC2 instance was not properly configured to allow the CloudWatch Logs agent to push the logs to CloudWatch, then there would be no alerts on the sudo commands. The other options are either irrelevant or invalid for explaining why there were no alerts on the sudo commands.

Utilizing AWS Config with a custom AWS Config rule (ec2-managedinstance-applications-required) enables detection of EC2 instances lacking the required software across all accounts in an organization. By creating an Amazon EventBridge rule that triggers on AWS Config events, and configuring it to invoke an AWS Lambda function, automated actions can be taken to ensure compliance. The Lambda function can leverage AWS Systems Manager Run Command to install the necessary software on non-compliant instances. This approach ensures continuous compliance and automated remediation, aligning with best practices for cloud security and management.

The combination of solutions that will meet the requirements are:

A. Create a local individual break glass IAM user for the security team. Create a trail in AWS CloudTrail that has Amazon CloudWatch Logs turned on. Use Amazon EventBridge to monitor local user activities. This is a valid solution because it allows the security team to access the workload AWS account and instances using a local IAM user that does not depend on SAML federation.It also enables logging and monitoring of the break glass user activities using AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch Logs, and Amazon EventBridge123.

E. Configure AWS Systems Manager Session Manager for Amazon EC2. Configure an AWS CloudTrail filter based on Session Manager. Send the results to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. This is a valid solution because it allows the security team to access the workload instances without opening any inbound ports or managing SSH keys or bastion hosts.It also enables logging and notification of the breakglass user activities using AWS CloudTrail, Session Manager, and Amazon SNS456.

The other options are incorrect because:

B.Creating a break glass EC2 key pair for the AWS account and providing it to the security team is not a valid solution, because it requires opening inbound ports on the instances and managing SSH keys, which increases the security risk and complexity7.

C.Creating a break glass IAM role for the account and allowing security team members to perform the AssumeRoleWithSAML operation is not a valid solution, because it still dependson SAML federation, which might not work in case of SAML errors8.

D.Creating a local individual break glass IAM user on the operating system level of each workload instance and configuring unrestricted security groups on theinstances to grant access to the break glass IAM users is not a valid solution,because it requires opening inbound ports on the instances and managing multiple local users, which increases the security risk and complexity9.

The condition of "s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption":"IAM:kms" ensures that objects uploaded need to be encrypted.

Options B,C and D are invalid because you have to ensure the condition of ns3:x-amz-server-side-encryption":"IAM:kms" is present

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

AWS Backup supports cross-Region backup copy to another backup vault in a different AWS Region. This is the simplest and most operationally efficient method to meet the requirement of geographic redundancy (i.e., data centers several hundred miles apart).

No custom scripting, Lambda, or EventBridge scheduling is required, minimizing operational overhead and aligning with Data Protection and Disaster Recovery best practices.

For a company using AWS Organizations that requires centralized management and automatic activation of Amazon GuardDuty across all current and future AWS accounts, setting up a delegated administrator account for GuardDuty is the optimal solution. By enabling GuardDuty in a new account and designating it as the delegated administrator, the company can centrally manage GuardDuty findings and automatically enroll new AWS accounts into GuardDuty as they are created within the organization. This approach ensures consistent threat detection and continuous monitoring across all accounts, aligning with best security practices.

The AWS documentation states that you can create an Amazon EventBridge rule to detect KMS API calls of DisableKey and ScheduleKeyDeletion. You can then create an AWS Lambda function to send an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) message to the company. You can add the Lambda function as the target of the EventBridge rule. This method will meet the requirements.

The correct answer is B. Store the API key value in AWS Secrets Manager. In the template, replace all references to the value with {{resolve:secretsmanager:MySecretId:SecretString}}.

This answer is correct because AWS Secrets Manager is a service that helps you protect secrets that are needed to access your applications, services, and IT resources. You can store and manage secrets such as database credentials, API keys, and other sensitive data in Secrets Manager.You can also use Secrets Manager to rotate, manage, and retrieve your secrets throughout their lifecycle1.Secrets Manager integrates with AWS CloudFormation, which allows you to reference secrets fromyour templates using the {{resolve:secretsmanager:…}} syntax2. This way, you can avoid exposing your secrets in plaintext and still use them in your resources.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Storing the API key value as a SecureString parameter in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store is not a solution, because AWS CloudFormation does not support references to SecureString parameters.This means that you cannot use the {{resolve:ssm:…}} syntax to retrieve encrypted parameter values from Parameter Store3. You would have to use a custom resource or a Lambda function to decrypt the parameter value, which adds complexity and overhead to your template.

C. Storing the API key value in Amazon DynamoDB is not a solution, because AWS CloudFormation does not support references to DynamoDB items.This means that you cannot use the {{resolve:dynamodb:…}} syntax to retrieve item values fromDynamoDB tables4. You would have to use a custom resource or a Lambda function to query the DynamoDB table, which adds complexity and overhead to your template.

D. Storing the API key value in a new Amazon S3 bucket is not a solution, because AWS CloudFormation does not support references to S3 objects.This means that you cannot use the {{resolve:s3:…}} syntax to retrieve object values from S3 buckets5. You would have to use a custom resource or a Lambda functionto download the object from S3, which adds complexity and overhead to your template.

To meet the requirements of storing scanned copies of customer receipts on Amazon S3, where files will be between 100 KB and 5 MB in PDF format, each retail store must have a unique encryption key, and each object must be encrypted with a unique key, the most appropriate solution would be to create a dedicated AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key for each retail store. Then, use the S3 Put operation to upload the objects to Amazon S3, specifying server-side encryption with AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS) and the key ID of the store’s key.

Establishing a VPC peering connection between the VPCs in Account A and Account B and updating route tables, network ACLs, and security groups to permit the necessary traffic ensures private connectivity for the application to write to the S3 bucket without traversing the public internet. This solution is efficient and maintains network security and integrity.

