SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Test 20 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is using Amazon GuardDuty to detect threats in its AWS environment. The security team notices that GuardDuty is generating a high number of 'UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/MaliciousIPCaller' findings for an IAM user that is used by a legacy application. The security team has verified that the IP addresses flagged are not malicious but are legitimate IPs used by the application's third-party service. The company wants to suppress these findings without disabling GuardDuty entirely. Which solution is the MOST effective and secure?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Create a GuardDuty suppression rule that automatically archives findings for that IAM user.. GuardDuty suppression rules allow you to automatically archive findings that match specific criteria, such as a particular finding type and IAM user ARN. This suppresses false positives for that user without affecting other findings. Option B is correct because it uses this built-in feature. Option A is incorrect because disabling the finding type would suppress all such findings for all users, which is too broad. Option C is incorrect because VPC flow log filters control logging, not GuardDuty findings. Option D is incorrect because modifying IAM permissions does not influence GuardDuty detection or suppression.

Answer

Disable the specific finding type in GuardDuty settings.

Answer

Create a VPC flow log filter to exclude traffic from those IP addresses.

Answer

Modify the IAM user's permissions to restrict the IP addresses it can use.

Question 2

A security engineer is responsible for monitoring AWS account activity. The engineer needs to receive real-time notifications when specific API calls are made, such as 'DeleteTrail' or 'UpdateTrail'. The engineer wants to use AWS services to achieve this with minimal latency. Which combination of services should the engineer use?

Accepted Answer

CloudTrail -> CloudWatch Logs -> CloudWatch metric filter -> CloudWatch alarm -> Amazon SNS. The correct solution is to send CloudTrail logs to CloudWatch Logs, create a metric filter to match the specific API calls (e.g., 'DeleteTrail', 'UpdateTrail'), and set up a CloudWatch alarm on that metric that publishes to an SNS topic. This provides near-real-time alerts. Option D is correct. Option A is incorrect because while CloudTrail can send events to EventBridge, the event delivery is not as immediate as CloudWatch Logs metric filter approach for this use case. Option B is incorrect because S3 event notifications are for object-level events and not suitable for monitoring CloudTrail API calls. Option C is incorrect because CloudWatch Logs subscription filters are for streaming logs to other destinations, not for directly triggering alarms.

Answer

CloudTrail -> Amazon EventBridge -> Amazon SNS

Answer

CloudTrail -> Amazon S3 -> S3 event notification -> AWS Lambda -> Amazon SNS

Answer

CloudTrail -> CloudWatch Logs -> CloudWatch Logs subscription filter -> AWS Lambda -> Amazon SNS

Question 3

A company wants to centrally collect and analyze logs from multiple AWS accounts. Which AWS service should be used to aggregate logs from various sources for monitoring and alerting?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Amazon CloudWatch Logs is the correct service because it provides a centralized platform for collecting, monitoring, and analyzing log data from multiple AWS accounts and on-premises sources. It supports cross-account log aggregation via subscription filters and cross-account destinations, enabling real-time monitoring and alerting through CloudWatch Logs Insights and metric filters. This makes it the appropriate choice for the stated requirement of central log aggregation for monitoring and alerting.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 4

A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team needs to ensure that all accounts have CloudTrail enabled and that logs are delivered to a centralized S3 bucket in the management account. Which solution meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS CloudTrail with Organizations to create an organization trail that logs all accounts to the central bucket.. AWS CloudTrail supports integration with AWS Organizations, allowing you to create an organization trail that automatically logs events for all accounts in the organization. This trail delivers log files to a single centralized S3 bucket in the management account without requiring per-account configuration, ensuring compliance with the security team's requirement.

Answer

Write a script that runs in each account using AWS Lambda to enable CloudTrail and point to the central bucket.

Answer

Use AWS Config rules in each account to check CloudTrail status and remediate via Lambda.

Answer

Create an IAM role that each account assumes to enable CloudTrail and log to the central bucket.

