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SAA-C03 Practice Question 32: Session Manager No Bastion

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) · Test 4 · question 2 of 10

Network Securitymedium

Administrators reach EC2 instances in private subnets by SSH through a bastion host in a public subnet. Security wants to remove the bastion, close inbound port 22 on every instance, and stop managing SSH key pairs, while keeping an auditable record of who connected to which instance and when. The instances already run the SSM Agent.

Which approach meets these requirements?

Select one answer
Show answer and explanation

Answer:

  • B. Use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager, attach an instance profile granting SSM permissions, and log session activity to Amazon S3 or CloudWatch Logs

Session Manager opens a shell through the SSM Agent's outbound connection to the Systems Manager service, so no inbound port has to be open and no bastion is required. Access is authorised by IAM rather than by SSH keys, which removes key management entirely. Every session start and end is recorded in CloudTrail, and session content can be streamed to S3 or CloudWatch Logs, satisfying the audit requirement. Instances in private subnets reach the service through a NAT gateway or through interface endpoints for SSM.

Option A keeps the bastion, keeps port 22 open and keeps SSH keys, so it fails three of the four requirements. Flow logs record traffic metadata, not who authenticated.

Option C removes the bastion but not the requirement it was serving. Port 22 must still be open to the VPN range, SSH keys are still in use, and the VPN records network connections rather than shell sessions on a given instance.

Option D exposes SSH more widely instead of less. A load balancer in front of port 22 leaves the port open, adds no authentication or audit trail, and does nothing about key pairs.

Reference: AWS Systems Manager Session Manager

Practice Test 4 ›

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