Note that the IP is known and the question wants us to deny access from that particular address and so we can use IP set match policy of WAF to block access.

because these are the factors that could affect the outbound connection to the internet from a server in a private subnet. The outbound network ACL rules on the private subnet and both the inbound and outbound rules on the public subnet must allow the traffic to pass through8. The security group applied to the application load balancer and NAT gateway must also allow the traffic from the private subnet9. The 0.0.0.0/0 route in the private subnet route table must point to the NAT gateway in the public subnet, not the internet gateway10. The other options are either irrelevant or incorrect for troubleshooting the outbound connection issue.

Option B: This option meets the requirements of scanning ECS containers and ECR registries for vulnerabilities, and providing a centralized view of the findings for the audit team. AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. AWS Config conformance packs are a collection of AWS Config rules and remediation actions that can be easily deployed as a single entity in an account and a Region or across an organization in AWS Organizations. Conformance packs can help you manage configuration compliance of your AWS resources at scale by using a common framework and packaging model. You can use prebuilt conformance packs for vulnerability scanning, such as CIS Operating System SecurityConfiguration Benchmarks or Amazon Inspector Rules for Linux Instances1. You can also create custom conformance packs to scan for vulnerabilities in programming language libraries. AWS Config aggregator is a feature that enables you to aggregate configuration and compliance data from multiple accounts and Regions into a single accountand Region2. You can provide access for the audit team to use AWS Config in the account where the aggregator is configured, and view the aggregated data in the AWS Config console or API.

To create a process that will allow application teams to provision their own IAM roles, while limiting the scope of IAM roles and preventing privilege escalation, the following steps are required:

Create a service control policy (SCP) that defines the maximum permissions that can be granted to any IAM role in the organization. An SCP is a type of policy that you can use with AWS Organizations to manage permissions for all accounts in your organization. SCPs restrict permissions for entities in member accounts, including each AWS account root user, IAM users, and roles.For more information, see Service control policies overview.

Create a permissions boundary for IAM roles that matches the SCP. A permissions boundary is an advanced feature for using a managed policy to set the maximum permissions that an identity-based policy can grant to an IAM entity. A permissions boundary allows an entity to perform only the actions that are allowed by both its identity-based policies and its permissions boundaries.For more information, see Permissions boundaries for IAM entities.

Add the SCP to the root organizational unit (OU) so that it applies to all accounts in the organization. This will ensure that no IAM role can exceed the permissions defined by the SCP, regardless of how it is created or modified.

Instruct the application teams to attach the permissions boundary to any IAM role they create. This will prevent them from creating IAM roles that can escalate their own privileges or access resources they are not authorized to access.

This solution will meet the requirements with the least operational overhead, as it leverages AWS Organizations and IAM features to delegate and limit IAM role creation without requiring manual reviews or approvals.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not allow application teams to provision their own IAM roles (A), do not limit the scope of IAM roles or prevent privilege escalation (B), or do not take advantage of managed services whenever possible ©.

Verified References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scp.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_boundaries.html

A VPC peering connection is a networking connection between two VPCs that enables you to route traffic between them using private IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses. Instances in either VPC can communicate with each other as if they are within the same network. You can create a VPC peering connection between your own VPCs, or with a VPC in another IAM account within a single region.

Options B and C are invalid because you need to use VPC Peering

Option D is invalid because VPC Peering is available

For more information on VPC Peering please see the below Link:

http://docs.IAM.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/vpc-peering.html

The correct answer is: Set up VPC peering between the central server VPC and each of the teams VPCs. Submit your Feedback/Queries to our Experts

To configure end-to-end encryption between the Elastic Load Balancer and the EC2 instances with the least operational effort, the most appropriate solution would be to use Amazon issued AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) certificates on the EC2 instances and the Elastic Load Balancer to configure end-to-end encryption.

 AWS Certificate Manager - Amazon Web Services : Elastic Load Balancing - Amazon Web Services : Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - Amazon Web Services : AWS Certificate Manager - Amazon Web Services

The correct answer is A. Configure an S3 Lifecycle rule on the S3 bucket to delete objects after 45 days.

The reason is that this is the simplest and most effective way to enforce the data retention policy.According to theAWS documentation1, “To manage your objects so that they are stored cost effectively throughout their lifecycle, configure their Amazon S3 Lifecycle. An S3 Lifecycle configuration is a set of rules that define actions that Amazon S3 applies to a group of objects.There are two types of actions: Transition actionsand Expiration actions.” The documentation1also states that “Expiration actions define when objects expire. Amazon S3 deletes expired objects on your behalf.” Therefore, by configuring an S3 Lifecycle rule on the S3 bucket to delete objects after 45 days, the security engineer can ensure that the data is removed from the S3 bucket according to the company’s policy.

The other options are incorrect because:

B. Create an AWS Lambda function to check the last-modified date of the S3 objects and delete objects that are older than 45 days. Create an S3 event notification to invoke the Lambda function for each PutObject operation. This option is not optimal because it requires deploying and maintaining a Lambda function, which adds complexity and cost. Moreover, it does not guarantee that the data is deleted exactly after 45 days, since the Lambda function is triggered only when a new object is put into the S3 bucket. If there are no new objects for a long period of time, the Lambda function will not run and the data will not be deleted.

C. Create an AWS Lambda function to check the last-modified date of the S3 objects and delete objects that are older than 45 days. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule to invoke the Lambda function each month. This option is not optimal because it requires deploying and maintaining a Lambda function, which adds complexity and cost. Moreover, it does not guarantee that the data is deleted exactly after 45 days, since the Lambda function is triggered only once a month. If the data is older than 45 days but less than a month, it will not be deleted until the next month.

D. Configure S3 Intelligent-Tiering on the S3 bucket to automatically transition objects to another storage class. This option is not sufficient to enforce the data retention policy, because it does not delete the data from the S3 bucket. It only moves the data to a less expensive storage class based on access patterns.According to the AWS documentation2, “S3 Intelligent-Tiering optimizes storage costs by automatically moving data between two access tiers, frequent access and infrequent access, when access patterns change.” However, this feature does not expire or delete the data after a certain period of time.

