Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A financial services company stores confidential transaction records in Amazon S3. The company's compliance policy requires that all data at rest be encrypted using encryption keys that are under the company's full control. The keys must be automatically rotated every year. The company also needs a detailed audit trail of when each key was used and by which AWS principal. Which combination of AWS service and key type should the company use to meet these requirements?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Use Amazon S3 server-side encryption with customer-provided keys (SSE-C) and store the keys in AWS Secrets Manager with automatic rotation enabled.
SSE-C requires you to supply your own encryption keys with each request. AWS Secrets Manager can rotate secrets, but it does not directly manage S3 key material or provide integration with S3 for automatic key rotation. Additionally, SSE-C does not integrate with AWS CloudTrail for auditing key usage at the key level.
B
Distractor review
Use Amazon S3 server-side encryption with AWS managed keys (SSE-S3) and enable automatic key rotation.
AWS managed keys (aws/s3) are owned and managed by AWS. You do not have full control over the key material, and automatic rotation is handled by AWS but is not configurable or auditable at the customer level.
C
Distractor review
Use AWS CloudHSM to generate and store the encryption keys, and configure an AWS Lambda function to rotate the keys every year and log usage to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.
CloudHSM provides dedicated hardware security modules, but it does not provide built-in automatic key rotation. You would need to build custom rotation logic, and auditing key usage across many principals would require significant custom integration.
D
Best answer
Use AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) with a customer managed key and enable automatic key rotation.
AWS KMS customer managed keys give you full control over the key material and key policy. You can enable automatic annual rotation, and all key usage is logged in AWS CloudTrail, providing a detailed audit trail of which principal used the key.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer needs to launch a test server for a new application prototype. The developer logs into the AWS Management Console, selects an Amazon EC2 instance type, configures the security group, and starts the instance. The instance is running within two minutes, and the developer did not need to submit a formal request to the company's IT procurement team or wait for approval from a cloud administrator. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best demonstrate?
Question 2
A solutions architect is planning a new web application on AWS. The workload will include 3 Amazon EC2 instances (t3.medium) running 24/7, an Application Load Balancer, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL db.t3.small database. The architect needs to estimate the monthly cost for the first year, considering different purchasing options (On-Demand, 1-year All Upfront Reserved Instance, and Compute Savings Plan). Which AWS tool should the architect use to create this estimate?
Question 3
A company's development team frequently needs temporary test environments. A developer can log into the AWS Management Console, select an Amazon EC2 instance type, configure storage, and launch the instance within minutes without any interaction with the IT infrastructure team. This capability is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?
Question 4
A company's finance team needs to analyze AWS spending in detail. They require a report that includes hourly cost data for each AWS service, each individual resource (e.g., a specific EC2 instance), and any cost allocation tags applied. The team plans to export this data to an Amazon S3 bucket and then import it into a custom business intelligence (BI) analytics dashboard. Which AWS tool should the finance team use to generate this level of detailed cost data?
Question 5
A company uses AWS for its development environment. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $10,000. They want to receive an email notification when the actual costs reach 80% of the budget ($8,000) and again when costs exceed the budget. The team needs a managed AWS service that can automatically send these alerts without requiring custom code or third-party tools. Which AWS service should the team use?
Question 6
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team needs to enforce a policy that restricts SSH access (port 22) from the internet (0.0.0.0/0) in all VPCs across all accounts. The team wants to centrally define the allowed rules and automatically apply them to newly created VPCs and security groups, while also automatically remediating any existing non-compliant security groups. Which AWS service should the team use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) with a customer managed key and enable automatic key rotation. — AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) allows you to create customer managed keys (CMKs) that you have full control over. You can enable automatic annual rotation for these keys, and AWS CloudTrail provides detailed audit logs of all key usage, including which principal made each request. Option A is incorrect because SSE-C requires you to manage the encryption keys yourself and does not integrate with AWS KMS for automatic rotation or auditing. Option B is incorrect because AWS managed keys (aws/s3) are managed by AWS and do not provide the customer with full control or the ability to enable automatic rotation. Option C is incorrect because while AWS CloudHSM provides dedicated HSM hardware, it does not offer automatic key rotation out of the box and would require additional custom implementation for auditing and rotation.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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