Hardening an EC2 Instance for Deep Packet Inspection: Effortless and Cost-Effective Solution

Correct Answer - B.

Host-Based Firewall can be deployed at EC2 OS level to perform additional security for packets in & out of those instances.

For this, built-in OS capabilities or any third-party software can be used.

Option A is incorrect as the security group can perform packet inspection at the hypervisor level & not at the EC2 OS level.

Option C is incorrect as AWS WAF is used for protecting common web exploits at the web application level.

Option D is incorrect as Using In-line Firewall will incur additional charges.

Since it is an in-line firewall, it may become a bottleneck in case of heavy traffic.

For more information on Firewall Options with VPC, refer to the following URLs.

https://aws.amazon.com/answers/networking/vpc-security-capabilities/

The finance organization needs to protect the critical customer information on their EC2 instance from security threats, and the Security Team has identified two key requirements: hardening the EC2 instance at the OS level and performing deep packet inspection for all packets in and out of the EC2 instance.

Option A: Configured Security Groups to perform stateful packet inspection at the EC2 Operating system level.

Security Groups are a virtual firewall that can be used to control inbound and outbound traffic to an EC2 instance. They are stateful, meaning they track the state of connections and only allow traffic that is part of an established connection. While Security Groups can perform packet filtering, they do not perform deep packet inspection.

Therefore, option A does not meet the requirement for deep packet inspection, and it is not a viable solution for protecting the EC2 instance.

Option B: Use a Host-Based Firewall for deep packet inspection at the EC2 Operating system level.

A Host-Based Firewall is a software-based firewall that is installed on the EC2 instance itself. It can be used to inspect and filter all traffic going in and out of the instance, including deep packet inspection. This option is a good choice for hardening the EC2 instance at the OS level and providing deep packet inspection, but it requires additional setup and management of the firewall software.

Option C: Use AWS WAF for deep packet inspection at the EC2 Operating system level.

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is a managed service that provides protection against common web exploits and attacks. It can be used to inspect and filter traffic going to and from web applications running on EC2 instances, but it does not provide deep packet inspection at the OS level.

Therefore, option C does not meet the requirement for deep packet inspection at the OS level and is not a viable solution for protecting the EC2 instance.

Option D: Use In-line Firewall for deep packet inspection at the EC2 Operating system level.

An In-line Firewall is a hardware-based firewall that is installed between the EC2 instance and the network. It can inspect and filter all traffic going in and out of the instance, including deep packet inspection. This option is a good choice for hardening the EC2 instance at the OS level and providing deep packet inspection, but it requires additional setup and management of the firewall hardware.

Therefore, option D is a viable solution for protecting the EC2 instance with deep packet inspection and hardening the OS level, but it is likely to require more effort and cost compared to option B.

In conclusion, the best option for meeting the requirement of deep packet inspection with the least effort and cost is option B, which is to use a Host-Based Firewall for deep packet inspection at the EC2 Operating system level.