NO.98 You are deploying an application to Cloud Run. The application requires a password to start. Your organization requires that all passwords are rotated every 24 hours, and your application must have the latest password. You need to deploy the application with no downtime. What should you do?
The correct answer is B. Store the password in Secret Manager and mount the secret as a volume within the application.
Secret Manager is a service that allows you to securely store and manage sensitive data such as passwords, API keys, certificates, and tokens.You can use Secret Manager to rotate your secrets automatically or manually, and access them from your Cloud Run applications1.
There are two ways to use secrets from Secret Manager in Cloud Run:
As environment variables: You can set environment variables that point to secrets in Secret Manager. Cloud Run will resolve the secrets at runtime and inject them into the environment of your application. However, this method has some limitations, such as:
The environment variables are cached for up to 10 minutes, so you may not get the latest version of the secret immediately.
The environment variables are visible in plain text in the Cloud Console and the Cloud SDK, which may expose sensitive information.
The environment variables are limited to 4 KB of data, which may not be enough for some secrets.2 As file system volumes: You can mount secrets from Secret Manager as files in a volume within your application. Cloud Run will create a tmpfs volume and write the secrets as files in it. This method has some advantages, such as:
The files are updated every 30 seconds, so you can get the latest version of the secret faster.
The files are not visible in the Cloud Console or the Cloud SDK, which provides better security.
The files can store up to 64 KB of data, which allows for larger secrets.3 Therefore, for your use case, it is better to use the second method and mount the secret as a file system volume within your application. This way, you can ensure that your application has the latest password, and you can deploy it with no downtime.
To mount a secret as a file system volume in Cloud Run, you can use the following command:
gcloud beta run deploy SERVICE –image IMAGE_URL –update-secrets=/path/to/file=secretName:version where:
SERVICE is the name of your Cloud Run service.
IMAGE_URL is the URL of your container image.
/path/to/file is the path where you want to mount the secret file in your application.
secretName is the name of your secret in Secret Manager.
version is the version of your secret.You can uselatestto get the most recent version.3 You can also use the Cloud Console to mount secrets as file system volumes. For more details, seeMounting secrets from Secret Manager.
References:
1:Overview | Secret Manager Documentation | Google Cloud
2:Using secrets as environment variables | Cloud Run Documentation | Google Cloud
3:Mounting secrets from Secret Manager | Cloud Run Documentation | Google Cloud
NO.103 You have deployed a fleet Of Compute Engine instances in Google Cloud. You need to ensure that monitoring metrics and logs for the instances are visible in Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring by your company’s operations and cyber security teams. You need to grant the required roles for the Compute Engine service account by using Identity and Access Management (IAM) while following the principle of least privilege. What should you do?
The correct answer is D. Grant the logging.logWriter and monitoring.metricWriter roles to the Compute Engine service accounts.
According to the Google Cloud documentation, the Compute Engine service account is a Google-managed service account that is automatically created when you enable the Compute Engine API1. This service account is used by default to run your Compute Engine instances and access other Google Cloud services on your behalf1. To ensure that monitoring metrics and logs for the instances are visible in Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring, you need to grant the following IAM roles to the Compute Engine service account23:
The logging.logWriter role allows the service account to write log entries to Cloud Logging4.
The monitoring.metricWriter role allows the service account to write custom metrics to Cloud Monitoring5.
These roles grant the minimum permissions that are needed for logging and monitoring, following the principle of least privilege. The other roles are either unnecessary or too broad for this purpose. For example, the logging.editor role grants permissions to create and update logs, log sinks, and log exclusions, which are not required for writing log entries6. The logging.admin role grants permissions to delete logs, log sinks, and log exclusions, which are not required for writing log entries and may pose a security risk if misused. The monitoring.editor role grants permissions to create and update alerting policies, uptime checks, notification channels, dashboards, and groups, which are not required for writing custom metrics.