To quickly identify other compute resources with the specific version of the web framework installed, the team should do the following:

Scan all the EC2 instances with AWS Systems Manager to identify the vulnerable version of the web framework. This allows the team to use AWS Systems Manager Inventory to collect and query information about the software installed on their EC2 instances, and to filter the results by software name and version.

The correct answer is C. The GuardDuty integration with Security Hub was never activated in the AWS account where the finding was generated.

The reason is that Security Hub does not automatically receive findings from GuardDuty unless the integration is activated in each AWS account.According to the AWS documentation1, “The Amazon GuardDuty integration with Security Hub enables you to send findings from GuardDuty to Security Hub. Security Hub can then include those findings in its analysis of your security posture.” However, this integration is not enabled by default and requires manual activation in each AWS account.The documentation1also states that “You must activate the integration in each AWS account that you want to send findings from GuardDuty to Security Hub.”

Therefore, even though the company has configured the security tooling account as the delegated administrator for GuardDuty and Security Hub, and has enabled these services for existing and new AWS accounts, it still needs to activate the GuardDuty integration with Security Hub in each account. Otherwise, the findings from GuardDuty will not be sent to Security Hub and will not be visible in the delegated administrator account.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. VPC flow logs are not required for GuardDuty to generate DNS findings. GuardDuty uses VPC flow logs as one of the data sources for network connection findings, but not for DNS findings.According to the AWS documentation2, “GuardDuty uses VPC Flow Logs as a data source for network connection findings.”

B. The VPC DHCP option configured for a custom OpenDNS resolver does not affect GuardDuty’s ability to generate DNS findings. GuardDuty uses DNS logs as one of the data sources for DNS findings, regardless of the DNS resolver used by the VPC.According to the AWS documentation2, “GuardDuty uses DNS logs as a data source for DNS activity findings.”

D. Cross-Region aggregation in Security Hub is not relevant for this scenario, since the company operates out of a single AWS Region. Cross-Region aggregation in Security Hub allows you to aggregate security findings from multiple Regions into a single Region, where you can view and manage them. However, this feature is not needed if the company only uses one Region.According to the AWS documentation3, “Cross-Region aggregation enables you to aggregate security findings from multiple Regions into a single Region.”

To prevent unauthorized access to the EC2 instances, the security engineer should do the following:

Restrict SSH access in the security group to only known corporate IP addresses. This allows the security engineer to use a virtual firewall that controls inbound and outbound traffic for their EC2 instances, and limit SSH access to only trusted sources.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Amazon Inspector is an automated vulnerability management service that continuously scans Amazon EC2 instances for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. It uses a combination of the EC2 instance’s metadata and installed packages to detect CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures).

AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager automates the process of patching managed instances with both security-related and other types of updates. Together, these services provide detection and remediation capabilities, fulfilling both the detection and mitigation requirements.

This approach is directly aligned with AWS Security Specialty best practices for Infrastructure Security.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

IAM paths allow organizations to logically group IAM resources such as roles. By setting IAM paths for different teams, the company can identify and control access granularly. The iam:PassRole action is critical for delegating permissions, especially to AWS services. By attaching a Service Control Policy (SCP) that denies iam:PassRole for all roles except those in the platform team's IAM path, the organization enforces centralized delegation control.

This approach fulfills the need for logical grouping (via paths) and enforces delegated access through SCPs, in line with IAM and Governance best practices.

The correct answer is A, C, and E because they provide the most secure and efficient way to implement private connectivity to AWS services. Using interface VPC endpoints for Amazon SQS and gateway VPC endpoints for Amazon S3 allows the application to access these services without using public IP addresses or internet gateways. Modifying the endpoint policies on all VPC endpoints enables the security engineer to specify the SQS and S3 resources that the application uses and restrict access to other resources.

The other options are incorrect because they do not provide private connectivity to AWS services or they introduce unnecessary complexity or cost. Option B is incorrect because AWS Transit Gateway is used to connect multiple VPCs and on-premises networks, not to connect to AWS services. Option D is incorrect because modifying the IAM role applied to the EC2 instances is not sufficient to allow outbound traffic to the interface endpoints. The security group and route table associated with the interface endpoints also need to be configured. Option F is incorrect because AWS Firewall Manager is used to centrally manage firewall rules across multiple accounts and resources, not to connect to AWS services.

To redesign the edge security to help mitigate the DDoS attack risk in the future, the engineer could do the following:

Move the static content to Amazon S3, and front this with an Amazon CloudFront distribution. This allows the engineer to use a global content delivery network that can cache static content at edge locations and reduce the load on the origin servers.

Use AWS WAF security rules to inspect the inbound traffic. This allows the engineer to use web application firewall rules that can filter malicious requests based on IP addresses, headers, body, or URI strings, and block them before they reach the web servers.

Use Amazon Route 53 to distribute traffic. This allows the engineer to use a scalable and highly available DNS service that can route traffic based on different policies, such as latency, geolocation, or health checks.

these are the steps that can meet the requirements in the most secure manner. CloudTrail is a service that records AWS API calls and delivers log files to an S3 bucket. Turning on CloudTrail in each IAM account can help capture all IAM API calls made within those accounts. Updating the bucket policy of the bucket in the account that will be storing the logs can help grant other accounts permission to write log files to that bucket. The other options are either unnecessary or insecure for logging and analyzing IAM API calls.

To resolve the issues, the security engineer should make the following change to the policy:

In the statement block that contains the Sid “Allow use of the key”, under the “Condition” block, change the Kms:ViaService value to ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com. This allows the security engineer to restrict the use of the key to only EC2 service in the us-east-1 region, and prevent other services from using the key.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Service Control Policies (SCPs) are applied at the AWS Organizations level to manage what permissions are available across accounts. SCPs do not grant permissions themselves but restrict them.

In this case, the existing SCP denies resource sharing with external accounts across the organization. To allow an exception for the marketing team, the correct solution is to edit the existing SCP and apply a Condition that excludes the marketing team’s account. This is typically done using the StringNotEquals condition with the aws:PrincipalAccount or aws:PrincipalOrgID key.

By using a condition statement, you can tailor the SCP to deny access only to accounts other than the marketing account. This method ensures granular control without having to restructure the Organizational Unit (OU) or write an entirely separate policy.

