AWS Glue Security and Access Control

5 minutes 5 Questions

AWS Glue provides various security and access control features to help protect your data and ensure compliance. These features include encryption at rest and in transit, fine-grained access control using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and audit logging through AWS CloudTrail. With encryp…

A Comprehensive Guide on AWS Glue Security and Access Control

The AWS Glue Security and Access Control is a crucial pillar of the AWS Solution Architect study curriculum. It is a fundamental component of the data governance on AWS.

What are AWS Glue Security and Access Control?
AWS Glue Security and Access Control refers to the policies, practices and software measures that protect AWS Glue data catalogs, databases, tables and related resources from unauthorized access while ensuring data integrity.

How does it work?
Once permissions are defined either through AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles, policies or Access Control Lists (ACL), AWS Glue Security and Access Control regulates user and system interactions with cloud resources. These permissions can be set at a granular level, allowing control over who can make modifications, delete, or even view specific data.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on AWS Glue Security and Access Control
1. Understand IAM roles and policies. Understanding the dynamics of IAM roles and policies and how they interplay with AWS Glue can be crucial when facing AWS Glue Security questions.
2. Understand access levels. Be familiar with various AWS access levels and their implications on AWS Glue security.
3. Case studies. Be ready to answer case study-based questions where you need to recommend the most secure and efficient methods of managing access to AWS Glue resources.
4. Best practices. Familiarize yourself with AWS's recommended best practices for Glue security and access control.
5. Hands-on experience. Nothing beats first-hand experience. Get hands-on practice with AWS Glue and experiment with IAM roles, policies, and ACLs for better understanding.

Why is it important?
It’s crucial to understand and implement AWS Glue Security and Access Control to protect data from unauthorized access, ensuring the safety and confidentiality of the data, and maintaining the integrity and availability of the AWS Glue service. This advances trust in your AWS architecture, meets compliance requirements and safeguards company's valuable data assets.

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Question 1

A developer must enable an application running on an Amazon EC2 instance in a private subnet (same AWS account and Region) to read a specific AWS Glue Data Catalog database without sending traffic over the public internet. What is the best combination of AWS features to provide least-privilege authorization and private connectivity?

VPC endpoints and VPC peering Attach an EC2 IAM instance profile with least-privilege permissions to the AWS Glue Data Catalog and create an interface VPC endpoint (AWS PrivateLink) for the AWS Glue service. SSH tunnel and AWS PrivateLink VPC peering and IAM instance profile

Correct Answer: Attach an EC2 IAM instance profile with least-privilege permissions to the AWS Glue Data Catalog and create an interface VPC endpoint (AWS PrivateLink) for the AWS Glue service.

To securely access the AWS Glue Data Catalog from an EC2 instance without using the public internet, you need both authorization and private connectivity. Authorization is provided by attaching an IAM role (instance profile) to the EC2 instance that includes least-privilege permissions for the specific Glue database and related catalog actions (for example, glue:GetDatabase, glue:GetTables with resource-level constraints). Private connectivity is achieved by creating an interface VPC endpoint for the AWS Glue service (AWS PrivateLink), so API calls to Glue stay within the AWS network and do not traverse the public internet. This combination ensures least-privilege access control and private, secure network paths, without requiring VPC peering or SSH tunnels.

Question 2

An organization has an AWS Glue job that processes data from various sources. When running the job, a timeout error occurs. Which IAM policy addition should be made to fix the error?

Grant access to the AWS Glue Service endpoint Enable network connections between VPC resources Extend the AWS Glue job timeout Add an S3 getObject permission

Correct Answer: Extend the AWS Glue job timeout

Timeout errors indicate that the job runs for too long, and increasing the AWS Glue job timeout allows the job to complete successfully. The other options are not directly related to the timeout error and won't affect it.

Question 3

A company plans to process highly sensitive data using AWS Glue crawlers. Which feature should the engineer use to ensure that the data is protected?

SSE-KMS encryption AWS Managed CMK Customer-Provided CMK SSE-C encryption

Correct Answer: SSE-KMS encryption

Using SSE-KMS encryption ensures that the data is encrypted with a specific Customer Master Key (CMK), providing a high level of protection while managing who can access the data. The other options are either not focused on data protection in Glue or are not suitable for this specific use-case.

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