Reference:
Service accounts, Service accounts. Setting up Stackdriver Logging for Compute Engine, Setting up Stackdriver Logging for Compute Engine. Setting up Stackdriver Monitoring for Compute Engine, Setting up Stackdriver Monitoring for Compute Engine. Predefined roles, Predefined roles. Predefined roles, Predefined roles. Predefined roles, Predefined roles. [Predefined roles], Predefined roles. [Predefined roles], Predefined roles.
NO.105 You are configuring your CI/CD pipeline natively on Google Cloud. You want builds in a pre-production Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) environment to be automatically load-tested before being promoted to the production GKE environment. You need to ensure that only builds that have passed this test are deployed to production. You want to follow Google-recommended practices. How should you configure this pipeline with Binary Authorization?
The correct answer is B, Create an attestation for the builds that pass the load test by using a private key stored in Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS) authenticated through Workload Identity.
According to the Google Cloud documentation, Binary Authorization is a deploy-time security control that ensures only trusted container images are deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) or Cloud Run1. Binary Authorization uses attestations to certify that a specific image has completed a previous stage in the CI/CD pipeline, such as passing a load test2. Attestations are signed by private keys that are associated with attestors, which are entities that verify the attestations3. To follow Google-recommended practices, you should store your private keys in Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS), which is a secure and scalable service for managing cryptographic keys4. You should also use Workload Identity, which is a feature that allows Kubernetes service accounts to act as Google service accounts, to authenticate to Cloud KMS and sign attestations without having to manage or expose service account keys5.
The other options are incorrect because they do not follow Google-recommended practices. Option A and option D require human intervention to sign the attestations, which is not scalable or automated. Option C exposes the service account JSON key as a Kubernetes Secret, which is less secure than using Workload Identity.
Reference:
Creating an attestor, Creating an attestor. Cloud Key Management Service Documentation, Overview. Attestations overview, Attestations overview. Using Workload Identity with Binary Authorization, Using Workload Identity with Binary Authorization. Binary Authorization, Binary Authorization.
NO.108 You need to enforce several constraint templates across your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters. The constraints include policy parameters, such as restricting the Kubernetes API. You must ensure that the policy parameters are stored in a GitHub repository and automatically applied when changes occur. What should you do?
The correct answer is C. Configure Anthos Config Management with the GitHub repository. When there is a change in the repository, use Anthos Config Management to apply the change.
According to the web search results, Anthos Config Management is a service that lets you manage the configuration of your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters from a single source of truth, such as a GitHub repository1. Anthos Config Management can enforce several constraint templates across your GKE clusters by using Policy Controller, which is a feature that integrates the Open Policy Agent (OPA) Constraint Framework into Anthos Config Management2. Policy Controller can apply constraints that include policy parameters, such as restricting the Kubernetes API3. To use Anthos Config Management and Policy Controller, you need to configure them with your GitHub repository and enable the sync mode4. When there is a change in the repository, Anthos Config Management will automatically sync and apply the change to your GKE clusters5.
The other options are incorrect because they do not use Anthos Config Management and Policy Controller. Option A is incorrect because it uses a GitHub action to trigger Cloud Build, which is a service that executes your builds on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure6. Cloud Build can run a gcloud CLI command to apply the change, but it does not use Anthos Config Management or Policy Controller. Option B is incorrect because it uses a web hook to send a request to Anthos Service Mesh, which is a service that provides a uniform way to connect, secure, monitor, and manage microservices on GKE clusters7. Anthos Service Mesh can apply the change, but it does not use Anthos Config Management or Policy Controller. Option D is incorrect because it uses Config Connector, which is a service that lets you manage Google Cloud resources through Kubernetes configuration. Config Connector can apply the change, but it does not use Anthos Config Management or Policy Controller.
Reference:
Anthos Config Management documentation, Overview. Policy Controller, Policy Controller. Constraint template library, Constraint template library. Installing Anthos Config Management, Installing Anthos Config Management. Syncing configurations, Syncing configurations. Cloud Build documentation, Overview. Anthos Service Mesh documentation, Overview. [Config Connector documentation], Overview.
