AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) — Question 748

A company has a mobile app for customers. The app’s data is sensitive and must be encrypted at rest. The company uses AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS).

The company needs a solution that prevents the accidental deletion of KMS keys. The solution must use Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to send an email notification to administrators when a user attempts to delete a KMS key.

Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

Answer options

• A. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that reacts when a user tries to delete a KMS key. Configure an AWS Config rule that cancels any deletion of a KMS key. Add the AWS Config rule as a target of the EventBridge rule. Create an SNS topic that notifies the administrators.
• B. Create an AWS Lambda function that has custom logic to prevent KMS key deletion. Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that is activated when a user tries to delete a KMS key. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that invokes the Lambda function when the DeleteKey operation is performed. Create an SNS topic. Configure the EventBridge rule to publish an SNS message that notifies the administrators.
• C. Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that reacts when the KMS DeleteKey operation is performed. Configure the rule to initiate an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook. Configure the runbook to cancel the deletion of the KMS key. Create an SNS topic. Configure the EventBridge rule to publish an SNS message that notifies the administrators.
• D. Create an AWS CloudTrail trail. Configure the trail to deliver logs to a new Amazon CloudWatch log group. Create a CloudWatch alarm based on the metric filter for the CloudWatch log group. Configure the alarm to use Amazon SNS to notify the administrators when the KMS DeleteKey operation is performed.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

Option C is correct because an Amazon EventBridge rule combined with an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook provides a low-overhead, out-of-the-box solution to automatically cancel KMS key deletions (which have a mandatory waiting period) and notify administrators via Amazon SNS. Option B is incorrect because writing and maintaining custom AWS Lambda code increases operational overhead. Option D is incorrect because it only alerts administrators but does not actually prevent or cancel the key deletion automatically.