Question 200 of 1,570
SCS-C02 Management and Security Governance Practice Question
A security engineer is investigating a potential data exfiltration incident. The engineer notices that an EC2 instance in a private subnet is making outbound connections to an external IP address on port 443. The VPC has a NAT gateway in a public subnet, and the route table for the private subnet directs 0.0.0.0/0 to the NAT gateway. The security group for the instance allows all outbound traffic. Which AWS service can the engineer use to determine which IAM role or user is responsible for launching the instance?
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
AWS CloudTrail logs all API calls made within the AWS account, including the RunInstances API call. This log captures the IAM user or role that launched the EC2 instance, along with the timestamp, source IP, and other details. AWS Config (Option A) records resource configuration changes but does not track who made the API call. VPC Flow Logs (Option B) capture network traffic metadata (IP addresses, ports) but not user identity. IAM Access Analyzer (Option C) analyzes resource policies to identify unintended access, not who launched instances.
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 Config
Why it's wrong here
Config records resource state, not who performed an action.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
Flow logs show network traffic but not the identity of the user who launched the instance.
- ✗
IAM Access Analyzer
Why it's wrong here
Access Analyzer analyzes resource policies, not API call history.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail
Why this is correct
CloudTrail logs RunInstances API calls with user identity.
Visual reference
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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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