Preserving Forensic Evidence from EC2 During Ransomware Incident
A company's security team is implementing an incident response plan for a potential ransomware attack on their EC2 instances. Which THREE steps should the team take to preserve forensic evidence while containing the incident?
Quick Answer
The answer is to isolate the instance by modifying the security group to deny all traffic, then immediately create an EBS snapshot of the root volume and preserve the instance’s memory. The snapshot is critical because it captures the exact block-level disk state, including ransomware binaries, encrypted files, and any residual encryption keys, without altering the original evidence. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of the forensic preservation workflow during containment, where the common trap is to terminate the instance or detach the volume without a snapshot, destroying volatile artifacts. Remember that isolation via security group prevents lateral movement while the snapshot preserves the immutable disk image for offline analysis. A useful memory tip is “Isolate, Snapshot, Analyze”—never terminate or reboot before capturing the evidence, as doing so erases memory and disk metadata crucial for attribution.
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'stopping' an instance with 'preserving state,' but stopping triggers a graceful shutdown that can alter evidence, whereas an EBS snapshot captures the live disk state without halting 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
✓
Create an EBS snapshot of the root volume.
Creating an EBS snapshot of the root volume preserves the exact disk state at the time of the incident, including any ransomware artifacts, file system metadata, and encryption keys. This snapshot can be used for offline forensic analysis without altering the original evidence, as it captures the block-level data of the volume.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create an EBS snapshot of the root volume.
Why this is correct
A snapshot preserves the root volume data.
- ✓
Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the compromised instance.
Why this is correct
An AMI captures the state of the instance for forensic analysis.
- ✓
Isolate the instance by modifying the security group to deny all traffic.
Why this is correct
Isolation prevents the ransomware from spreading.
- ✗
Stop the instance to preserve its state.
Why it's wrong here
Stopping may lose volatile memory data; better to snapshot first.
- ✗
Delete the compromised instance immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting destroys evidence.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways 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 security engineer is investigating a potential compromise of an EC2 instance. The engineer wants to capture volatile memory data and create a forensic image of the instance's EBS volumes. Which TWO actions should the engineer take? (Choose 2.)
medium- A.Enable AWS CloudTrail for the instance.
- ✓ B.Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to execute a memory capture script.
- C.Use AWS Backup to create a backup of the instance.
- ✓ D.Create an Amazon EBS snapshot of the instance's root volume.
- E.Use Amazon Inspector to scan the instance for vulnerabilities.
Why B: AWS Systems Manager Run Command allows you to remotely execute scripts on EC2 instances without needing SSH access, which is critical during incident response to capture volatile memory data before the instance is compromised further. Option D is correct because creating an EBS snapshot provides a point-in-time forensic image of the root volume that can be analyzed offline without altering the original evidence.
Variation 2. A security engineer is investigating a potential compromise of an EC2 instance. The engineer wants to capture memory and disk forensics without shutting down the instance. Which service should the engineer use?
easy- A.AWS Config
- ✓ B.AWS Systems Manager
- C.EC2 Instance Connect
- D.Amazon CloudWatch Logs
Why B: AWS Systems Manager (SSM) is the correct service because it provides the capability to perform forensic data collection on a running EC2 instance without shutting it down. Specifically, SSM Automation documents like AWS-RunShellScript or AWS-GatherEC2InstanceInfo can execute commands to capture memory (e.g., using LiME or fmem) and disk forensics (e.g., dd or volume snapshots) via the SSM Agent, which runs as a system service and does not require instance termination.
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.