Domain 2 · 26% of Exam

Security

Domain 2 covers implementing authentication, authorization, encryption, and compliance controls for applications running on AWS.

What You'll Be Tested On

  • Authentication and authorization with Cognito, IAM, and STS
  • Encryption at rest and in transit using KMS, ACM, and S3 SSE
  • Secrets management with Secrets Manager and Parameter Store
  • Signing and verifying API requests with Signature Version 4
  • Applying least-privilege IAM policies and permission boundaries
  • Implementing data integrity and compliance controls

Key AWS Services in This Domain

Exam Tips for Domain 2

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Cognito User Pools handle authentication (sign-up/sign-in); Identity Pools handle authorization (temporary AWS credentials).

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Know how KMS envelope encryption works — data key encrypts data, KMS key encrypts the data key.

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Secrets Manager supports automatic rotation; Parameter Store SecureString does not rotate automatically.

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Use IAM roles (not access keys) for EC2, Lambda, and ECS tasks to follow security best practices.

Practice Domain 2 Questions

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