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AWS Developer Associate > Security & Architecture > Flashcards

Security & Architecture Flashcards

1
Q

What is IAM?

A

Identity Access Management

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2
Q

How many EC2 instances can an IAM role be attached to at a given time?

A

Many

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3
Q

How many IAM roles can be attached to an EC2 instance at one time?

A

One

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4
Q

How can you test if an IAM Policy works as expected?

A

Use the IAM Policy Simulator

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5
Q

Can IAM roles and resource based policies be delegated across partitions (i.e. US to China)?

A

No. IAM roles and resource based policies can only delegate within a single partition.

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6
Q

Can a trusted AWS account give a level of access that exceeds their own level of access?

A

No. Give access only to entities you trust, and give the minimum level of access necessary. Whenever the trusted entity is another AWS account, that account can in turn delegate access to any of its IAM users. The trusted AWS account can delegate access only to the extent that it has been granted access; it cannot delegate more access than the account itself has been granted.

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7
Q

What are the 5 pillars of the well-architected framework?

A
  • Operational Excellence
  • Security
  • Reliability
  • Performance Efficency
  • Cost Optimization
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8
Q

What is Fault Tolerance?

A

Being able to support the failure of our components within your architecture

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9
Q

What is High Availability?

A

Keeping your entire solution running in the expected manner despite issues that may occur.

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10
Q

Name 3 of the main Compliance services the AWS offers to help meet Compliance.

A

AWS Config

  • Provides conformance packs for standards

AWS Artifact

  • Provides self-service access to reports
  • Many of these require that you sign a non-disclouse agreement with AWS

Amazon GuardDuty

  • Provides intelligent threat detection
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11
Q

Jane’s company is building an application to process credit cards directly, and not through a 3rd party service. Their bank needs a PCI DSS compliance report for AWS. Where would Jane go to get the information.

A

AWS Artifact

This service provides the actual report that the bank needs.

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12
Q

Tims company is considering a transistion to the cloud.

They store personal information securely in their system.

Tim’s CTS has asked what the company’s responsbility is for security. Wat would you tell Tims’s CTO?

A

Depends on services they decide to acquire but assuming they are not using fully managed, serverless service they will need to configure

  • IAM groups/role
  • Security Groups
  • Routing Tables
  • Ports VPCs/Subnets

Essentially - know the Shared Responsbility Model

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13
Q

What are policies in IAM?

A
  • A JSON document that defines permissions for an AWS IAM identity (principal)
  • Defines both the AWS service(s) that the identity can access and what actions can be taken on that service (authentication & authorization).
  • Can either be customer managed (custom policy) or managed by AWS (managed policy).
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14
Q

What are some IAM Best Practices?

A
  • Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Least Privilege Access
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15
Q

If you want to generate a report that lists all your account’s users and the status of their various credentials, what report would you run?

A

IAM credentials Report (account level)

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16
Q

If you wanted to view the service permissions granted to a user and when those services were last accessed, what IAM security tool could you use?

A

IAM Access Advisor (user -level)

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17
Q

What is a proper definition of IAM Roles?

A

An IAM entity that defines a set of permissions for making AWS service requests, that will be used by AWS services.

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18
Q

What are the two IAM Security Tools?

A

IAM Access Advisor

IAM Credentials Report

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19
Q

You need your clients to log in with Twitter and directly interact with your DynamoDB tables. What AWS Service can you use to achieve this?

A

Cognito Identity Pools

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20
Q

You would like to provide a Facebook login before your users call your API hosted by API Gateway. You need seamlessly authentication integration. Which AWS Service will you use?

A

Cognito User Pools

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21
Q

You would like to store the users that have successfully logged in to Cognito in RDS. What should you do?

A

Write a post-authentication hook with Lambda

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22
Q

What are cognito user pools?

A
  • User pools are for authentication (identity verification).
  • With a user pool, your app users can sign in through the user pool or federated through a third-party identity provider.
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23
Q

What are Cognito Identity Pools?

