DOP-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Test 2 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to enforce that all S3 buckets have encryption enabled. They need a preventive control that applies to all current and future accounts. Which approach should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use a service control policy (SCP) in the Organizations root to deny PutBucketEncryption actions when encryption settings do not include AES256 or aws:kms.. A service control policy (SCP) applied at the Organizations root can deny the creation or modification of S3 buckets that do not have encryption enabled, specifically requiring AES256 or aws:kms. This is a preventive control that applies to all current and future accounts in the organization, as SCPs are inherited by all accounts and cannot be overridden by IAM policies within those accounts.

Answer

Use AWS Config rules to detect unencrypted buckets and automatically apply encryption using a remediation action.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail to log all S3 API calls and send alerts when non-compliant buckets are created.

Answer

Create an IAM policy in each account that denies PutBucketEncryption unless encryption is enabled.

Question 2

A developer wants to grant an EC2 instance read-only access to a specific S3 bucket. Which AWS mechanism should they use to securely provide credentials to the instance?

Accepted Answer

Create an IAM role with the required permissions and attach it to the EC2 instance as an instance profile.. Option B is correct because IAM roles with instance profiles provide temporary, automatically rotated credentials to EC2 instances via the AWS STS service. This eliminates the need to hardcode or store long-term access keys on the instance, adhering to the principle of least privilege and improving security posture.

Answer

Set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables in the AMI.

Answer

Store AWS access keys in the EC2 user data script.

Answer

Retrieve the credentials from AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store using a custom script.

Question 3

A company wants to centralize audit logs from multiple AWS accounts into a single S3 bucket. The logs must be encrypted at rest and access should be limited to the security team. Which solution is MOST secure and scalable?

Accepted Answer

Create a central S3 bucket with a bucket policy that requires encryption (aws:SecureTransport and SSE-KMS) and restricts access to a security team IAM role.. Using a centralized S3 bucket with KMS encryption and bucket policies that enforce encryption and limit access is the best approach. Option B is correct because it combines encryption with access control. Option A (separate buckets) is less scalable. Option C (CloudWatch Logs) is not encrypted at rest by default and not centralized to S3. Option D (IAM with S3) can be complex and less secure than bucket policies.

Answer

Use an IAM role in each account that grants write access to the central bucket, and use S3 default encryption.

Answer

Configure each account to write logs to its own S3 bucket, then replicate to a central bucket using S3 Cross-Region Replication.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs in each account and export logs to a central S3 bucket using a Lambda function.

Question 4

A company runs a web application on EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). They want to protect against SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Deploy AWS WAF in front of the ALB and create rules to block SQL injection and XSS.. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that integrates directly with Application Load Balancers to inspect HTTP/HTTPS requests for common attack patterns. It provides managed rule sets specifically designed to block SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks at the application layer, which is exactly what this scenario requires.

Answer

Configure security groups to allow only HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

Answer

Configure network ACLs to block common attack patterns based on IP ranges.

Answer

Enable AWS Shield Advanced to protect the ALB.

Question 5

A DevOps engineer needs to ensure that all API calls made to AWS are logged for compliance. The logs must be stored in S3 for at least 7 years. Which AWS service should they use?

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudTrail. AWS CloudTrail is the correct service because it records all API calls made to AWS, including the identity, source IP, and timestamp, and can deliver log files to an S3 bucket for long-term retention. The requirement to store logs for at least 7 years aligns with CloudTrail's ability to integrate with S3 lifecycle policies for archival or deletion after a specified period.

Answer

VPC Flow Logs

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Question 6

A company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. They want to centrally manage user access to all accounts using single sign-on (SSO) and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA). Which service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) to manage access and enforce MFA.. AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO) is the correct service because it provides a centralized place to manage user access and permissions across all AWS accounts in an AWS Organization. It natively supports enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) through an identity source (e.g., the built-in identity store or an external IdP) and integrates directly with AWS Organizations to grant single sign-on access without needing to create IAM users in each account.

Answer

Use AWS Secrets Manager to store and rotate IAM user credentials.

Answer

Create IAM users in each account and share the credentials securely.

Answer

Use Amazon Cognito user pools with an identity broker.

Question 7

A company is using AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. They need to ensure that all resources created by CloudFormation are tagged with a 'CostCenter' tag. The tag must be applied automatically to all resources in the stack. What should they do?

Accepted Answer

Specify the tag in the CloudFormation stack's Tags parameter, which applies the tag to all resources in the stack.. Option C is correct because CloudFormation allows you to specify stack-level tags in the Tags parameter when creating or updating a stack. These tags are automatically propagated to all resources that support tagging within the stack, ensuring consistent cost allocation without additional custom logic or post-creation remediation.

Answer

Use AWS Service Catalog to enforce tagging on all products.

Answer

Create an AWS Config rule to detect untagged resources and trigger auto-remediation.

Answer

Use a custom Lambda function as a CloudFormation hook to tag resources after creation.

Question 8

A security engineer is designing a secure VPC architecture for a web application. The application must be isolated from the internet and only accessible through a load balancer. Which TWO actions should the engineer take?

Accepted Answer

Place the EC2 instances in a private subnet with no internet gateway attachment.. Option A is correct because placing EC2 instances in a private subnet without an internet gateway ensures they have no direct path to the internet, meeting the isolation requirement. This forces all traffic to and from the instances to go through the load balancer, which is the only entry point for the application.

