Complete SCS-C02 Amazon Web Services Materials

To enforce end-to-end encryption in transit, the company should do the following:

• Update the web application configuration on the web servers to use HTTPS instead of HTTP when connecting to DynamoDB. This ensures that the data is encrypted when it travels from the web servers to the data store.
• Update the CloudFront distribution to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS. This ensures that the viewers always use HTTPS when they access the website through CloudFront.
• Update the ALB to listen using HTTPS using the public ACM TLS certificate. Update the CloudFront distribution to connect to the HTTPS listener. This ensures that the data is encrypted when it travels from CloudFront to the ALB and from the ALB to the web servers.

this is the simplest change that can address the server issue. CloudFront is a service that provides a global network of edge locations that cache and deliver web content. Creating a CloudFront distribution and configuring the ALB as the origin can help reduce the load on the Tomcat server by serving cached content to the end users. CloudFront can also provide protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by filtering malicious traffic at the edge locations. The other options are either ineffective or complex for solving the server issue.

The correct answer is B and E. To troubleshoot the issue, the security engineer should verify that the SQS resource policy does not explicitly deny access to the role used by the instances, and that the role attached to the instances contains policies that allow access to the queue. These actions will ensure that the instances have the necessary permissions to retrieve messages from Amazon SQS, while maintaining the principle of least privilege.

The other options are incorrect because they are either unnecessary or overly permissive. Option A is incorrect because configuring and assigning an MFA device to the role used by the instances is not required to access Amazon SQS. MFA is an optional security feature that adds an extra layer of protection on top of the user name and password1. Option C is incorrect because verifying that the access key attached to the role used by the instances is active is not relevant to the issue. Access keys are used to make programmatic requests to AWS services, not to retrieve messages from Amazon SQS2. Option D is incorrect because attaching the AmazonSQSFullAccess managed policy to the role used by the instances is overly permissive and violates the principle of least privilege. This policy grants full access to all Amazon SQS actions and resources, which may expose the instances to unnecessary risks3.

The correct answer is B. Use data key caching. Use the local cache that the AWS Encryption SDK provides with a caching cryptographic materials manager.

This answer is correct because data key caching can improve performance, reduce cost, and help the company stay within the service limits of AWS KMS. Data key caching stores data keys and related cryptographic material in a cache, and reuses them for encryption and decryption operations. This reduces the number of requests to AWS KMS endpoints and avoids throttling. The AWS Encryption SDK provides a local cache and a caching cryptographic materials manager (caching CMM) that interacts with the cache and enforces security thresholds that the company can set1.

The other options are incorrect because:

• A. Using keyrings with the AWS Encryption SDK does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization. Keyrings are used to generate, encrypt, and decrypt data keys, but they do not cache or reuse them. Using each keyring individually or combining them into a multi-keyring does not reduce the number of requests to AWS KMS endpoints2.
• C. Using KMS key rotation does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization. Key rotation is a security practice that creates new cryptographic material for a KMS key every year, but it does not affect the data that the KMS key protects. Key rotation does not reduce the number of requests to AWS KMS endpoints, and it might incur additional costs for storing multiple versions of key material3.
• D. Using keyrings with the AWS Encryption SDK does not address the problem of throttling or cost optimization, as explained in option A. Moreover, using any of the wrapping keys in the multi-keyring to decrypt the data is not a valid option, because only one of the wrapping keys can decrypt a given data key. The wrapping key that encrypts a data key is stored in the encrypted data key structure, and only that wrapping key can decrypt it4.

References:

1: Data key caching - AWS Encryption SDK 2: Using keyrings - AWS Encryption SDK 3: Rotating AWS KMS keys - AWS Key Management Service 4: How keyrings work - AWS Encryption SDK