Pass the Amazon Web Services AWS Certified Professional DOP-C02 Questions and answers with CertsForce

Create an Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Events) rule that matches an AWS Config evaluation result of NON_COMPLIANT for the restricted-ssh rule. Configure an input transformer for the EventBridge (CloudWatch Events) rule. Configure the EventBridge (CloudWatch Events) rule to publish a notification to the SNS topic. This approach uses Amazon EventBridge (previously known as Amazon CloudWatch Events) to filter AWS Config evaluation results based on the restricted-ssh rule and its compliance status (NON_COMPLIANT). An input transformer can be used to customize the information contained in the notification, such as the name and ID of the noncompliant security group. The EventBridge (CloudWatch Events) rule can then be configured to publish a notification to the SNS topic, which will notify the appropriate personnel in real-time.

To meet the requirements of deploying a workload on several hundred EC2 instances with least-privilege permissions and temporary security credentials, the company should use an IAM role and an instance profile. An IAM role is a way to grant permissions to an entity that you trust, such as an EC2 instance. An instance profile is a container for an IAM role that you can use to pass role information to an EC2 instance when the instance starts. By using an IAM role and an instance profile, the EC2 instances can automatically receive temporary security credentials from the AWS Security Token Service (STS) and use them to access the S3 buckets. This way, the company does not need to manage or rotate any long-term credentials, such as IAM users or access keys.

To use an IAM role and an instance profile, the company should create an IAM role that has the appropriate permissions for S3 buckets. The permissions should allow the EC2 instances to read from the source S3 bucket and write to the destination S3 bucket. The company should also create a trust policy for the IAM role that specifies that EC2 is allowed to assume the role. Then, the company should add the IAM role to an instance profile. An instance profile can have only one IAM role, so the company does not need to create multiple roles or profiles for this scenario.

Next, the company should update the launch template to include the IAM instance profile. A launch template is a way to save launch parameters for EC2 instances, such as the instance type, security group, user data, and IAM instance profile. By using a launch template, the company can ensure that all EC2 instances in the Auto Scaling group have consistent configuration and permissions. The company should specify the name or ARN of the IAM instance profile in the launch template. This way, when the Auto Scaling group launches new EC2 instances based on the launch template, they will automatically receive the IAM role and its permissions through the instance profile.

The other options are not correct because they do not meet the requirements or follow best practices. Creating an IAM user and generating a secret key and token is not a good option because it involves managing long-term credentials that need to be rotated regularly. Moreover, embedding credentials in user data is not secure because user data is visible to anyone who can describe the EC2 instance. Creating a trust anchor and profile is not a valid option because trust anchors are used for certificate-based authentication, not for IAM roles or instance profiles. Modifying user data to use a new secret key and token is also not a good option because it requires updating user data every time the credentials change, which is not scalable or efficient.

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IAM Roles for Amazon EC2 - AWS Identity and Access Management

Working with Instance Profiles - AWS Identity and Access Management

Launching an Instance Using a Launch Template - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Temporary Security Credentials - AWS Identity and Access Management

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-attribute-updatepolicy.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codedeploy/latest/userguide/integrations-aws-auto-scaling.html

Step 1: Creating an Identity Provider in IAMYou first need to configure AWS to trust the external identity provider (IdP), which in this case supports OpenID Connect (OIDC). The IdP will handle the authentication, and AWS will handle the authorization based on the IdP ' s token.

Action: Create an IAM Identity Provider (IdP) in AWS using the existing provider ' s URL, audience, and signature. This step is essential for establishing trust between AWS and the external IdP.

Why: This allows AWS to accept tokens from your external IdP (auth.company.com) for authentication.

 Configure AWS Systems Manager on Each Instance:

AWS Systems Manager provides a unified interface for managing AWS resources. Install the Systems Manager agent on each EC2 instance to enable inventory management and other features.

 Use AWS Systems Manager Inventory:

Systems Manager Inventory collects metadata about your instances and the software installed on them. This data includes information about applications, network configurations, and more.

Enable Systems Manager Inventory on all EC2 instances to gather detailed information about installed applications.

