SCS-C02 Practice Test 6 — 10 Questions

Question 1

During an incident response, a security engineer needs to collect memory and disk forensics from a running EC2 Windows instance without causing the instance to crash. The engineer has AWS Systems Manager SSM Agent installed. Which method should the engineer use?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Systems Manager Inventory to collect memory and disk information.. Option B is correct because AWS Systems Manager Inventory can collect both memory and disk forensics from a running EC2 Windows instance without causing it to crash. The SSM Agent, already installed, allows Inventory to gather metadata such as running processes (memory) and file system details (disk) via the AWS-CollectInventory document, which is designed for live data collection without rebooting or halting the instance.

Answer

Create an AMI of the instance.

Answer

Use AWS Backup to create a backup of the instance.

Answer

Create an EBS snapshot of the root volume.

Question 2

A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that all API calls in the organization are logged and retained for at least one year. Which AWS services or features should be used to meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon S3 lifecycle policy to transition logs to S3 Glacier after one year.. Option C is correct because an Amazon S3 lifecycle policy can automatically transition CloudTrail log objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier after one year, meeting the retention requirement cost-effectively. Option E is correct because AWS CloudTrail with an organization trail logs all API calls across all accounts in the AWS Organization, ensuring comprehensive logging.

Answer

Amazon GuardDuty with threat detection enabled.

Answer

AWS Config with recording enabled for all resources.

Answer

VPC Flow Logs for all VPCs.

Question 3

A security engineer is investigating a potential data exfiltration incident. The engineer notices large volumes of data being transferred from an Amazon S3 bucket to an external IP address. Which AWS services can be used to detect and alert on such behavior? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs with S3 access log analysis.. Amazon CloudWatch Logs can ingest and analyze S3 access logs, which record detailed information about requests made to an S3 bucket, including the source IP address, request type, and bytes transferred. By analyzing these logs with CloudWatch Logs Insights or metric filters, you can detect large data transfers to external IPs and trigger alerts via CloudWatch Alarms, making it a valid detection and alerting mechanism for data exfiltration.

Answer

AWS Config with compliance rules.

Answer

VPC Flow Logs.

Question 4

A security engineer reviews the CloudTrail log entry in the exhibit. The engineer notices that an EC2 instance was launched using an AdminRole. Which additional information would help determine if this is a legitimate action or a potential compromise?

Accepted Answer

The source IP address 203.0.113.50 is from an unexpected geographic location not associated with the company.. The source IP address 203.0.113.50 is from an unexpected geographic location not associated with the company. In CloudTrail, the `sourceIPAddress` field records the originating IP of the API call. If an AdminRole is used from an IP outside the company's known CIDR ranges or geographic regions, it strongly indicates a potential compromise—such as stolen credentials or an attacker using the role from an unauthorized network. This is a key indicator of anomalous behavior in threat detection.

Answer

The AMI ID ami-0abcdef1234567890 is not a standard Amazon-provided AMI.

Answer

The instance type m5.xlarge is unusually large compared to previous launches.

Answer

The security group sg-0123456789abcdef0 allows inbound SSH from 0.0.0.0/0.

Question 5

A security engineer is analyzing the VPC Flow Logs entry in the exhibit. The log shows traffic from an internal IP to an external IP. Which potential security concern should the engineer investigate?

Accepted Answer

An EC2 instance is attempting to connect to an external host on port 3389 (RDP).. The VPC Flow Logs entry shows outbound traffic from an internal IP to an external IP on destination port 3389, which is the default port for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP outbound from an EC2 instance to an external host is a security concern because it could indicate an attacker using the instance as a pivot point to connect to an external command-and-control server or to exfiltrate data via an RDP tunnel. The log direction (src internal, dst external) and port 3389 specifically point to an outbound RDP attempt, not inbound scanning or DDoS.

Answer

The instance is participating in a DDoS attack against the external IP.

Answer

An external host is scanning the internal network on port 443.

Answer

The security group allows inbound RDP from 0.0.0.0/0.

Question 6

A security engineer is implementing automated incident response. The engineer wants to use AWS Lambda to automatically remediate GuardDuty findings. What is the recommended pattern to trigger the Lambda function?

Accepted Answer

Configure an Amazon EventBridge rule to match GuardDuty findings and invoke the Lambda function.. Amazon EventBridge is the recommended pattern because it natively integrates with AWS GuardDuty to receive all finding events in near real-time. By configuring an EventBridge rule that matches GuardDuty finding types (e.g., 'UnauthorizedAccess:EC2/SSHBruteForce'), you can directly invoke a Lambda function for automated remediation without polling or intermediate services. This pattern is serverless, event-driven, and follows AWS best practices for decoupled incident response.

Answer

Subscribe the Lambda function to an SNS topic that GuardDuty publishes findings to.

Answer

Use CloudWatch Logs subscription filter to trigger Lambda on GuardDuty log entries.

Answer

Have the Lambda function poll the EC2 instance metadata for threat indicators.

Question 7

A company uses AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to patch EC2 instances. During a security incident, the security team needs to quickly patch a critical vulnerability across all Windows instances in a specific AWS region. Which steps should the team take? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Assign the patch baseline to the instances by specifying a patch group.. Option A is correct because assigning a custom patch baseline to instances via a patch group allows the security team to target specific Windows instances for patching. Patch Manager uses patch groups to associate instances with a specific patch baseline, ensuring only the desired instances receive the critical patch. This approach provides granular control over which instances are patched during an incident.

Answer

Tag all instances with 'PatchGroup=Critical' to include them in the patching.

Answer

Use the AWS-provided default patch baseline for Windows.

Answer

Use SSM Run Command to execute a script that downloads and installs the patch.

Question 8

A company wants to use AWS CloudTrail to monitor data events for all S3 buckets. Which THREE steps are necessary? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Specify an S3 bucket to store the log files. Option A is correct because CloudTrail requires a destination S3 bucket to store the log files it generates. Without specifying a bucket, the trail cannot persist logs, and this bucket must have appropriate bucket policies to allow CloudTrail to write logs. This is a mandatory step when creating any trail, whether for management or data events.

Answer

Create a CloudWatch Events rule to forward data events

Answer

Enable CloudTrail Insights to detect unusual data access

Question 9

A security engineer wants to capture all DNS queries made by EC2 instances to detect potential data exfiltration. Which AWS service should be used to log the DNS requests?

Accepted Answer

Use Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall with query logging. Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall with query logging is the correct choice because it is specifically designed to log all DNS queries made by EC2 instances that use the Route 53 Resolver. This service captures the domain names being queried, the source IP, and the response, enabling detection of DNS-based data exfiltration (e.g., DNS tunneling). It integrates directly with the VPC's DNS resolver, ensuring all outbound DNS traffic from EC2 instances is logged without additional agents.

Answer

Use Amazon GuardDuty

Answer

Enable VPC Flow Logs

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail

Question 10

A company uses AWS CloudTrail to log management events in all regions. The security team notices that some API calls made by an IAM user are not appearing in the CloudTrail event history. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

CloudTrail event history only retains events for 90 days; older events are not visible. D is correct because CloudTrail event history only retains the last 90 days of events. If the API calls were made more than 90 days ago, they would no longer appear in the event history, even though the trail itself may still be delivering log files to an S3 bucket for longer-term storage. The security team is likely looking at the event history rather than querying the S3 bucket or using Athena for older events.

Answer

The user used the AWS Management Console, not the CLI

Answer

The trail is configured for a single region only

Answer

The API calls were read-only and excluded by default