Monitor IAM User and Role Creation for Admin Privileges
A company's security team needs to implement a solution to detect and alert on the creation of IAM users or roles with administrative privileges. The solution must be able to analyze historical account activity and provide real-time alerts. Which combination of AWS services should be used?
Quick Answer
The answer is AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters and alarms. This combination works because CloudTrail captures every API call, including CreateUser, CreateRole, and AttachRolePolicy, while CloudWatch Logs allows you to define metric filters that scan those logs for specific patterns—such as the creation of an IAM user or role with an attached AdministratorAccess policy—and then trigger a CloudWatch Alarm for real-time notification. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the difference between monitoring API activity (CloudTrail) and evaluating current resource configurations (AWS Config). A common trap is choosing AWS Config because it can detect policy changes, but it cannot provide real-time alerts on API calls or analyze historical account activity. Remember: CloudTrail trails the trail of API calls, CloudWatch filters the noise, and alarms sound the alert.
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 CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters and alarms
AWS CloudTrail logs IAM CreateUser, CreateRole, and AttachRolePolicy events. Amazon CloudWatch Logs can use metric filters to capture these events and trigger CloudWatch Alarms for real-time alerts. CloudTrail also stores historical logs for analysis. Option A is the correct combination. Option B (GuardDuty and Lambda) is focused on threat detection, not specific IAM administrative privilege creation events. Option C (Trusted Advisor and SES) provides best-practice recommendations and email notifications, not real-time API monitoring. Option D (AWS Config and SNS) evaluates resource configuration compliance but does not monitor API calls in real time.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs with metric filters and alarms
Why this is correct
AWS CloudTrail records IAM API calls for user/role creation and policy attachment. CloudWatch Logs metric filters on these events can trigger CloudWatch Alarms for real-time alerts. CloudTrail also retains historical logs for analysis. This combination meets the requirements.
- ✗
Amazon GuardDuty and AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that analyzes abnormal behavior, not specific IAM admin privilege creation events. Lambda could process events, but GuardDuty does not generate detailed IAM creation logs. This combination is not suitable.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor and Amazon SES
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor provides best-practice checks and cost optimization recommendations, not real-time monitoring of API calls. SES is for email sending but does not integrate with Trusted Advisor for alerting on IAM events. Incorrect.
- ✗
AWS Config with managed rules and Amazon SNS
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config evaluates resource configurations against rules but does not monitor API calls in real time. Config can trigger SNS notifications for configuration changes, but it does not capture historical API activity like CloudTrail. Incorrect.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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About these practice questions
One of 376 original SCS-C02 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SCS-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company's security team wants to receive alerts when an IAM user creates a new access key. Which AWS service can be used to monitor and notify on this specific API call?
easy- A.AWS Trusted Advisor
- B.Amazon GuardDuty
- ✓ C.AWS CloudTrail with Amazon CloudWatch Events
- D.AWS Config
Why C: CloudTrail logs IAM CreateAccessKey events, and CloudWatch Events can trigger a notification. Option A is wrong because Trusted Advisor is for best practices. Option B is wrong because GuardDuty is for threat detection. Option D is wrong because AWS Config is for resource compliance.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SCS-C02 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 SCS-C02 exam.