Which AWS service or feature enables users to block the incoming or outgoing traffic associated with specific IP addresses flowing through a VPC?
Network ACLs
Security groups
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
AWS WAF
Explanations:
Network ACLs (Access Control Lists) operate at the subnet level and can be used to control both inbound and outbound traffic based on rules that specify allowed or denied IP addresses, protocols, and ports. They allow users to block or allow traffic from specific IP addresses.
Security groups are stateful and operate at the instance level. They control inbound and outbound traffic for EC2 instances but do not allow users to block traffic; instead, they only allow specific traffic based on defined rules. If a rule allows traffic from an IP, it cannot be explicitly blocked in the same way as Network ACLs.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is used to manage permissions and access to AWS resources. It does not control network traffic or provide functionality for blocking IP addresses. IAM is focused on user and service permissions rather than network access.
AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is primarily used to protect web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic. While it can block requests from specific IP addresses, it is not designed to manage traffic within a VPC at the network level like Network ACLs.