Image Encryption

5 minutes 5 Questions

Amazon ECR provides image encryption capabilities ensuring the security and confidentiality of your container images. When you push an image to the ECR repository, it gets encrypted at rest by default with server-side encryption using AWS Key Management Service (KMS). This ensures that your images …

Guide to Image Encryption - Amazon ECR

In the realm of AWS Solution Architect, understanding Image Encryption with Amazon ECR is crucial.

What is Image Encryption?
Image Encryption, in context of Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry), refers to the process of converting the Docker images into unreadable format to unauthorized users. It protects the data from unauthorized access.

Why is it important?
Image Encryption is important to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and security of data stored in Docker images. It prevents unauthorized users from manipulating or viewing the content.

How it Works?
When you push Docker images to Amazon ECR, AWS uses envelope encryption where AWS Key Management Service (KMS) generates data key which is used by ECR service to encrypt the image layer data. When you pull images, the layers are decrypted automatically.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Image Encryption
Tip 1: Understand the basic concept of image encryption and how AWS Key Management Service plays a role in this.
Tip 2: Know the difference between encrypted and unencrypted images, and how docker interacts with them.
Tip 3: Be aware of how encryption keys are managed within AWS and how they are used to encrypt image layers during the 'push' operation to the ECR.
Tip 4: Understand the decryption process which automatically occur whenever a 'pull' operation is performed on an encrypted image.
Tip 5: Comprehend the significance of envelope encryption in ensuring data security.
Through the understanding and application of these concepts, you can appropriately answer questions regarding Image Encryption in exams.

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AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Image Encryption Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Image Encryption

Question 1

Your company runs EC2 instances with EBS-backed AMIs. Leadership requires that every new EBS volume created in a specific AWS account and Region is encrypted by default, regardless of how it is created or attached. What should you do to meet this requirement with minimal operational effort?

Enable encryption for EC2 instances in AWS KMS. Use a custom AMI that encrypts data at rest. Enable encryption in AWS S3 bucket policies. Enable EBS encryption by default for the account/Region and choose the KMS key to use.

Correct Answer: Enable EBS encryption by default for the account/Region and choose the KMS key to use.

Enabling EBS encryption by default at the account/Region level ensures that every new EBS volume (and snapshots created from those volumes) is encrypted automatically, regardless of how the volume is created or attached. This setting uses AWS KMS keys you select and applies to all creation paths (console, CLI, API, and services). It does not retroactively encrypt existing unencrypted volumes. A custom AMI does not guarantee that all future volumes are encrypted unless all creation paths enforce encryption. S3 bucket policies are unrelated to EBS. There is no setting to "enable encryption for EC2 instances in KMS"—encryption is configured at the EBS level using KMS.

Question 2

Your organization requires that every object uploaded to a specific Amazon S3 bucket is encrypted at rest using AWS KMS, regardless of which client uploads it. What is the best practice to guarantee this enforcement across all uploads?

Use an S3 bucket dedicated to encrypted objects. Enable S3 default server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) using your chosen KMS key and attach a bucket policy that denies PutObject requests that are not encrypted with SSE-KMS (and not using the specified key). Encrypt the S3 bucket using the S3 console. Encrypt objects using AWS KMS before storing them.

Correct Answer: Enable S3 default server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) using your chosen KMS key and attach a bucket policy that denies PutObject requests that are not encrypted with SSE-KMS (and not using the specified key).

Enabling bucket-level default encryption with SSE-KMS ensures that any object uploaded without encryption headers is still encrypted at rest automatically. Adding a bucket policy that explicitly denies PutObject requests unless they specify SSE-KMS with the required KMS key enforces compliance from all clients and prevents uploads that attempt to use no encryption or the wrong method/key. This combination provides both automatic protection and hard enforcement, aligning with AWS security best practices. Relying only on a bucket policy can block noncompliant uploads but does not automatically encrypt when clients omit headers; enabling only default encryption provides encryption but does not prevent uploads with an incorrect method. Client-side encryption using KMS adds operational complexity and is not necessary to meet the requirement, and buckets themselves are not encrypted—objects are.

Question 3

A company wants to encrypt an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for an EC2 instance. Which action should be performed to best achieve this?

Encrypt the S3 bucket that stores the AMI. Encrypt the EBS volume backing the AMI. Encrypt the metadata associated with the AMI. Encrypt the instance store backing the AMI.

Correct Answer: Encrypt the EBS volume backing the AMI.

EBS-backed AMIs can be encrypted by creating a copy of the EBS snapshot with encryption enabled. Instance store-backed AMIs can't be encrypted, as they are ephemeral. AMI metadata, S3 bucket storage, encrypted Packer image builds, and IAM roles are unrelated solutions to the problem.

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