SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
A SysOps administrator is investigating a security breach. An IAM user 'Bob' is suspected of performing unauthorized actions. The administrator needs to determine the source IP addresses from which Bob's access keys were used in the last 30 days. Which AWS service or feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the IAM credential report (which shows credential metadata) with CloudTrail (which records actual API call details), leading them to choose the credential report for investigating source IPs when it only provides static credential status, not historical usage data.
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 event history.
AWS CloudTrail event history provides a record of all API calls made by IAM users, including the source IP address from which the request originated. By filtering the event history for the IAM user 'Bob' and the time range of the last 30 days, the administrator can identify the source IP addresses associated with each API call made using Bob's access keys. This directly meets the requirement to determine the source IP addresses of unauthorized actions.
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 event history.
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records API calls with source IP.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs.
Why it's wrong here
Flow logs capture network traffic, not API calls.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs need to be configured to receive CloudTrail logs.
- ✗
AWS IAM credential report.
Why it's wrong here
Credential report shows key age and rotation, not usage.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.