Exam AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 topic 1 question 4 discussion

The recommended security best practice for giving an Amazon EC2 instance access to an Amazon S3 bucket is option C: Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file. This involves using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles to grant temporary permissions to the EC2 instance, rather than hard-coding or storing access keys directly in the application or on the instance. This approach enhances security by minimizing the exposure of long-term credentials and following the principle of least privilege. The EC2 instance assumes a role with specific permissions to interact with the S3 bucket, and AWS automatically rotates temporary credentials for the instance. Options A and B involve storing IAM user's secret keys on the EC2 instance, which is not recommended due to security risks. Option D, modifying the S3 bucket policy to allow any service to upload to it at any time, is also not recommended as it may lead to security vulnerabilities and compromises the principle of least privilege.

The recommended security best practice for giving an Amazon EC2 instance access to an Amazon S3 bucket is option C: Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file. This involves using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles to grant temporary permissions to the EC2 instance, rather than hard-coding or storing access keys directly in the application or on the instance.

Usually roles are given to EC2 instances. Anything else is a security threat

C. Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file.

✅ C. Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file. Explanation: According to AWS security best practices, IAM roles should be used to grant temporary credentials to Amazon EC2 instances to securely access AWS resources such as S3 buckets. This avoids storing or hardcoding credentials, which is insecure. Why the other options are incorrect: A. Hard coding access keys: ❌ Not secure. Credentials could be exposed in source code repositories. B. Storing keys in a text file on EC2: ❌ Also insecure. If the instance is compromised, so are the credentials. D. Modifying bucket policy to allow any service: ❌ Overly permissive and a security risk. Violates least privilege principle. 🔐 IAM roles with instance profiles allow EC2 to securely access S3 with temporary, automatically rotated credentials.

C is the recommended practice for an instance to use s3 service

C is correct answer

• Assuming an IAM role is the recommended and secure method to grant temporary, limited access to AWS resources like S3 for EC2 instances. • When you attach an IAM role to an EC2 instance, AWS automatically provides temporary security credentials to the instance via the metadata service — eliminating the need to hard code or store keys.

• Assuming an IAM role is the recommended and secure method to grant temporary, limited access to AWS resources like S3 for EC2 instances. • When you attach an IAM role to an EC2 instance, AWS automatically provides temporary security credentials to the instance via the metadata service — eliminating the need to hard code or store keys.

C is correct

C is valid

C is correct, always follow the least privilege principle

AWS Services always assumes roles to gain access to other aws services.

c option is valid

Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file

Best security practice as it provides temporary credentials with the necessary permissions without storing static keys.

C. Have the EC2 instance assume a role to obtain the privileges to upload the file.