- A
AWS Config
Why wrong: AWS Config is used to evaluate your resource configurations against desired rules (e.g., whether S3 bucket server-side encryption is enabled). While AWS Config can check if an S3 bucket has a public access block, it is not the primary service for identifying resources shared with external AWS accounts. IAM Access Analyzer is purpose-built for this.
- B
IAM Access Analyzer
IAM Access Analyzer analyzes resource-based policies to identify resources that are shared with external entities (outside your AWS organization). It provides continuous monitoring, a dashboard of findings, and integration with AWS Security Hub and Amazon EventBridge for alerts. This directly meets the requirement.
- C
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: AWS Trusted Advisor inspects your AWS environment and provides best practice recommendations, including a check for S3 bucket permissions that allow public access. However, Trusted Advisor's checks are performed periodically (not continuously), and it does not provide a centralized dashboard for ongoing findings or alerting on new external shares beyond public access. IAM Access Analyzer is more comprehensive for this specific use case.
- D
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior in your AWS environment. It does not analyze S3 bucket policies for external sharing. GuardDuty can detect suspicious API calls or potential credential compromise, but it is not designed to identify resources shared with external accounts.
CLF-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company's security team wants to identify all Amazon S3 buckets that are shared with external AWS accounts or publicly accessible. The team needs a continuous evaluation that reports findings in a centralized dashboard and sends alerts when new unintended external shares are created. Which AWS service should the security team use to meet these requirements?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
IAM Access Analyzer
IAM Access Analyzer is the correct choice because it continuously monitors resource policies, including S3 bucket policies, to identify resources shared with external AWS accounts or publicly. It provides a centralized dashboard in the IAM console to view findings and integrates with Amazon EventBridge to send alerts via Amazon SNS when new unintended external shares are created, meeting all stated requirements.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is used to evaluate your resource configurations against desired rules (e.g., whether S3 bucket server-side encryption is enabled). While AWS Config can check if an S3 bucket has a public access block, it is not the primary service for identifying resources shared with external AWS accounts. IAM Access Analyzer is purpose-built for this.
- ✓
IAM Access Analyzer
Why this is correct
IAM Access Analyzer analyzes resource-based policies to identify resources that are shared with external entities (outside your AWS organization). It provides continuous monitoring, a dashboard of findings, and integration with AWS Security Hub and Amazon EventBridge for alerts. This directly meets the requirement.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor inspects your AWS environment and provides best practice recommendations, including a check for S3 bucket permissions that allow public access. However, Trusted Advisor's checks are performed periodically (not continuously), and it does not provide a centralized dashboard for ongoing findings or alerting on new external shares beyond public access. IAM Access Analyzer is more comprehensive for this specific use case.
- ✗
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior in your AWS environment. It does not analyze S3 bucket policies for external sharing. GuardDuty can detect suspicious API calls or potential credential compromise, but it is not designed to identify resources shared with external accounts.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config's ability to detect resource changes with the specific need for continuous policy analysis and centralized findings for external access, leading them to pick AWS Config instead of IAM Access Analyzer.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
IAM Access Analyzer uses the Zone of Trust concept, where it defines a trusted zone based on the AWS account and evaluates resource policies against that zone; any policy granting access to a principal outside the zone (e.g., another AWS account or the public) generates a finding. Under the hood, it performs automated reasoning on the policy's effect using the same policy evaluation engine as AWS, ensuring accuracy in detecting unintended access. In a real-world scenario, if an S3 bucket policy is updated to allow s3:GetObject for a principal in account 123456789012, IAM Access Analyzer immediately flags it as an external share and can trigger an SNS alert via EventBridge.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Security and Compliance — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: IAM Access Analyzer — IAM Access Analyzer is the correct choice because it continuously monitors resource policies, including S3 bucket policies, to identify resources shared with external AWS accounts or publicly. It provides a centralized dashboard in the IAM console to view findings and integrates with Amazon EventBridge to send alerts via Amazon SNS when new unintended external shares are created, meeting all stated requirements.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
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