Answer

Attach an Internet Gateway to the VPC and route the private subnet to it.

Answer

Configure a network ACL on the private subnet to allow inbound traffic on all ephemeral ports.

Answer

Set up an AWS Direct Connect connection for the instances to access the internet.

Question 9

A company is migrating to AWS and needs to comply with PCI DSS. They must encrypt all data at rest and in transit. Which THREE services or features should they use?

Accepted Answer

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination.. Option A is correct because Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) with TLS termination ensures encryption of data in transit between clients and the load balancer, which is a PCI DSS requirement for protecting cardholder data over public networks. By terminating TLS at the ELB, you can offload the cryptographic overhead while maintaining compliance with the encryption-in-transit mandate.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls.

Answer

AWS WAF to protect web applications.

Question 10

A DevOps engineer needs to restrict access to an S3 bucket so that only users from a specific AWS account can read objects. Which TWO methods can achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Create an IAM role in the source account with read access to the bucket, and allow users in that account to assume the role.. Options A and D are correct. Bucket policy with condition can restrict to specific source account. IAM roles in the source account can grant cross-account access. Option B (pre-signed URLs) works for individual objects but not as a general restriction. Option C (block public access) does not restrict to a specific account. Option E (ACL) is legacy and less secure.

Answer

Enable S3 Block Public Access on the bucket.

Answer

Generate pre-signed URLs for each object and distribute them only to users in the target account.

Answer

Set a bucket ACL that grants read access to the target account's canonical ID.

Question 11

A company requires that all access to their S3 buckets be encrypted in transit. Which configuration achieves this?

Accepted Answer

Use a bucket policy that denies requests when aws:SecureTransport is false.. Option C is correct because using a bucket policy with a condition that denies requests when `aws:SecureTransport` is `false` explicitly enforces encryption in transit for all access to the S3 bucket. This policy ensures that any HTTP (non-TLS) request is denied, while HTTPS requests are allowed, meeting the requirement that all access be encrypted in transit.

Answer

Use CloudFront with the bucket as origin and enforce HTTPS only between viewer and CloudFront.

Answer

Enable default encryption on the bucket.

Answer

Set the bucket policy to require SSE-KMS.

Question 12

A company's security team notices that an IAM user has permissions to terminate EC2 instances but should only be allowed to stop them. The current policy allows ec2:TerminateInstances. What is the most secure way to prevent termination while allowing stop?

Accepted Answer

Add a Deny statement for ec2:TerminateInstances with a condition for the user's ARN.. Option B is correct because adding a Deny for ec2:TerminateInstances with a condition for the specific user explicitly blocks the action. Option A is wrong because changing the policy to allow ec2:StopInstances without removing ec2:TerminateInstances still allows termination. Option C is wrong because a service control policy (SCP) can also deny but is less targeted. Option D is wrong because attaching a Deny policy to the user is effective, but using a Deny in the same policy is simpler.

Answer

Use an SCP to deny ec2:TerminateInstances for the entire account.

Answer

Modify the existing policy to include ec2:StopInstances and remove ec2:TerminateInstances.

Answer

Attach a separate managed policy that denies ec2:TerminateInstances to the user.

Question 13

A DevOps engineer needs to store secrets such as database passwords for a serverless application. Which AWS service is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

AWS Secrets Manager. Option C is correct because AWS Secrets Manager is designed for managing secrets with automatic rotation. Option A is wrong because Systems Manager Parameter Store can store secrets but lacks built-in rotation. Option B is wrong because S3 is not secure by default for secrets. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB is a database, not a secrets manager.

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB with encryption

Answer

Amazon S3 with server-side encryption

Answer

AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store (SecureString)

Question 14

A company uses AWS KMS to encrypt data in S3. The security team requires that the key material be rotated every 90 days. What should be done to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Create a customer managed key and manually rotate it every 90 days.. Option D is correct because AWS KMS customer managed keys support manual rotation, which allows you to rotate the key material every 90 days as required. Automatic key rotation for customer managed keys is only available with a minimum rotation period of 365 days (yearly), so it cannot meet a 90-day requirement. Manual rotation creates a new backing key while retaining the old one for decryption of previously encrypted data, ensuring compliance with the 90-day rotation policy.

Answer

Create a customer managed key and enable automatic yearly rotation.

Answer

Use an AWS managed key (SSE-S3) and enable rotation.

Answer

Use a custom key store with imported key material and enable automatic rotation.

Question 15

A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. They launch an EC2 instance in a private subnet that needs to download patches from the internet. Which solution is MOST secure and scalable?

Accepted Answer

Create a NAT Gateway in a public subnet and update the private route table.. Option C is correct because a NAT Gateway allows instances in private subnets to initiate outbound traffic to the internet and receive responses, without allowing inbound traffic. Option A is wrong because a public subnet exposes the instance to inbound traffic. Option B is wrong because a proxy server is less scalable and requires management. Option D is wrong because a VPC endpoint is for AWS services, not general internet.

Answer

Launch a proxy server in a public subnet and route traffic through it.

Answer

Assign an Elastic IP to the instance in the private subnet.

Answer

Use a VPC endpoint to the Amazon Linux repository.