SAA-C03 AWS Systems Manager Session Manager Practice Question
A company hosts a B2B file exchange site on EC2. Administrators must connect without opening SSH or RDP ports to the internet. What should the architect use? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume a bastion host is the only secure way to access private instances, but AWS Systems Manager Session Manager provides a fully managed, agent-based alternative that avoids opening any inbound ports and requires no custom scripts.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager with the required instance role
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager allows administrators to establish secure shell access to EC2 instances without opening inbound SSH or RDP ports, using the Systems Manager agent and an IAM instance role. This meets the requirement for no internet-exposed ports and avoids custom operational scripts because Session Manager is a fully managed AWS service.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A bastion host with SSH open to 0.0.0.0/0
Why it's wrong here
A bastion with SSH open to 0.0.0.0/0 still exposes a public SSH port, directly violating the no-internet-facing-SSH requirement. It is tempting because bastion hosts are the classic pattern for reaching private instances, and would be correct if the stem permitted restricted public SSH rather than forbidding it.
- ✓
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager with the required instance role
Why this is correct
Session Manager brokers shell access through the Systems Manager agent and instance role, so no inbound SSH or RDP ports are exposed to the internet. It provides audited sessions without custom operational scripts, satisfying both the security and no-scripting constraints.
- ✗
A public Elastic IP address on each instance
Why it's wrong here
A public Elastic IP gives each instance an internet-routable address, so administrators would still reach SSH or RDP over the public internet, contradicting the requirement. It is tempting because Elastic IPs are genuinely used to give instances stable public addresses for inbound client traffic, which is a different need.
- ✗
An internet gateway attached to the private subnet
Why it's wrong here
An internet gateway attaches to a VPC and routes to public subnets; attaching it to a private subnet is not how the construct works, and it would expose instances publicly. It is tempting because internet gateways legitimately provide outbound internet access for public subnets, not private administrative access.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAA-C03 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAA-C03 exam.