What should the developer do to meet these requirements in the MOST secure way?
Create an IAM user. Create an access key for the IAM user. Store the access key in the application’s environment variables.
Create an IAM role. Create an access key for the IAM role. Store the access key in the application’s environment variables.
Create an IAM role. Configure the IAM role to access the specific Amazon S3 API calls the application requires. Associate the IAM role with the EC2 instance.
Configure an S3 bucket policy for the S3 bucket. Configure the S3 bucket policy to allow access for the EC2 instance ID.
Explanations:
Creating an IAM user and storing its access key in environment variables exposes sensitive credentials to potential leaks and is not a best practice for secure applications running on EC2.
Similar to option A, creating an IAM role does not involve storing access keys; instead, roles are assumed by the instance. Therefore, using access keys in this context is not secure and not recommended.
Creating an IAM role and associating it with the EC2 instance allows for secure access to S3 without embedding credentials in the application, leveraging temporary security credentials for the instance.
While a bucket policy can control access, it does not inherently provide secure credentials management. The preferred approach is to use IAM roles directly associated with the EC2 instance for better security and management.
I figure that the answer is:
Create an IAM role. Configure the IAM role to access the specific Amazon S3 API calls the application requires. Associate the IAM role with the EC2 instance.