Question 1hardmulti select
Full question →hardmulti selectObjective-mapped
A third-party payroll vendor in another AWS account must assume a role in your account to write a daily settlement file to Amazon S3. You want to prevent confused-deputy attacks and make every assumed session traceable in CloudTrail back to an individual vendor user. Which three trust-policy or session controls should be used? Select three.
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
Best answer
Specify the exact vendor role ARN as the trusted principal in the role trust policy.
The trust policy should name only the specific vendor role that is allowed to assume the role in your account. Restricting the principal minimizes the trust boundary and prevents unrelated identities from attempting the assumption path.
B
Best answer
Require an external ID in the trust policy conditions.
An external ID helps prevent confused-deputy attacks because the vendor must present a value that your account and the vendor agreed on. That prevents another customer from tricking the vendor into using the same role on their behalf.
C
Best answer
Require sts:SourceIdentity when the vendor assumes the role.
SourceIdentity is recorded in CloudTrail and becomes part of the assumed-role session context. Requiring it gives investigators a way to trace the session back to the individual vendor user or workload that initiated the role assumption.
D
Distractor review
Use a wildcard principal and rely on the S3 bucket policy to narrow access later.
A wildcard principal makes the trust policy too broad and expands who can attempt to assume the role. The trust policy should be the first and tightest control, while the bucket policy should only govern what an already-authorized session can do after assumption.
E
Distractor review
Give the vendor long-term IAM user credentials in your account for easier auditing.
Long-term credentials increase operational and security risk and do not provide the same safety properties as temporary role sessions. Cross-account access should use STS and temporary credentials, not shared long-lived IAM users in the customer account.
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 team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?
Question 2
A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?
Question 3
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
Question 4
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a claims portal. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
Question 5
A team wants to delegate IAM management to developers, but must ensure developers can never grant themselves permissions beyond a specific limit. Which AWS mechanism best matches this requirement?
Question 6
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Specify the exact vendor role ARN as the trusted principal in the role trust policy. — A secure third-party integration with STS relies on three controls. First, the trust policy should name the exact vendor role so only that principal can assume the role. Second, an external ID protects against confused-deputy attacks by proving the request belongs to the intended integration. Third, SourceIdentity makes the resulting session traceable in CloudTrail to the individual vendor user or workload that initiated it. Why others are wrong: A wildcard principal weakens the trust relationship and should not be used for a sensitive external integration. Long-term IAM user credentials are harder to secure and audit than temporary role sessions. The right pattern is a narrow trust policy plus session attributes that improve accountability.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 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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