Reference from AWS Certified Security - Specialty Official Guide:

This scenario is covered under the Identity and Access Management domain, where SCP exceptions and conditions are used to precisely control permission inheritance across accounts in an organization.

The correct answer is B. Use data key caching. Use the local cache that the AWS Encryption SDK provides with a caching cryptographic materials manager.

This answer is correct because data key caching can improve performance, reduce cost, and help the company stay within the service limits of AWS KMS. Data key caching stores data keys and related cryptographic material in a cache, and reuses them for encryption and decryption operations. This reduces the number of requests to AWS KMSendpoints and avoids throttling.The AWS Encryption SDK provides a local cache and a caching cryptographic materials manager (caching CMM) that interacts with the cache and enforces security thresholds that the company can set1.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Using keyrings with the AWS Encryption SDK does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization. Keyrings are used to generate, encrypt, and decrypt data keys, but they do not cache or reuse them.Using each keyring individually or combining them into a multi-keyring does not reduce the number of requests to AWS KMS endpoints2.

C. Using KMS key rotation does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization. Key rotation is a security practice that creates new cryptographic material for a KMS key every year, but it does not affect the data that the KMS key protects.Key rotation does not reduce the number of requests to AWS KMS endpoints, and it might incur additional costs for storing multiple versions of key material3.

D. Using keyrings with the AWS Encryption SDK does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization, as explained in option A. Moreover, using any of the wrapping keys in the multi-keyring to decrypt the data is not a valid option, because only one of the wrapping keys can decrypt a given data key.The wrapping key that encrypts a data key is stored in the encrypted data key structure, andonly that wrapping key can decrypt it4.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

B. Amazon Inspector now supports Lambda scanning for vulnerabilities. Designating a delegated administrator provides centralized visibility into findings across the organization.

C. Tag-based suppression enables filtering of findings for non-production resources (e.g., test or dev Lambda functions). By using tags and configuring suppression filters in Inspector, only relevant production findings appear in the dashboard.

This approach provides continuous monitoring, centralized reporting, and filtering based on environment, fulfilling Infrastructure Security requirements.

The steps that the Security Engineer should take to check for known vulnerabilities and limit the attack surface are:

B. Review the application security groups to ensure that only the necessary ports are open. This is a good practice to reduce the exposure of the EC2 instances to potential attacks from the Internet.Application security groups are a feature of Azure that allow you to group virtual machines and define network security policies based on those groups1.

D. Use Amazon Inspector to periodically scan the backend instances. This is a service that helps you to identify vulnerabilities and exposures in your EC2 instances and applications.Amazon Inspector can perform automated security assessments based on predefined or custom rules packages2.

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation with all AWS References

To ensure encryption for all data in transit between EC2 instances and EBS volumes,TLS encryptionmust be implemented. While EBS volume encryption secures data at rest, the requirement here is to secure datain transit.

TLS Encryption with ACM Certificates:

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) simplifies the process of deploying TLS encryption by managing certificates.

EC2 instances can use these certificates for secure data transmission to EBS.

This answer is correct because creating a new AWS account with limited privileges would provide an isolated and secure backup destination for the EBS snapshots. Allowing the new account to access the AWS KMS key used to encrypt the EBS snapshots would enable cross-account snapshot sharing without requiring re-encryption. Copying the encrypted snapshots to the new account on a recurring basis would ensure that the backups are up-to-date and consistent.

The correct answer is B. Modify the network ACL that is associated with the CIDR range to allow outbound traffic to ephemeral ports.

This answer is correct because network ACLs are stateless, which means that they do not automatically allow return traffic for inbound connections. Therefore, the network ACL that is associated with the CIDR range of the new application must have outbound rules that allow traffic to ephemeral ports, which are the temporary ports used by the vendors’ machines to communicate with the application servers.Ephemeral ports are typically in the range of 1024-655351. If the network ACL does not have such rules, the vendors will not be able to connect to the application.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Modifying the security group that is associated with the EC2 instances to have the same outbound rules as inbound rules is not a solution, because security groups are stateful, which means that they automatically allow return traffic for inbound connections.Therefore, there is no need to add outbound rules to the security group for the vendors to access the application2.

C. Modifying the inbound rules on the internet gateway to allow the required ports is not a solution, because internet gateways do not have inbound or outbound rules. Internet gateways are VPC components that enable communication between instances in a VPC and the internet.They do not filter traffic based on ports or protocols3.

D. Modifying the network ACL that is associated with the CIDR range to have the same outbound rules as inbound rules is not a solution, because it does not address the issue of ephemeral ports.The outbound rules of the network ACL must matchthe ephemeral port range of the vendors’ machines, not necessarily the inbound rules of the network ACL4.

To set up AWS Security Hub for centralized security monitoring across all accounts in an AWS Organization with the least operational overhead, the best actions to take are:

Solution A: Configure a finding aggregation Region for Security Hub. This allows Security Hub to aggregate findings from multiple regions into a single designated region, simplifying monitoring and analysis. By centralizing findings, the security team can have a unified view of security alerts and compliance statuses across all accounts and regions, enhancing the efficiency of security operations.

Solution C: Turn on the option to automatically enable accounts for Security Hub within the AWS Organization. This ensures that as new accounts are created and added to the organization, they are automatically enrolled in Security Hub, and their findings are included in the centralized monitoring. This automation reduces the manual effort required to manage account enrollment and ensures comprehensive coverage of security monitoring across the organization.

These actions collectively ensure that Security Hub is effectively configured to manage security findings across all accounts and regions, providing a comprehensive and automated approach to security monitoring with minimal manual intervention.

Understanding the Requirements:

The Lambda functions need access to S3 for writing summaries.

All traffic to S3 must stay within the AWS network and not traverse the internet.

Deploy Lambda Functions in a Private Subnet:

Place the Lambda functions in a private subnet to ensure they do not directly access the internet.

Create an S3 Gateway Endpoint:

Set up a VPC gateway endpoint for Amazon S3.

The endpoint ensures all traffic to S3 stays within AWS's private network.

