Amazon Web Services SCS-C02 - AWS Certified Security - Specialty

Options A and B are incorrect since you need to add an inline policy just for the user

Option C is invalid because you don't assign an IAM role to a user

The IAM Documentation mentions the following

An inline policy is a policy that's embedded in a principal entity (a user, group, or role)—that is, the policy is an inherent part of the principal entity. You can create a policy and embed it in a principal entity, either when you create the principal entity or later.

For more information on IAM Access and Inline policies, just browse to the below URL:

https://docs.IAM.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access

The correct answer is: Add an inline policy for the user Submit your Feedback/Queries to our Experts

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Overview.Encryption.html

https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ebs-automatic-encryption/

To implement encryption at rest for both the EC2 instances and the Aurora DB cluster, the following steps are required:

For the EC2 instances, modify the EBS default encryption settings in the target AWS Region to enable encryption. This will ensure that any new EBS volumes created in that Region are encrypted by default using an AWS managed key. Alternatively, you can specify a customer managed key when creating new EBS volumes.For more information, see Amazon EBS encryption.

Use an Auto Scaling group instance refresh to replace the existing EC2 instances with new ones that have encrypted EBS volumes attached. An instance refresh is a feature that helps you update all instances in an Auto Scaling group in a rolling fashion without the need to manage the instance replacement process manually. For more information, see Replacing Auto Scaling instances based on an instance refresh.

For the Aurora DB cluster, create a new AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encrypted DB cluster from a snapshot of the existing DB cluster. You can use either an AWS managed key or a customer managed key to encrypt the new DB cluster. You cannot enable or disable encryption for an existing DB cluster, so you have to create a new one from a snapshot.For more information, see Encrypting Amazon Aurora resources.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not enable encryption at rest for the resources (B, D), or they use the wrong service for encryption (E).

Verified References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EBSEncryption.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/asg-instance-refresh.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Overview.Encryption.html

To restrict the contractor’s IAM account access to the EC2 console without providing access to any other AWS services, the security engineer should do the following:

Create an IAM permissions boundary policy that allows EC2 access. This is a policy that defines the maximum permissions that an IAM entity can have.

Associate the contractor’s IAM account with the IAM permissions boundary policy. This means that even if the contractor’s IAM account is assigned additional permissions based on IAM group membership, those permissions are limited by the permissions boundary policy.

To implement host-based security for Amazon EC2 instances and containers in Amazon ECR with minimal operational overhead and ensure automatic deployment and scanning for new workloads, the recommended solution is to configure a delegated administrator for Amazon Inspector within the AWS Organizations structure. By enabling Amazon Inspector for the organization and configuring it to automatically scan new member accounts, the company can ensure that all EC2 instances and ECR containers are analyzed for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. Amazon Inspector will automatically assess the workloads and push findings to AWS Security Hub, providing centralized security monitoring and compliance checking. This approach ensures that as new accounts orworkloads are added, they are automatically included in the security assessments, maintaining a consistent security posture across the organization with minimal manual intervention.

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.

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.”

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.

For seamless encryption of Amazon S3 objects without direct key management, AWS Key Management Service (KMS) with AWS managed keys offers a highly scalable and manageable solution. TheScheduleKeyDeletionAPI withPendingWindowInDaysset to 0 allows for immediate deletion of the keys, meeting the requirement for immediate key removal. This approach leverages the managed infrastructure of KMS, reducing the overhead of key management while ensuring scalability and security. The integration of KMS with S3 and the ability to schedule key deletion provides a balance between ease of use and security control.

The combination of the following actions should the Engineer take to enable users to be authenticated into the web application and call APIs are:

B. Configure a SAML identity provider in Amazon Cognito to map attributes to the Amazon Cognito user pool attributes.This is a necessary step to federate the existing users from the SAML identity provider to the Amazon Cognito user pool, which will be used for authentication and authorization1.

C. Configure the SAML identity provider to add the Amazon Cognito user pool as a relying party.This is a necessary step to establish a trust relationship between the SAML identity provider and the Amazon Cognito user pool, which will allow the users to sign in using their existing credentials2.

F. Update API Gateway to use a COGNITO_USER_POOLS authorizer.This is a necessary step to enable API Gateway to use the Amazon Cognito user pool as an authorizer for the RESTful services, which will validate the identity or access tokens that are issued by AmazonCognito when a user signs in successfully3.

The other options are incorrect because:

A.Creating a custom authorization service using AWS Lambda is not a necessary step, because Amazon Cognito user pools can provide built-in authorization features, such as scopes and groups, that can be used to control access toAPI resources4.

D.Configuring an Amazon Cognitoidentity pool to integrate with social login providers is not a necessary step, because the users already exist in a directory that is exposed through a SAML identity provider, and there is no requirement to support social login providers5.

E.Updating DynamoDB to store the user email addresses and passwords is not a necessary step, because the user credentials are already stored in the SAML identity provider, and there is no need to duplicate them in DynamoDB6.