Question 5

A company has a requirement to retain CloudTrail logs for 7 years for compliance. The logs are stored in an S3 bucket. The security team needs to ensure that logs are not deleted before the retention period ends, even by users with full S3 permissions. Which action should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Enable S3 Object Lock in Compliance mode on the bucket with a retention period of 7 years.. S3 Object Lock in Compliance mode prevents any user, including the root user, from overwriting or deleting objects until the retention period expires. This meets the requirement to retain CloudTrail logs for 7 years, even against users with full S3 permissions, because Compliance mode cannot be bypassed or removed by any user.

Answer

Enable MFA Delete on the bucket and require MFA for all delete operations.

Answer

Enable S3 Versioning and set a lifecycle policy to expire noncurrent versions after 7 years.

Answer

Create a bucket policy that denies s3:DeleteObject for all users.

Question 6

A security team wants to detect and alert on potential security threats such as compromised instances or malicious activity within their AWS environment. Which TWO AWS services should be used together to provide comprehensive threat detection?

Accepted Answer

AWS Security Hub. Amazon GuardDuty (Option E) is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior using machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence feeds. AWS Security Hub (Option A) aggregates findings from GuardDuty and other services, applies automated compliance checks, and enables centralized alerting and response. Together, they provide comprehensive threat detection by combining GuardDuty's raw threat detection with Security Hub's aggregation and orchestration capabilities.

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Answer

AWS Config

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer finds this CloudTrail log entry. What is the most significant security concern indicated by this event?

Accepted Answer

The security group rule allows SSH access from any IP address (0.0.0.0/0).. The CloudTrail log entry shows an `AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress` API call that adds a rule allowing SSH (port 22) from 0.0.0.0/0. This is a critical security concern because it exposes the EC2 instance to SSH access from any IP address on the internet, creating a high risk of brute-force attacks, unauthorized access, and potential compromise. Security best practices mandate restricting SSH access to specific trusted IP ranges, not the entire internet.

Answer

The event is a normal administrative action and poses no security concern.

Answer

The user did not have MFA enabled when assuming the AdminRole.

Answer

The source IP address (203.0.113.5) is from an unusual location.

Question 8

A DevOps engineer needs to monitor failed SSH login attempts to Amazon EC2 instances. Which AWS service should the engineer use to collect and analyze the login events?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Amazon CloudWatch Logs is the correct service because it can ingest, monitor, and analyze log data from EC2 instances, including SSH authentication logs (e.g., /var/log/secure or /var/log/auth.log). By installing the CloudWatch Logs agent on the EC2 instance, the engineer can stream these log events to CloudWatch Logs, where they can be searched, visualized, and used to trigger alarms on failed SSH attempts. AWS Config tracks resource configuration changes, not OS-level login events; CloudTrail records AWS API calls, not guest OS logs; and VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic metadata, not application or authentication logs.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

VPC Flow Logs

Question 9

A company uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS and wants to log all DNS queries made from its VPC. The logs must be stored in Amazon S3 for compliance purposes. Which solution meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Enable Route 53 Resolver query logging and publish to an S3 bucket.. Route 53 Resolver query logging is the native AWS feature designed to capture DNS queries that originate from resources within a VPC. By enabling this feature and specifying an S3 bucket as the destination, you can log all DNS queries made by EC2 instances, Lambda functions, and other VPC resources without needing any additional agents or configuration. This directly meets the requirement for storing DNS query logs in S3 for compliance.

Answer

Install a CloudWatch Logs agent on each EC2 instance and configure it to send DNS logs to CloudWatch Logs.

Answer

Enable AWS CloudTrail for DNS API calls and deliver to an S3 bucket.

Answer

Enable VPC Flow Logs and publish to an S3 bucket.

Question 10

A security engineer needs to identify which IAM users have been inactive for the past 90 days. Which AWS service should the engineer use?

Accepted Answer

AWS IAM Credential Report. AWS IAM Credential Report is the correct service because it provides a CSV report that lists all IAM users in an account and includes the `password_last_used` and `access_key_last_used_date` fields. By examining these fields, a security engineer can determine which users have not authenticated or used their access keys for more than 90 days, directly meeting the requirement to identify inactive IAM users.