A
  • Identity pools are for authorization (access control) - what can a user do?
  • You can use identity pools to create unique identities for users and give then access to other AWS services.
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24
Q

Describe use cases for Cognito User Pools

A
  • Design sign-up and sign-in webpages for your app.
  • Access and manage user data.
  • Track user device, location, and IP address, and adapt to sign-in requests of different risk levels.
  • Use a custom authentication flow for your app.
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25
Q

Describe use cases for Cognito Identity Pools

A
  • Give your users access to AWS resources, such as an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket or an Amazon DynamoDB table.
  • Generate temporary AWS credentials for unauthenticated users.
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26
Q

You are managing a central AWS account in your company. You need a tool to analyze access control policies in resources such as S3 and determine if resources can be accessed pubicly or from other AWS accounts. What IAM Security Tool can you use to help achieve this?

A

Create an IAM Access Analyzer and review the findings.

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27
Q

What is IAM Access Analyzer?

A

A tool that can help identify resources that are shared with external entities.

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28
Q

Several teams share one AWS account, and there is a large number of IAM roles. You need a method to periodically check each IAM role and identify unused roles based on a time window that you define. What compliance tool can be used to help evaluate this?

A

Periodically trigger an AWS Config rule that invokes a lambda function. The lambda function checks the status of each IAM role.

NOTE: The IAM API provides you with information about when an IAM role was last accessed.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/continuously-monitor-unused-iam-roles-aws-config/

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29
Q

What is AWS Config?

A
  • A service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources.
  • Config continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations.
  • Helps to determine your overall compliance against the configurations specified in your internal guidelines.
  • Periodically triggers your AWS Config rule and will record compliance status.
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30
Q

What is an AWS Config Rule?

A
  • This resource represents your desired configuration settings for specific AWS resources or for an entire AWS account.
  • This resource checks the compliance status of your AWS resources.
  • You can provide the logic that determines compliance, which enables you to mark IAM roles in use as “compliant” and inactive roles as “non-compliant.”
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31
Q

What is KMS?

A
  • AWS Key Management Service
  • Encrypts data at rest
  • Two types: Symmetric (most common) and Asymmetric
  • Able to fully manage the keys and policies
    • Create, Disable, Enable Keys
    • Create key rotation policies for stringer encryption
  • Able to audit key useage with CloudTrail
32
Q

Explain Symmetric KMS Customer Master Keys

A
  • AES-256 keys
  • AWS services that are integrated with KMS use Symmetric CMKs
    • So Symmetric Key always stay within AWS
  • Necessary for Envelope Encryption
  • You never get access to the Key unencrypted (must call KMS API to use)
33
Q

Give an overview of Asymmetric KMS Customer Master Keys

A
  • Public (Encrypt) and Private key (Decrypt) pair
  • Used for encrypt/decrypt, or sign/verify operations
  • The public key is downloadable, but you can not access the Private Key unencrypted.
  • Use Case: encryption outside of AWS by users who can not call the KMS API
34
Q

Do symmetric CMKs and the private keys of asymmetric CMKs ever leave AWS KMS unencrypted?

A

No

35
Q

What is the size limit for data sent to AWS KMS for asymmetric operations?

A

4kb

36
Q

Where is my data encrypted if I use AWS KMS?

A
  • you can use AWS KMS APIs directly to encrypt and decrypt data using your CMKs stored in the service.
  • you can choose to have AWS services encrypt your data using your CMKs stored in the service. In this case data is encrypted using data keys that are protected by your CMKs.
  • you can use the AWS Encryption SDK that is integrated with AWS KMS to perform encryption within your own applications, whether they operate in AWS or not.
37
Q

Why use envelope encryption? Why not just send data to AWS KMS to encrypt directly?

A
  • When you encrypt data directly with AWS KMS it must be transferred over the network.
  • Envelope encryption reduces the network load since only the request and delivery of the much smaller data key go over the network.
  • The data key is used locally in your application or encrypting AWS service, avoiding the need to send the entire block of data to AWS KMS and suffer network latency.
38
Q

What’s the difference between a CMK I create and CMKs created automatically for me by other AWS services?