Update Route Table:

Modify the route table for the private subnet to include the gateway endpoint.

IAM Permissions for the Lambda Function:

Ensure the Lambda function's execution role has permissions to write to the specified S3 bucket.

Advantages:

Cost-Effective: Eliminates NAT gateway costs for S3 traffic.

Secure: Keeps all S3 traffic within AWS's private network.

VPC Endpoint for Amazon S3

Using Lambda in VPC

CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess doesn't include "logs:CreateLogStream" but it includes "logs:Get*"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/iam-identity-based-access-control-cwl.html#:~:text=oam%3A*%3A*%3Asink/*%22%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%5D%0A%7D-,CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess,-The%20CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess%20policy

Create an Account-Wide Data Protection Policy:

Use AWS CloudWatch Logs account-level data protection policies to prevent sensitive data exposure.

Define the policy with appropriate AWS managed data identifiers or custom identifiers specific to the company's sensitive data.

Apply the policy across all log groups in the account, ensuring coverage for both existing and future log groups.

Restrict Developer Access to Unmasked Data:

Explicitly deny thelogs:UnmaskIAM permission to developers. This prevents developers from accessing unmasked sensitive data in log entries.

Automatic Policy Application:

Account-wide data protection policies automatically apply to new log groups created in the future, ensuring scalability and compliance without manual intervention.

Testing and Verification:

Test the policy with sample log entries containing sensitive data to ensure proper masking.

Verify that developers can troubleshoot logs without exposing sensitive information.

AWS CloudWatch Logs Data Protection Documentation

AWS Identity and Access Management Permissions for CloudWatch Logs

The below diagram from an IAM blog shows how security groups can be monitored

C:\Users\wk\Desktop\mudassar\Untitled.jpg

Option A is invalid because you need to use Cloudwatch Events to check for chan,

Option B is invalid because you need to use Cloudwatch Events to check for chang

Option C is invalid because IAM inspector is not used to monitor the activity on Security Groups

For more information on monitoring security groups, please visit the below URL:

Ihttpsy/IAM.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-automatically-revert-and-receive-notifications-about-changes-to-your-amazonj 'pc-security-groups/

The correct answer is: Use Cloudwatch events to be triggered for any changes to the Security Groups. Configure the Lambda function for email notification as well.

Submit your Feedback/Queries to our Experts

Option A is incorrect since you don't add a user to the IAM Role

Option C is incorrect since you don't assign multiple users to a policy

Option D is incorrect since this is not an ideal approach

An IAM group is used to collectively manage users who need the same set of permissions. By having groups, it becomes easier to manage permissions. So if you change the permissions on the group scale, it will affect all the users in that group

For more information on IAM Groups, just browse to the below URL:

https://docs.IAM.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_eroups.html

The correct answer is: Use the IAM groups and add users, based upon their role, to different groups and apply the policy to group

Submit your Feedback/Queries to our Experts

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html#eni-basics Source/destination checking "You must disable source/destination checks if the instance runs services such as network address translation, routing, or firewalls."

The correct answer is C. Disable the Network Source/Destination check on the security appliance’s elastic network interface.

This answer is correct because disabling the Network Source/Destination check allows the virtual security appliance to route traffic that is not addressed to or from itself. By default, this check is enabled on all EC2 instances, and it prevents them from forwarding traffic that does not match their own IP or MAC addresses.However, for a virtual security appliance that acts as a router or a firewall, this check needs to be disabled, otherwise it will drop the traffic that it is supposed to route12.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Disabling network ACLs is not a solution, because network ACLs are optional layers of security for the subnets in a VPC.They can be used to allow or deny traffic based on IP addresses and ports, but they donot affect the routing behavior of the virtual security appliance3.

B. Configuring the security appliance’s elastic network interface for promiscuous mode is not a solution, because promiscuous mode is a mode for a network interface that causes it to pass all traffic it receives to the CPU, rather than passing only the frames that it is programmed to receive.Promiscuous mode is normally used for packet sniffing or monitoring, but it does not enable the network interface to route traffic4.

D. Placing the security appliance in the public subnet with the internet gateway is not a solution, because it does not address the routing issue of the virtual security appliance.Thesecurity appliance can be placed in either a public or a private subnet, depending on the network design and security requirements, but it still needs to have the Network Source/Destination check disabled to route traffic properly5.

The correct answer is D. Change the existing CloudTrail trail so that it applies to all Regions.

According to the AWS documentation1, you can configure CloudTrail to deliver log files from multiple Regions to a single S3 bucket for a single account.To change an existing single-Region trail to log in all Regions, you must use the AWS CLI and add the --is-multi-region-trail option to the update-trail command2. This will ensure that you log global service events and capture all management event activity in your account.

Option A is incorrect because creating a new CloudTrail trail for each Region will incur additional costs and increase operational overhead. Option B is incorrect because changing the S3 bucket to receive notifications will not affect the delivery of log files from other Regions. Option C is incorrect because creating a new CloudTrail trail that applies to all Regions will result in duplicate log files for the original Region and also incur additional costs.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/troubleshooting-launch.html#troubleshooting-launch-internal

To troubleshoot the issue of an EC2 instance failing to start and transitioning to a terminated state when it has an EBS volume encrypted with an AWS KMS customer managed key, a security engineer should take the following steps:

C. Verify that the KMS key that is associated with the EBS volume is in the Enabled state. If the key is not enabled, it will not function properly and could cause the EC2 instance to fail.

D. Verify that the EC2 role that is associated with the instance profile has the correct IAM instance policy to launch an EC2 instance with the EBS volume. If the instance does not have the necessary permissions, it may not be able to mount the volume and could cause the instance to fail.

Therefore, options C and D are the correct answers.

The correct answer is A and C.

When using ABAC, the principal’s identity-based policy and the S3 bucket’s resource policy are both evaluated to determine the effective permissions. If either policy grants access to the principal, the action is allowed. If either policy denies access to the principal, the action is denied. Therefore, to enforce the tag-based condition, both policies must deny access when the tag values do not match.

