Under the AWS shared responsibility model, who is responsible for patching the guest operating system on an Amazon EC2 instance?
A.AWS
AWS patches the underlying infrastructure, not your guest OS.
B.The customer
Correct. Guest OS patching on EC2 is a customer responsibility.
C.Both AWS and the customer share it equally
Responsibilities are divided by layer, not shared equally on each task.
D.The EC2 hypervisor team
Hypervisor maintenance is AWS's job; the guest OS is yours.
Why this answer
AWS is responsible for security OF the cloud (hardware, facilities, hypervisor); the customer is responsible for security IN the cloud — including the guest OS, applications, and data on EC2.
Correct answer: B · Last reviewed 2026-10-26
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