A
  • You can track AWS managed keys in your account and all usage is logged in AWS CloudTrail, but you have no direct control over the keys themselves.
  • Creating your own CMK gives you more control than you have with AWS managed CMKs.
39
Q

can asymmetric CMKs be automatically rotated?

A

No. Automatic key rotation is not supported for asymmetric CMKs. You can manually rotate them by creating a new CMK and mapping an existing key alias from the old CMK to the new CMK.

40
Q

Can I bring my own keys to AWS KMS?

A

Yes. You can import a copy of your SYMMETRIC key from your own key management infrastructure to AWS KMS and use it with any integrated AWS service or from within your own applications. You cannot import asymmetric CMKs into AWS KMS.

41
Q

When would I use an imported key?

What type of keys can I import?

A
  • You can use an imported key to get greater control over the creation, lifecycle management, and durability of your key in AWS KMS. Imported keys are designed to help you meet your compliance requirements which may include the ability to generate or maintain a secure copy of the key in your infrastructure, and the ability to immediately delete the imported copy of the key from AWS infrastructure.
  • You can import 256-bit symmetric keys.
42
Q

How is the key that I import into AWS KMS protected in transit?

A

During the import process, your key must be wrapped by an AWS KMS-provided public key using one of two RSA PKCS#1 schemes. This ensures that your encrypted key can only be decrypted by AWS KMS.

43
Q

What’s the difference between a key I import and a key I generate in AWS KMS?

A

You are responsible for maintaining a copy of your imported keys in your key management infrastructure so that you can re-import them at any time. AWS, however, ensures the availability, security, and durability of keys generated by AWS KMS on your behalf until you schedule the keys for deletion.

You may set an expiration period for an imported key. AWS KMS will automatically delete the key material after the expiration period. You may also delete imported key material on demand. In both cases the key material itself is deleted but the CMK reference in AWS KMS and associated metadata are retained so that the key material can be re-imported in the future. Keys generated by AWS KMS do not have an expiration time and cannot be deleted immediately; there is a mandatory 7 to 30 day wait period. All customer managed CMKs, irrespective of whether the key material was imported, can be manually disabled or scheduled for deletion. In this case the CMK itself is deleted, not just the underlying key material.

44
Q

How often can KMS keys be set to rotate

A

yearly

45
Q

Do I have to re-encrypt my data after keys in AWS KMS are rotated?

A
  • Not for AWS KMS keys - previous versions of keys are kept and used for decryption of data encrypted under an old version of a key.
  • If you manually rotate your imported or custom key store keys, you may have to re-encrypt your data depending on whether you decide to keep old versions of keys available.
46
Q

Is there a limit to the number of keys I can create in AWS KMS?

A
  • You can create up to 10,000 CMKs per account per region.
  • Both enabled and disabled CMKs count towards the limit,
  • AWS recommends deleting disabled keys that you no longer use.
47
Q

How do I use the public portion of an asymmetric CMK?

A
  • The public portion of the asymmetric key material is generated in AWS KMS and can be used for digital signature verification by calling the “Verify” API, or for public key encryption by calling the “Encrypt” API. T
  • he public key can also be used outside of AWS KMS for verification or encryption. You can call the GetPublicKey API to retrieve the public portion of the asymmetric CMK.
48
Q

If you want to encrypt data that is larger then 4kb, what do you use?

A
  • You need to use Envelope Encrytption
  • The main API is KMS GenerateDataKey API
49
Q

KMS Symmetric API:

Encrypt

A

encrypts up to 4Kb of data through KMS

50
Q

KMS Symmetric API:

GenerateDataKey

A

Generate a unique symmetric data key (DEK)

Important! -> This is what is used to perform Envelope Encryption right now/immediately

Exam may try and trick you

51
Q

KMS Symmetric API:

GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlainText

A
  • Generate a DEK to use at some point (not immediately)
  • DEK that is encrypted under the CMK that you specify (must use Decrypt late)
52
Q

KMS Symmetric API:

Decrypt

A

decrypt up to 4KB of data (including DEKs)

53
Q

KMS Symmetric API: GenerateRandom

A

Returns a random byte string

54
Q

If you recieve a throttling error in KMS, what are the 3 main ways you can handle this?

