AWS Config is the primary service for assessing, auditing, and evaluating the configurations of AWS resources. It continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations. For this scenario, AWS Config provides managed rules that can specifically check Amazon Aurora instances for compliance with the stated security requirements. These rules include checks for public accessibility (rds-instance-public-access-check), storage encryption (rds-storage-encrypted), deletion protection (rds-instance-deletion-protection-enabled), and log exports (aurora-mysql-log-exports-enabled), providing the required continuous monitoring and real-time visibility into the compliance status.

A. Use AWS Audit Manager with a custom framework.

AWS Audit Manager is designed for collecting evidence for audits, not for real-time configuration monitoring and alerting. It often uses AWS Config as an evidence source.

C. Use AWS Security Hub configuration policies.

AWS Security Hub aggregates security findings and uses AWS Config rules for many of its checks. AWS Config is the foundational service that performs the actual configuration evaluation.

D. Use EventBridge and Lambda with custom metrics.

This is a custom-built solution that requires significant development and maintenance effort, whereas AWS Config provides a managed, out-of-the-box solution for this exact purpose.

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1. AWS Config Documentation - rds-storage-encrypted: "Checks whether storage encryption is enabled for your Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) DB instances."

Source: AWS Config Developer Guide, "List of AWS Config Managed Rules", rds-storage-encrypted.

2. AWS Config Documentation - rds-instance-deletion-protection-enabled: "Checks if an Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) instance has deletion protection enabled."

Source: AWS Config Developer Guide, "List of AWS Config Managed Rules", rds-instance-deletion-protection-enabled.

3. AWS Config Documentation - rds-instance-public-access-check: "Checks whether the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) instances are not publicly accessible."

Source: AWS Config Developer Guide, "List of AWS Config Managed Rules", rds-instance-public-access-check.

4. AWS Config Documentation - aurora-mysql-log-exports-enabled: "Checks if an Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster has the specified log types exported to Amazon CloudWatch Logs." (The specified log types can include 'audit').

Source: AWS Config Developer Guide, "List of AWS Config Managed Rules", aurora-mysql-log-exports-enabled.

5. AWS Config Documentation - What Is AWS Config?: "AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. Config continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations."

Source: AWS Config Developer Guide, "What Is AWS Config?".