Grant Tokens

5 minutes 5 Questions

Grant tokens are a feature of AWS KMS that provides temporary access to KMS resources without changing an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy or a key policy. They allow you to create, retire, or revoke grants, which are permissions that enable a user to perform specified operations on a specified CMK. The benefit of using grant tokens is that they provide an additional level of access control and can be issued on a short-term or temporary basis, thus reducing the potential surface for unauthorized access. The grant tokens adhere to the principle of least privilege, meaning they should only provide the minimum set of permissions required for a specific task to be performed.

AWS KMS Grant Tokens: Importance, Functioning, and Exam Strategy

What are Grant Tokens?
Grant tokens are unique identifiers that allow for temporary permissions in AWS Key Management Service (KMS). AWS KMS uses grant tokens when permissions need to be explicitly granted for temporary access.

Why are they Important?
Grant tokens are incredibly important because they allow for secure, fine-tuned control over who has access to encrypted data. This enables developers to create secure applications and maintain compliance with security standards.

How do they work?
Grant tokens work by associating specific permissions with a given token. When the token is presented, AWS KMS checks the associated permissions and allows the request if the permissions match up.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Grant Tokens
When studying for the exam, remember that grant tokens are not long-term permission solutions, but temporary ones. They are commonly used in applications that require temporary access to KMS resources. Familiarize yourself with the process of generating, applying and revoking grant tokens.
Practice situational questions that test your understanding of when to leverage grant tokens for temporary elevated access. The exam may have questions about different methods of enforcing access controls in AWS KMS, so understanding the role of grant tokens in this context is crucial.

Remember: While answering questions, always think about the most secure way to perform an action in AWS. Security is a top priority in AWS services, so if there's an option to use grant tokens in a question, it might be the correct choice.

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Question 1

Your application uses federated access through an external identity provider (IdP) to manage AWS resources. What is the most appropriate way to obtain temporary AWS security credentials?

Create an Amazon Cognito user pool Call AWS STS AssumeRoleWithSAML API Call AWS STS GetFederationToken API Call AWS STS GetSessionToken API

Correct Answer: Call AWS STS AssumeRoleWithSAML API

For federation with an external IdP, you must call the AWS STS AssumeRoleWithSAML API, which includes the SAML assertion information from the IdP. The GetSessionToken and GetFederationToken APIs do not provide handling for SAML assertions, and creating an IAM role or Cognito user pool would not be effective.

Question 2

An organization needs to provide temporary access to a secure Amazon EC2 instance for an external vendor. What is the best practice for providing the access?

Sharing the EC2 key pair with the external vendor Adding the vendor's IP address to the existing security group Creating an IAM role with limited permissions and assume the role using AWS STS Creating an IAM user and permanent access keys for the vendor

Correct Answer: Creating an IAM role with limited permissions and assume the role using AWS STS

Creating an IAM role with limited permissions and assuming the role using AWS STS is the best practice for providing temporary access as it's time-limited and secure. Sharing key pairs, permanent access keys or the root account is not recommended due to security risks. Modifying security groups does not effectively provide access to AWS services.

Question 3

A mobile application needs to use temporary AWS security credentials to upload files directly to an Amazon S3 bucket. Which combination of services should be deployed?

AWS Lambda and AWS Identity and Access Management AWS App Runner and Amazon S3 Select Amazon Cognito and AWS Security Token Service AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Correct Answer: Amazon Cognito and AWS Security Token Service

Amazon Cognito is used for identity management and AWS Security Token Service (STS) is used to provide temporary security credentials. Neither Lambda nor IAM are directly involved in this process. Elastic Beanstalk, S3 Transfer Acceleration, App Runner, S3 Select, Step Functions, and S3 Multi-Part Upload are not related to providing grant tokens for uploading files to S3. API Gateway can be used for authentication, but in this case, Cognito and STS are better suited.

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