Launch a Linux EC2 Instance in AWS: Secure Authentication from Windows Machine

Answer - B and C.

The AWS Documentation mentions the following.

You can use Amazon EC2 to create your key pair.

Alternatively, you could use a third-party tool and then import the public key to Amazon EC2

Each key pair requires a name.

Be sure to choose a name that is easy to remember.

Amazon EC2 associates the public key with the name that you specify as the key name.

Amazon EC2 stores the public key only, and you store the private key.

Anyone who possesses your private key can decrypt your login information.

So it's important that you store your private keys in a secure place.

Options A and D are incorrect since you should use key pairs for secure access to EC2 Instances.

For more information on EC2 key pairs, please refer to the below URL:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-key-pairs.html

To ensure secure authentication to the EC2 instance from a Windows machine, we can use the following steps:

1. Create a Key Pair: Creating a key pair is a secure way to log in to the EC2 instance. A key pair consists of two keys: a public key that is stored on the EC2 instance and a private key that is stored on the local Windows machine. To create a key pair using PuTTYgen:

a. Download and install PuTTYgen on your Windows machine. b. Open PuTTYgen and click on the Generate button to create a new key pair. c. Save both the public and private keys on your local machine.

2. Use the Private Key to Log into the Instance: To log into the EC2 instance, we need to use the private key that was generated in step 1. Here are the steps to log in using PuTTY:

a. Download and install PuTTY on your Windows machine. b. Open PuTTY and enter the public IP address of the EC2 instance in the Host Name field. c. Navigate to the SSH > Auth category and browse to the private key file that was generated in step 1. d. Click on Open to start the SSH session.

It is worth noting that option A, ensuring a strong password for logging in to the EC2 instance, is not relevant in this scenario as we are using key-based authentication instead of password-based authentication.

Option D, ensuring the password is passed securely using SSL, is also not relevant here as we are not using password-based authentication. SSL is a protocol used to secure data transmission over the internet, but it does not apply to this scenario.