In this case, the principal’s identity-based policy grants access to put objects into the S3 bucket with no conditions (A), which means that the policy does not check for the tag values. This policy overrides the condition in the bucket policy because an explicit allow always takes precedence over an implicit deny. The bucket policy can only allow or deny actions to the principal based on the condition, but it cannot override the identity-based policy.

The S3 bucket’s resource policy does not deny access to put objects ©, which means that it also does not check for the tag values. The bucket policy can only allow or deny actions to the principal based on the condition, but it cannot override the identity-based policy.

Therefore, the combination of factors A and C are causing the PutObject operation to succeed when the tag values are different.

The AWS documentation states that you can add an outbound allow rule for 192.168.2.0/24 in subnet-2-NACL and add an outbound allow rule for 192.168.1.0/24 in subnet-2-NACL. This will allow the EC2 instances that are running in these two subnets to communicate again.

For increased security while ensuring functionality, adjusting NACL3 to allow inbound traffic on port 5432 from the CIDR blocks of the application instance subnets, and allowing outbound traffic on ephemeral ports (1024-65536) back to those subnets creates a secure path for database access. Removing default allow-all rules enhances security by implementing the principle of least privilege, ensuring that only necessary traffic is permitted.

The most cost-effective way to correct a typo in a vault lock policy during the 24-hour initiation period is to call theabort-vault-lockoperation. This action stops the vault lock process, allowing the security engineer to correct the policy and re-initiate the vault lock with the corrected policy. This approach avoids the need for data transfer or creating a new vault, thus minimizing costs and operational overhead.

When implementing DNSSEC for a subdomain in Amazon Route 53 and encountering a broken trust chain error, creating a Delegation Signer (DS) record in the parent hosted zone is the correct approach. The DS record is essential for establishing the trust chain between the parent and child zones by linking the DNSSEC-signed subdomain to its parentdomain. This step is crucial for DNS resolvers to validate the authenticity of DNS responses, thereby resolving the broken trust chain issue and ensuring the integrity and authenticity of the DNS data for the secured subdomain.

The correct answer is B because it checks the configuration of the CloudWatch alarm that is supposed to monitor the CloudTrail log events. The analyst should verify that a metric filter was created to extract the relevant information from the log events, such as the event name, source, and user identity. The analyst should also verify that the metric filter wasmapped to an alarm that triggers when a certain threshold is reached, and that the alarm notification action is set up correctly to send alerts to the analyst1.

The other options are incorrect because they do not address the issue of the CloudWatch alarm not working as expected. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail and S3 bucket access logging are not related to the monitoring of security group changes. CloudTrail logs the API calls made to AWS services, and S3 bucket access logging records the requestsmade to thebucket2. OptionC is incorrect because CloudWatch dashboards are used to display metrics and alarms in a graphical way, but they do not affect the functionality of the alarm3. Option D is incorrect because the IAM policy permissions for cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics and cloudwatch:ListMetrics are not required to monitor the CloudTrail log events. These permissions are used to retrieve the statistics and list of metrics for a given namespace4.

Enable GuardDuty:

GuardDuty provides monitoring for EKS clusters by analyzing EKS audit logs.

Automatic Configuration:

No additional setup for the EKS deployment is needed. GuardDuty directly monitors API calls to detect suspicious or unauthenticated access.

Advantages:

Minimal Effort: No operational overhead for configuration.

Proactive Detection: Alerts for unauthorized or suspicious activity in near-real-time.

Amazon GuardDuty for EKS

EKS Audit Log Monitoring

The correct answer is A, C, and F.

To automate a response for any newly created policies that are overly permissive, the security engineer needs to use a combination of services that can monitor, analyze, remediate, and notify the security incidents.

Option A is correct because creating an AWS Step Functions state machine that checks the resource type in the finding and adds an explicit Deny statement in the trust policy for the IAM role is a valid way to remediate external access. AWS Step Functions is a service that allows you to coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows. You can use Step Functions to invoke AWS Lambda functions, which can modify the IAM policies programmatically. You can also use Step Functions to publish a notification to an Amazon SNS topic, which can send messages to subscribers such as email addresses.

Option B is incorrect because creating an AWS Batch job that forwards any resource type findings to an AWS Lambda function is not a suitable way to automate a response. AWS Batch is a service that enables you to run batch computing workloads on AWS. Batch is designed for large-scale and long-running jobs that can benefit from parallelization and dynamic provisioning of compute resources. Batch is not intended for event-driven and real-time workflows that require immediate response.

Option C is correct because creating an Amazon EventBridge event rule that matches active IAM Access Analyzer findings and invokes AWS Step Functions for resolution is a valid way to monitor and analyze the security incidents. Amazon EventBridge is a serverless event bus service that allows you to connect your applications with data from various sources. EventBridge can use rules to match events and route them to targets for processing. You can use EventBridge to invoke AWS Step Functions state machines from the IAM Access Analyzer findings.

Option D is incorrect because creating an Amazon CloudWatch metric filter that matches active IAM Access Analyzer findings and invokes AWS Batch for resolution is not a suitable way to monitor and analyze the security incidents. Amazon CloudWatch is a service that provides monitoring and observability for your AWS resources and applications. CloudWatch can collect metrics, logs, and events from various sources and perform actions based on alarms or filters. However, CloudWatch cannot directly invoke AWS Batch jobs from the IAM Access Analyzer findings. You would need to use another service such as EventBridge or SNS to trigger the Batch job.

Option E is incorrect because creating an Amazon SQS queue that forwards a notification to the security team that an external principal has been granted access to the specific IAM role and has been blocked is not a valid way to notify the security incidents. Amazon SQS is a fully managed message queue service that enables you to decouple and scale microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. SQS can deliver messages to consumers that poll the queue for messages. However, SQS cannot directlyforward a notification to the security team’s email addresses. You would need to use another service such as SNS or SES to send email notifications.

Option F is correct because creating an Amazon SNS topic for external or cross-account access notices and subscribing the security team’s email addresses to the topic is a valid way to notify the security incidents. Amazon SNS is a fully managed messaging service that enables you to decouple and scale microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications. SNS can deliver messages to a variety of endpoints, such as email, SMS, or HTTP. You can use SNS to send email notifications to the security team when a critical security finding is detected.