A
  1. Use exponential back off
  2. Use envelope encryption instead
  3. Request an increase from AWS
55
Q

When using SSE-KMS with S3 what must be added to the header?

A

“x-amz-server-side-encrytpion”: “aws:kms”

56
Q

You are uploading some big files into Amazon S3. What API can you/S3 use to encrypt these large files using SSE-KMS?

A

Use the GenerateDataKey and Decrypt KMS API calls

57
Q

What authorization is needed to perform SSE-KMS?

A
  • A KMS Key Policy that authorizes the user/role
  • An IAM policy that authorizes access to KMS

If either of these are missing you will get an access denied error

58
Q

You are uploading thousands of objects per second into Amazon S3 using SSE-KMS and recieve a throttling error. Is the throttling occuring in KMS or S3? What can you do?

A
  • Try exponential backoff
  • request an increase in KMS limits
  • The throttling issue here will be a result of reaching KMS limits, not S3
59
Q

How can you significantly reduce the number of API calls made to KMS from S3 as well as overall cost? What is one downfall of using this method?

A

Use an S3 Bucket Key

Downfall: You will see less KMS CloudTrail events in CloudTrail

60
Q

What is the difference between SSM Parameter Store and AWS Secrets Manager?

A

Both can

  • store secrets
  • be integrated with CloudFormation

Secrets Manager

  • more expensive
  • KMS is required

SSM Parameter Store

  • less expensive
  • Simple API
  • KMS is optional
61
Q

Can CloudWatchLogs be Encrypted?

A
  • Yes, with KMS at the log group level.
  • You can not associate a CMK with a log group using the CoudWatch (AWS) console.
  • You must use the CloudWatch Logs API which can be implemented through the CLI or an SDK.
62
Q

How do you force SSL on an S3 bucket?

Why would you do this?

A

To force SSL create an S3 bucket policy with a DENY on the condition aws:SecureTransport = false because using aws:SecureTransport = true would allow anonymous GetObject if using SSL.

63
Q

How do you force Encryption of SSE-KMS on an S3 bucket policy?

A

In the bucket policy, deny incorrect encryption head. It must be to aws:kms.

Deny no encryption header to ensure objects are not uploaded un-encrypted.

64
Q

To enable encryption in flight, we need to have

A

an HTTPS endpoint with a SSL certificate

65
Q

T/F

Server side encryption means that the data is sent encrypted to the server first.

A

false

66
Q

In server side encryption, only the encryption happens on the server. Where does the decryption happen?

A

The Server

Data get encrypted on server after it comes in and decrypted before it leaves.

67
Q

T/F

In client side encryption, the server must know our encryption scheme to accept the data.

A

False

68
Q

T / F

We need to create User Keys in KMS before using the encryption features for EBS, S3, etc…

A

False

We can use the AWS managed service keys in KMS

69
Q

We’d like to encrypt 400 KB of data. We should use

A

AWS KMS GenerateDataKey call and encryt client side

70
Q

We’d like our Lambda function to have access to a database password. We should

a. Embed it in the code

b. Have it as a plaintext environment variable

c. Have it as an encrypted environment variable and decrypt it at runtime

A

c. Have it as an encrypted environment variable and decrypt it at runtime

71
Q

We would like to audit the values of an encryption value over time. Which AS Service should you use?

A

SSM Paramter Store

72
Q

An EC2 instance is trying to download a file from S3 that is encrypted with SSE:KMS. It’s getting a denied exception, even though the IAM policy allows access to that S3 object. What do you recommend?

A

Add permissions for KMS:Decrypt

73
Q

You would like to store secrets and have automatic rotation. What’s your recommendation?

A

Secrets Manager - where automatic rotation is natively supported

74
Q

How to encrypt existing CloudWatch Logs?

A

use the associate-kms-key API call

This api call is to be used if the log group already exists.

75
Q

How to encrypt non-existing CloudWatch Log(s)?

A

use the create-log-group API call

AWS Developer Associate (25 decks)

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