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Question 11

A company is implementing a security monitoring solution for its AWS environment. Which TWO services can be used to detect and alert on suspicious API activity? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon GuardDuty. Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious or unauthorized behavior, including suspicious API activity. It analyzes AWS CloudTrail management and data events, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs to generate security findings and alerts. GuardDuty uses machine learning and anomaly detection to identify patterns such as unusual API calls, credential compromise, or reconnaissance attempts, making it a correct choice for detecting and alerting on suspicious API activity.

Answer

Amazon Inspector

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

VPC Flow Logs

Question 12

A security team wants to implement a centralized logging solution for multiple AWS accounts. The team needs to collect VPC Flow Logs, CloudTrail logs, and DNS query logs from all accounts. Which THREE services should the team use to aggregate these logs? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon Route 53 Resolver query logging. Amazon Route 53 Resolver query logging (Option C) is correct because it enables centralized collection of DNS query logs from VPCs across multiple AWS accounts. By configuring Route 53 Resolver query logging to send logs to a central Amazon S3 bucket or CloudWatch Logs group, the security team can aggregate DNS query logs from all accounts, meeting the requirement for centralized DNS logging.

Answer

AWS CloudHSM

Answer

AWS Config

Question 13

A security team wants to centrally collect and analyze VPC Flow Logs from multiple AWS accounts for security monitoring. Which solution is MOST scalable and cost-effective?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Organizations to centralize logging by delivering VPC Flow Logs to a centralized S3 bucket and query with Amazon Athena.. Using AWS Organizations to centrally deliver VPC Flow Logs to a centralized S3 bucket, then querying with Amazon Athena, is both scalable and cost-effective. S3 provides durable, low-cost storage for large volumes of log data, and Athena allows serverless, pay-per-query analysis without provisioning infrastructure. This approach avoids the operational overhead of managing EC2 instances or streaming pipelines, and scales seamlessly as log volume grows.

Answer

Aggregate logs in an EC2 instance running an ELK stack.

Answer

Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to stream logs to an S3 bucket and process with AWS Lambda.

Answer

Configure VPC Flow Logs to send to a centralized CloudWatch Logs account using cross-account subscriptions.

Question 14

A security engineer is designing a centralized logging solution for 10 AWS accounts. Which THREE AWS services should be used to aggregate, store, and analyze logs?

Accepted Answer

AWS Organizations. AWS Organizations is correct because it provides a centralized management structure for multiple AWS accounts, enabling you to automatically enforce policies and aggregate logs from all member accounts into a central S3 bucket. Amazon S3 is the recommended service for storing large volumes of logs durably and cost-effectively. Amazon Athena enables you to run ad-hoc SQL queries directly on the logs stored in S3, providing a serverless analytics solution for log analysis without the need for complex ETL or infrastructure management. Together, these three services form a complete solution: Organizations for aggregation, S3 for storage, and Athena for analysis.

Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Logs

Question 15

A company uses AWS CloudTrail to log all API activity and delivers logs to an S3 bucket with server-side encryption (SSE-S3). The security team needs to ensure that only authorized personnel can access the logs and that any unauthorized access attempts are logged and alerted. Additionally, the team wants to prevent the logs from being deleted for at least one year. Which combination of actions should be taken?

Accepted Answer

Enable S3 Object Lock with a retention period of one year; enable S3 server access logs; use a bucket policy with a condition that allows access only from authorized IAM roles or users.. S3 Object Lock with a retention period of one year enforces a write-once-read-many (WORM) model, preventing any deletion or overwrite of log objects for that duration. S3 server access logs capture detailed records of all requests made to the bucket, including unauthorized access attempts, which can be used for alerting. The bucket policy with a condition restricting access to authorized IAM roles or users ensures that only permitted principals can access the logs, meeting the security team's requirements for access control, logging of unauthorized attempts, and deletion prevention.

Answer

Enable S3 default encryption (SSE-S3) on the bucket; enable S3 server access logs; attach an IAM policy that allows only authorized users to access the bucket.

Answer

Enable MFA Delete on the bucket; enable CloudTrail log file validation; use bucket ACLs to restrict access.

Answer

Enable S3 Inventory to track objects; enable CloudTrail to log S3 API calls; use a bucket policy with a deny effect for unauthorized users.