A bucket policy is a resource-based policy that defines permissions for a specific S3 bucket. It can be used to grant cross-account access to another AWS account or an IAM user or role in another account. A bucket policy can also specify which actions, resources, and conditions are allowed or denied.

A bucket ACL is an access control list that grants basic read or write permissions to predefined groups of users. It cannot be used to grant cross-account access to a specific IAM user or role in another account.

An object ACL is an access control list that grants basic read or write permissions to predefined groups of users for a specific object in an S3 bucket. It cannot be used to grant cross-account access to a specific IAM user or role in another account.

A user policy is an IAM policy that defines permissions for an IAM user or role in the same account. It cannot be used to grant cross-account access to another AWS account or an IAM user or role in another account.

For more information, see Provide cross-account access to objects in Amazon S3 buckets and Example 2: Bucket owner granting cross-account bucket permissions.

Understanding the Key Material Deletion:

Once the key material for a customer managed KMS key is deleted, the key becomes permanently unusable.

Restoring from a Snapshot (Option B):

If the EBS volume was previously backed up with a snapshot, you can create a new volume from the snapshot.

This new volume will use a different key for encryption, enabling access to the data.

Other Options Are Invalid:

Reimporting key material (Option C) or importing new key material (Options A and D) does not restore the ability to decrypt data encrypted with the original key material.

Best Practices:

Always ensure snapshots are taken and stored securely to protect against key loss.

Restoring EBS Volumes from Snapshots

KMS Key Management Best Practices

The correct combination of steps that the security engineer should take to meet these requirements are A. Ensure that the Amazon CloudWatch agent is installed on all the EC2 instances that the Auto Scaling groups launch. Generate a CloudWatch agent configuration file to forward the required logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs., B. Set the log retention for desired log groups to 7 years., and C. Attach an IAM role to the launch configuration or launch template that the Auto Scaling groups use. Configure the role to provide the necessary permissions to forward logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

A. This answer is correct because it meets the requirement of ensuring that no logging data is lost for each instance during scaling activities. By installing the CloudWatch agent on all the EC2 instances, the security engineer can collect and send system logs and application logs to CloudWatch Logs, which is a service that stores and monitors log data. By generating a CloudWatch agent configuration file, the security engineer can specify which logs to forward and how often.

B. This answer is correct because it meets the requirement of keeping the logs for only the required period of 7 years. By setting the log retention for desired log groups, the security engineer can control how long CloudWatch Logs retains log events before deleting them. The security engineer can choose a predefined retention period of 7 years, or use a custom value.

C. This answer is correct because it meets the requirement of providing the necessary permissions to forward logs to CloudWatch Logs. By attaching an IAM role to the launch configuration or launch template that the Auto Scaling groups use, the security engineer can grant permissions to the EC2 instances that are launched by the Auto Scaling groups. By configuring the role to provide the necessary permissions, such as cloudwatch:PutLogEvents and cloudwatch:CreateLogStream, the security engineer can allow the EC2 instances to send log data to CloudWatch Logs.

the aws kms get-key-rotation-status command returns a boolean value that indicates whetherautomatic rotation of the customer master key (CMK) is enabled1. This commandalsoshowsthe date and time when the CMK was last rotated2. The other options are not valid ways to check the CMK rotation status.

you need to configure the Amazon Inspector agent to use the CVE rule package, which is a set of rules that check for vulnerabilitiesand exposures on your EC2 instances5. You also need to install an additional integration library that enables communication between the Amazon Inspector agent and Security Hub6. Security Hub is a service that provides you with a comprehensive view of your securitystate in AWS and helps you check your environment against security industry standards and best practices7. The other options are either incorrect or incomplete for meeting the requirement.

Multi-factor authentication can add one more layer of security to your IAM account Even when you go to your Security Credentials dashboard one of the items is to enable MFA on your root account

C:\Users\wk\Desktop\mudassar\Untitled.jpg

Option A is invalid because you need to have a good password policy Option B is invalid because there is no IAM Geo-Lock Option D is invalid because this is not a recommended practices For more information on MFA, please visit the below URL

http://docs.IAM.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id credentials mfa.htmll

The correct answer is: Use MFA on all users and accounts, especially on the root account.

Submit your Feedback/Queries to our Experts

Amazon S3 is a service that provides scalable, durable, and secure object storage. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web1

AWS Elastic Load Balancing is a service that distributes incoming application or network traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, containers, or IP addresses. You can use Elastic Load Balancing to increase the availability and fault tolerance of your applications2

Elastic Load Balancing supports access logging, which captures detailed information about requests sent to your load balancer. Each log contains information such as the time the request was received, the client’s IP address, latencies, request paths, and server responses. You can use access logs to analyze traffic patterns and troubleshoot issues3

You can configure your load balancer to store access logs in an Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. You can also specify the interval for publishing the logs, which can be 5 or 60 minutes. The logs are stored in a hierarchical folder structure by load balancer name, IP address, year, month, day, and time.

Amazon Athena is a service that allows you to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. You can use Athena to run ad-hoc queries and get results in seconds. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage and you pay only for the queries that you run.

You can use Athena to search the access logs that are stored in your S3 bucket. You can create a table in Athena that maps to your S3 bucket and then run SQL queries on the table. You can also use the Athena console or API to view and download the query results.

You can also use Athena to create queries for the required metrics, such as the number of requests per cipher or protocol. You can then publish the metrics to Amazon CloudWatch, which is a service that monitors and manages your AWS resources and applications. You can use CloudWatch to collect and track metrics, create alarms, and automate actions based on the state of your resources.

By using this solution, you can meet the requirements of ensuring that all the load balancer logs are centralized and searchable for auditing and that metrics are generated to show which ciphers are in use.

The AWS documentation states that you can create a new AMI without the potentially compromised credentials and create an 1AM role that includes the correct permissions. You can then create a launch template for the Auto Scaling group to reference the new AMI and 1AM role. This method is the most secure way to remediate the security concerns without causing downtime for the application.

