AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (SAP-C02) — Question 181

A company is implementing a serverless architecture by using AWS Lambda functions that need to access a Microsoft SQL Server DB instance on Amazon RDS. The company has separate environments for development and production, including a clone of the database system.

The company's developers are allowed to access the credentials for the development database. However, the credentials for the production database must be encrypted with a key that only members of the IT security team's IAM user group can access. This key must be rotated on a regular basis.

What should a solutions architect do in the production environment to meet these requirements?

Answer options

• A. Store the database credentials in AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store by using a SecureString parameter that is encrypted by an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key. Attach a role to each Lambda function to provide access to the SecureString parameter. Restrict access to the SecureString parameter and the customer managed key so that only the IT security team can access the parameter and the key.
• B. Encrypt the database credentials by using the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) default Lambda key. Store the credentials in the environment variables of each Lambda function. Load the credentials from the environment variables in the Lambda code. Restrict access to the KMS key so that only the IT security team can access the key.
• C. Store the database credentials in the environment variables of each Lambda function. Encrypt the environment variables by using an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key. Restrict access to the customer managed key so that only the IT security team can access the key.
• D. Store the database credentials in AWS Secrets Manager as a secret that is associated with an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key. Attach a role to each Lambda function to provide access to the secret. Restrict access to the secret and the customer managed key so that only the IT security team can access the secret and the key.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is D because AWS Secrets Manager is specifically designed for securely storing and managing sensitive information, such as database credentials, and allows for fine-grained access control. Option A, while using Parameter Store, does not provide the same level of functionality and features as Secrets Manager. Options B and C incorrectly suggest storing credentials in environment variables, which is not secure enough for production use.