Amazon Web Services Updated SOA-C02 Exam Questions and Answers by nylah

To ensure that the application running on an Amazon EC2 instance can read, write, and delete messages from the SQS queues in the most secure manner, the recommended approach is to use IAM roles for EC2 instances. This approach avoids the need to embed or export long-term AWS credentials, which can be a security risk.

Create an IAM Role for EC2:

Navigate to the IAM console in the AWS Management Console.

Choose "Roles" in the navigation pane, then click "Create role".

Select "AWS service" as the type of trusted entity and choose "EC2" as the use case. Click "Next: Permissions".

Attach the Required Permissions:

On the "Attach permissions policies" page, you can either select an existing policy or create a custom policy.

For a custom policy, click "Create policy" and use the following JSON policy to allow the required SQS actions:

json

Copy code

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"sqs:SendMessage",

"sqs:ReceiveMessage",

"sqs:DeleteMessage"

],

"Resource": "arn:aws:sqs:region:account-id:queue-name"

}

]

}

Replace region, account-id, and queue-name with appropriate values for your SQS queues.

Assign the Role to the EC2 Instance:

After creating the role with the necessary permissions, navigate to the EC2 console.

Select the instance that needs access to the SQS queues.

In the "Actions" menu, choose "Security", then "Modify IAM role".

Attach the newly created IAM role to the instance.

Verify the Permissions:

Ensure that the IAM role is properly attached to the EC2 instance.

Test the application to confirm that it can successfully perform the required actions (read, write, delete) on the SQS queues.

IAM Roles for Amazon EC2

Amazon SQS Policy Examples

NAT Gateway Setup:

A NAT gateway allows instances in a private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS services, but prevents the internet from initiating a connection with those instances.

Steps:

Go to the AWS Management Console.

Navigate to VPC and select "NAT Gateways."

Create a NAT gateway in the public subnet of each Availability Zone.

Allocate an Elastic IP address to each NAT gateway.

Update the route tables for the private subnets to route internet-bound traffic to the NAT gateways.

Creating a NAT Gateway

The problem requires modifying the inbound SSH rule to restrict access to a list of trusted IPs instead of deleting it entirely. AWS Config rules can be configured with automatic remediation actions using either Systems Manager Automation runbooks or Lambda functions. However, AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks are often more appropriate for managing infrastructure changes like security group modifications because they are reusable, parameterized, and easier to audit.

Create a Systems Manager Automation runbook: This runbook will contain steps to add or modify the existing security group rule, allowing SSH access only from the specified IP addresses.

Update the AWS Config rule: Modify the Config rule to call this new runbook for its automatic remediation. This will prevent deletion of the SSH rule and instead update it based on the IP list.

To control access to Amazon EC2 instances using AWS Systems Manager Session Manager based on specific tags:

Attach an IAM Policy to Users or Groups: Create and attach an Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy to the IAM users or groups who need access to the EC2 instances. This policy should specify the permissions required to use Session Manager to start sessions with the instances.

Create an IAM Policy with Tag-Based Conditions: Create an IAM policy that includes a condition element to allow access to EC2 instances based on specific tags. This policy can be designed to grant the ssm:StartSession permission only for instances that match certain tags, as defined in the condition block of the IAM policy. Here is a sample condition block that could be used:

"Condition": {

"StringEquals": {

"ec2:ResourceTag/YourTagName": "YourTagValue"

}

}

This ensures that only authorized users can initiate sessions with instances that have the specified tags, enhancing security and operational management.

By implementing these policies, you ensure that only the appropriate personnel have the controlled access required, based on the specific business needs and security guidelines.