SAA-C03 Exam Dumps - AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)

To provide access to the SQS queue to the other company without giving up its own account permissions, a solutions architect should create an SQS access policy that provides the other company access to the SQS queue. An SQS access policy is a resource-based policy that defines who can access the queue and what actions they can perform. The policy can specify the AWS account ID of the other company as a principal, and grant permissions for actions such as sqs:ReceiveMessage, sqs:DeleteMessage, and sqs:GetQueueAttributes. This way, the other company can poll the queue using its own credentials, without needing to assume a role or use cross-account access keys. References:

Using identity-based policies (IAM policies) for Amazon SQS

Using custom policies with the Amazon SQS access policy language

The most suitable solution for the company’s compliance policy is to enable the restricted-ssh AWS Config managed rule and generate an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) notification when a noncompliant rule is created. This solution has the least operational overheadbecause it uses a predefined rule that is already available in AWS Config, which is a service that enables users to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of their AWS resources. The restricted-ssh rule checks whether security groups that are in use have inbound rules that allow SSH from 0.0.0.0/0 addresses, and reports them as noncompliant1. Users can configure the rule to send notifications to an Amazon SNS topic when a noncompliant change occurs, and subscribe to the topic to receive alerts via email, SMS, or other methods2.

The other options are not correct because they either have more operational overhead or do not meet the requirements. Writing an AWS Lambda script that monitors security groups for SSH being open to 0.0.0.0/0 addresses and creates a notification every time it finds one is not correct because it requires custom code development and maintenance, which adds complexity and cost to the solution. Creating an IAM role with permissions to globally open security groups and network ACLs, and creating an Amazon SNS topic to generate a notification every time the role is assumed by a user is not correct because it does not prevent or detect the creation of noncompliant rules by other users or roles, and it does not address the existing rules that may violate the policy. Configuring a service control policy (SCP) that prevents non-administrative users from creating or editing security groups, and creating a notification in the ticketing system when a user requests a rule that needs administrator permissions is not correct because it does not provide an automated solution for the policy enforcement and notification, and it may limit the flexibility and productivity of the users.

This solution meets the following requirements:

It is operationally efficient, as it only requires one activation of the cost allocation tag and one creation of the cost report from the management account, which has access to all the member accounts’ data and billing preferences.

It is consistent, as it uses the AWS-defined cost allocation tag named department, which is automatically applied to resources when the company creates tags using the tagging policy enforced by AWS Organizations. This ensures that the tag name and value are the same across all the resources and accounts, and avoids any discrepancies or errors that might arise from user-defined tags.

It is informative, as it creates one cost report in Cost Explorer grouping by the tag name, and filters by EC2. This allows the accounting team to see the breakdown of EC2 consumption and costs by department, regardless of the AWS account. The team can also use other features of Cost Explorer, such as charts, filters, and forecasts, to analyze and optimize the spending.

To satisfy the security requirements, the solutions architect should download AWS-provided root certificates and provide the certificates in all connections to the RDS instance. This will enable SSL/TLS encryption for data in transit between the application and the RDS instance. SSL/TLS encryption provides a layer of security by encrypting data that moves between the client and the server. Amazon RDS creates an SSL certificate and installs the certificate on the DB instance when the instance is provisioned.The application can use the AWS-provided root certificates to verify the identity of the DB instance and establish a secure connection1.

The other options are not correct because they do not enable encryption for data in transit or are not relevant for the use case. Enabling IAM database authentication on the database is not correct because this option only provides a method of authentication, not encryption.IAM database authentication allows users to use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users and roles to access a database, instead of using a database username and password2. Providing self-signed certificates is not correct because this option is not secure or reliable. Self-signed certificates are certificates that are signed by the same entity that issued them, instead of by a trusted certificate authority (CA).Self-signed certificates can be easily forged or compromised, and are not recognized by most browsers and applications3. Taking a snapshot of the RDS instance and restoring it to a new instance with encryption enabled is not correct because this option onlyenables encryption at rest, not encryption in transit.Encryption at rest protects data that is stored on disk, but does not protect data that is moving between the client and the server4.

Recycle Bin is a data recovery feature that enables you to restore accidentally deleted Amazon EBS snapshots and EBS-backed AMIs. When using Recycle Bin, if your resources are deleted, they are retained in the Recycle Bin for a time period that you specify before being permanently deleted. You can restore a resource from the Recycle Bin at any timebefore its retention period expires. This solution has the least operational overhead, as you do not need to create, copy, or upload any additional resources. You can also manage tags and permissions for AMIs in the Recycle Bin. AMIs in the Recycle Bin do not incur any additional charges. References:

Recover AMIs from the Recycle Bin

Recover an accidentally deleted Linux AMI

AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. AWS WAF allows users to create rules that block, allow, or count web requests based on customizable web security rules. One of the types of rules that can be created is an SQL injection rule, which allows users to specify a list of IP addresses or IP address ranges that they want to allow or block. By using AWS WAF to protect the application, the company can prevent SQL injection and other web-based attacks from reaching the application and the database.

RDS parameter groups are collections of parameters that define how a database instance operates. Users can modify the parameters in a parameter group to change the behavior and performance of the database. By using RDS parameter groups to configure the security settings, the company can enforce best practices such as disabling remote root login, requiring SSL connections, and limiting the maximum number of connections.

The other options are not correct because they do not effectively protect the application and the database from SQL injection and other web-based attacks. Using security groups and network ACLs to secure the database and application servers is not sufficient because they only filter traffic at the network layer, not at the application layer. Using AWS Network Firewall to protect the application and the database is not necessary because it is a stateful firewall service that provides network protection for VPCs, not for individual applications or databases. Using different database accounts in the application code for different functions is a good practice, but it does not prevent SQL injection attacks from exploiting vulnerabilities in the application code.

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers. You can create Lambda functions using various languages, including Java, and specify the amount of memory and CPU allocated to your function. Lambda charges you only for the compute time you consume, which is calculated based on the number of requests and the duration of your code execution. You can use Amazon EventBridge to trigger your Lambda function on a schedule, such as every hour, using cron or rate expressions. This solution will optimize the costs to run the job, as you will not payfor any idle time or unused resources, unlike running the job on an EC2 instance. References: 1: AWS Lambda - FAQs2, General Information section2: Tutorial:Schedule AWS Lambda functions using EventBridge3, Introduction section3: Schedule expressions using rate or cron - AWS Lambda4, Introduction section.

The simplest and most effective way to ensure that all data that is written to the EBS volumes is encrypted at rest is to create the EBS volumes as encrypted volumes. You can do this by selecting the encryption option when you create a new EBS volume, or by copying an existing unencrypted volume to a new encrypted volume. You can also specify the AWS KMS key that you want to use for encryption, or use the default AWS-managed key. When you attach the encrypted EBS volumes to the EC2 instances, the data will be automatically encrypted and decrypted by the EC2 host. This solution does not require any additional IAM roles, tags, or policies.