 Use Systems Manager Resource Data Sync to Synchronize and Store Findings in an Amazon S3 Bucket:

Resource Data Sync aggregates inventory data from multiple accounts and regions into a single S3 bucket, making it easier to query and analyze the data.

Configure Resource Data Sync to automatically transfer inventory data to an S3 bucket for centralized storage.

 Create an AWS Lambda Function that Runs When New Objects are Added to the S3 Bucket:

Use an S3 event to trigger a Lambda function whenever new inventory data is added to the S3 bucket.

The Lambda function can parse the inventory data and check for the presence of prohibited applications.

 Configure the Lambda Function to Identify Prohibited Applications:

The Lambda function should be programmed to scan the inventory data for any known prohibited applications and generate alerts or take appropriate actions if such applications are found.

Example Lambda function in Python

import json

import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):

s3 = boto3.client( ' s3 ' )

bucket = event[ ' Records ' ][0] [ ' s3 ' ][ ' bucket ' ][ ' name ' ]

key = event[ ' Records ' ][0] [ ' s3 ' ][ ' object ' ][ ' key ' ]

response = s3.get_object(Bucket=bucket, Key=key)

inventory_data = json.loads(response[ ' Body ' ].read().decode( ' utf-8 ' ))

prohibited_apps = [ ' app1 ' , ' app2 ' ]

for instance in inventory_data[ ' Instances ' ]:

for app in instance[ ' Applications ' ]:

if app[ ' Name ' ] in prohibited_apps:

# Send notification or take action

print(f " Prohibited application found: {app[ ' Name ' ]} on instance {instance[ ' InstanceId ' ]} " )

return { ' statusCode ' : 200, ' body ' : json.dumps( ' Check completed ' )}

By leveraging AWS Systems Manager Inventory, Resource Data Sync, and Lambda, this solution provides an efficient and automated way to audit EC2 instances for prohibited applications.

The question emphasizes “MOST securely” and involves a multi-account backup strategy with a centralized backup account. AWS Backup best practice for high-security environments is to use customer managed KMS keys for encrypting backup vaults rather than AWS managed keys. Customer managed keys provide tighter control over key lifecycle, key policies, and cross-account access.

Option A creates encrypted backup vaults in both the source and centralized accounts, each protected by a customer managed KMS key in that account. AWS Backup is then configured to create full EC2 backups (AMIs) and copy them to the centralized backup vault. This design ensures:

Encryption at rest in both accounts.

Independent key control and policies per account.

Secure cross-account backup copy behavior governed by explicit KMS key grants and vault access policies.

Option B incorrectly uses the source account’s KMS key to encrypt vaults in both accounts, which is not the recommended pattern; each account should manage its own CMK. Options C and D rely partially or fully on AWS managed keys, which are less appropriate when the requirement explicitly stresses maximum security and control.

Therefore, Option A best satisfies both the RPO/RTO goals (daily AMI backups with rapid restore) and the strongest encryption posture.

AWS recommends Application Auto Scaling for ECS services to dynamically adjust the number of running tasks based on Amazon SQS queue metrics such as ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible. By using target tracking scaling policies, ECS on Fargate scales automatically when the queue backlog grows and scales down when traffic decreases — a fully managed, cost-efficient solution (see ECS Service Auto Scaling Developer Guide).

The following are the steps that the DevOps engineer should take to reduce the latency of the Lambda function at all times of the day:

Configure provisioned concurrency on the Lambda function.

Configure AWS Application Auto Scaling on the Lambda function with provisioned concurrency values set to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 100.

The provisioned concurrency setting ensures that there is always a minimum number of Lambda function instances available to handle requests. The Application Auto Scaling setting will automatically scale the number of Lambda function instances up or down based on the demand for the application.

This solution will ensure that the Lambda function is able to handle the increased load during the middle of the day, while also keeping the cold-start latency low.

The following are the reasons why the other options are not correct:

Option A is incorrect because it will not reduce the cold-start latency of the Lambda function.

Option B is incorrect because it will not scale the number of Lambda function instances up or down based on demand.

Option D is incorrect because it will only configure reserved concurrency on the API Gateway API, which will not affect the Lambda function.