This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of infrastructure security. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company wants to securely store and manage SSL/TLS certificates for use with CloudFront. Which AWS service should be used?
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Why wrong: IAM can store certificates but ACM is the preferred service.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)
Why wrong: KMS manages encryption keys, not SSL certificates.
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
ACM provisions and manages SSL/TLS certificates.
AWS CloudHSM
Why wrong: CloudHSM provides hardware security modules for key storage, not certificate management.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is the correct service because it is specifically designed to provision, manage, and deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services like CloudFront. ACM integrates directly with CloudFront to automatically renew certificates before expiration, eliminating manual renewal overhead. It also handles the complex certificate chain and private key management securely, ensuring HTTPS termination at CloudFront edge locations.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Why it's wrong here
IAM can store certificates but ACM is the preferred service.
AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)
Why it's wrong here
KMS manages encryption keys, not SSL certificates.
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
Why this is correct
ACM provisions and manages SSL/TLS certificates.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS CloudHSM
Why it's wrong here
CloudHSM provides hardware security modules for key storage, not certificate management.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS KMS or IAM Server Certificate Store as viable options for CloudFront, but ACM is the only service that provides automatic renewal and native integration with CloudFront, and certificates must be in us-east-1.
Detailed technical explanation
ACM leverages AWS Private Certificate Authority (PCA) to issue certificates that are automatically renewed 60 days before expiration, using the ACM Certificate Authority (CA) to sign certificates with RSA 2048-bit keys and SHA-256 hashing. For CloudFront, ACM certificates must be provisioned in the US East (N. Virginia) Region (us-east-1) because CloudFront's global edge network uses that region as the certificate store. A common real-world scenario is when a company uses multiple domains with CloudFront; ACM supports wildcard certificates (e.g., *.example.com) and Subject Alternative Names (SANs) to cover up to 10 domain names per certificate, reducing management overhead.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
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FAQ
Infrastructure Security — This question tests Infrastructure Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) — AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is the correct service because it is specifically designed to provision, manage, and deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services like CloudFront. ACM integrates directly with CloudFront to automatically renew certificates before expiration, eliminating manual renewal overhead. It also handles the complex certificate chain and private key management securely, ensuring HTTPS termination at CloudFront edge locations.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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