Understand the Risk:

Unauthorized users could stop or delete CloudTrail logging, creating a gap in audit trails.

Create a Service Control Policy (SCP):

Define an SCP at the root organizational unit (OU) level. The SCP should explicitly denyStopLoggingandDeleteTrailactions.

Example SCP:

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Deny",

"Action": [

"cloudtrail:StopLogging",

"cloudtrail:DeleteTrail"

],

"Resource": "*"

}

]

}

Attach the SCP:

Attach the SCP to the root OU in AWS Organizations. This ensures the policy is enforced across all accounts within the organization.

Test and Verify:

Attempt to stop or delete a CloudTrail trail to ensure the SCP prevents these actions.

AWS CloudTrail Security Best Practices

Service Control Policies Documentation

Using Amazon EventBridge to create a rule for ACM Certificate Approaching Expiration events and configuring an SNS topic as the target provides an operationally efficient way to monitor and alert on certificate expirations. This method leverages AWS's native capabilities for event monitoring and notifications, reducing the need for custom implementations and ensuring timely alerts.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/using-managed-response-headers-policies.html#managed-response-headers-policies-security

The SecurityHeadersPolicy is a managed policy provided by Amazon CloudFront that includes a set of recommended security headers to enhance the security of your website. These headers help protect against various types of attacks, including man-in-the-middle attacks. By applying the SecurityHeadersPolicy to your CloudFront distribution, the necessary security headers will be automatically added to the responses sent by CloudFront. This reduces operational overhead because you don't have to manually configure or manage the headers yourself.

If you lose the private key for an EBS-backed instance, you can regain access to your instance. You must stop the instance, detach its root volume and attach it to another instance as a data volume, modify the authorized_keys file with a new public key, move the volume back to the original instance, and restart the instance.https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/TroubleshootingInstancesConnecting.html#replacing-lost-key-pai

In an AWS environment where a VPC has no internet access and requires communication with AWS services such as Secrets Manager, the most secure method is to use an interface VPC endpoint (AWS PrivateLink). This allows private connectivity to services like Secrets Manager, enabling AWS Lambda functions and other resources within the VPC to access Secrets Manager without requiring an internet gateway, NAT gateway, or VPN connection. Interface VPC endpoints are powered by AWS PrivateLink, a technology that enables private connectivity between AWS services using Elastic Network Interfaces (ENI) with private IPs in your VPCs. This option is more secure than creating a NAT gateway because it doesn't expose the resources to the internet and adheres to the principle of least privilege by providing direct access to only the required service.

An Application Load Balancer (ALB) is a type of load balancer that operates at the application layer (layer 7) of the OSI model. It can distribute incoming traffic based on the content of the request, such as the host header, path, or query parameters. An ALB can also terminate TLS connections and decrypt requests from clients before sending them to the targets.

To implement TLS for incoming traffic to the application, the following steps are required:

Create a public ALB in a public subnet and register the EC2 instances as targets in a target group.

Create two listeners for the ALB, one on port 80 for HTTP traffic and one on port 443 for HTTPS traffic.

Create a rule for the listener on port 80 to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS using the same host, path, and query parameters.

Provision a public TLS certificate in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) for the domain name of the application. ACM is a service that lets you easily provision, manage, and deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services and your internal connected resources.

Attach the certificate to the listener on port 443 and configure the security policy to negotiate secure connections between clients and the ALB.

Configure the security groups for the ALB and the EC2 instances to allow inbound traffic on ports 80 and 443 from the internet and outbound traffic on any port to the EC2 instances.

This solution will meet the requirements of implementing TLS for incoming traffic without impacting performance or requiring end-to-end encryption. The ALB will handle the TLS termination and decryption, while forwarding unencrypted requests to the EC2 instances.

Verified References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/introduction.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/create-https-listener.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/acm/latest/userguide/acm-overview.html

To securely and cost-effectively retain log data archives for several years, the company should do the following:

Archive the data to Amazon S3 Glacier and apply a Vault Lock policy. This allows the company to use a low-cost storage class that is designed for long-term archival of data that is rarely accessed. It also allows the company to enforce compliance controls on their S3 Glacier vault by locking a vault access policy that cannot be changed.

This answer is correct because it meets the requirements of returning the application to service, resolving the issue, and ensuring that logging is not turned off in the future. By editing the rules in the web ACL to include rules with Count actions, the security engineer can test the effect of each rule without blocking or allowing requests. By reviewing the logs, the security engineer can identify which rule is causing the problem and modify or delete it accordingly. By modifying the IAM policy of all AWS WAF administrators, the security engineer can restrict their permissions to prevent them from removing the logging configuration for any AWS WAF web ACLs.

Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/. In the navigation pane, choose Session Manager. Choose the Preferences tab, and then choose Edit. Select the check box next to Enable under S3 logging. (Recommended) Select the check box next to Allow only encrypted S3 buckets. With this option turned on, log data is encrypted using the server-side encryption key specified for the bucket. If you don 't want to encrypt the log data that is sent to Amazon S3, clear the check box. You must also clear the check box if encryption isn't allowed on the S3 bucket.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To prevent developers from configuring unauthenticated Lambda function URLs, the most effective approach is to use Service Control Policies (SCPs) at the organizational level. By explicitly denying actions such as lambda:CreateFunctionUrlConfig and lambda:UpdateFunctionUrlConfig when the lambda:FunctionUrlAuthType is set to NONE, the organization ensures that only authenticated function URLs are deployed in production.

This method imposes no additional workload on developers and leverages AWS Organizations' SCPs to enforce centralized security policy — a recommended practice in the Identity and Access Management domain.

To grant appropriate access to the application modules, the security engineer should do the following:

Configure an IAM policy for each module. Specify the ARN of an Amazon Redshift database user that allows the GetClusterCredentials API call. This allows the application modules to use temporary credentials to access the database with the permissions of the specified user.

Create local database users for each module. This allows the security engineer to create separate users for read/write and read-only functionality, and to assign them different privileges on the database tables.