- A
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior. It does not evaluate resource configuration compliance against internal policies or apply automatic remediation for noncompliant S3 bucket encryption settings.
- B
AWS Config
AWS Config is designed to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources. It can detect S3 buckets that do not have the required encryption and trigger automatic remediation actions (e.g., using AWS Systems Manager Automation to enable server-side encryption with the designated KMS key). This satisfies both the detection and automatic correction requirements.
- C
AWS CloudTrail
Why wrong: AWS CloudTrail records API activity across an AWS account for auditing, security analysis, and operational troubleshooting. While CloudTrail logs can show who created a bucket without encryption, it cannot automatically detect or remediate noncompliant bucket encryption configurations.
- D
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: AWS Trusted Advisor inspects an AWS environment and provides best practice recommendations in categories such as cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance. It can alert users about S3 buckets with insecure configurations but does not provide automated remediation to enforce specific encryption settings.
CLF-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 uses AWS Organizations and manages hundreds of AWS accounts. The security policy requires that all Amazon S3 buckets be encrypted using a specific AWS KMS customer-managed key (CMK). The security team wants to automatically detect any S3 bucket that is not encrypted with the required CMK and automatically apply the correct encryption configuration without manual intervention. Which AWS service should the security team use to implement this automated compliance enforcement?
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
AWS Config
AWS Config is the correct service because it provides managed rules (e.g., s3-bucket-server-side-encryption-enabled and s3-bucket-kms-encryption-specific-key) that can evaluate whether S3 buckets are encrypted with the required KMS customer-managed key. When a noncompliant bucket is detected, AWS Config can trigger an AWS Lambda function via an Amazon EventBridge rule to automatically apply the correct encryption configuration, enabling automated remediation without manual intervention.
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.
- ✗
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior. It does not evaluate resource configuration compliance against internal policies or apply automatic remediation for noncompliant S3 bucket encryption settings.
- ✓
AWS Config
Why this is correct
AWS Config is designed to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources. It can detect S3 buckets that do not have the required encryption and trigger automatic remediation actions (e.g., using AWS Systems Manager Automation to enable server-side encryption with the designated KMS key). This satisfies both the detection and automatic correction requirements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
AWS CloudTrail records API activity across an AWS account for auditing, security analysis, and operational troubleshooting. While CloudTrail logs can show who created a bucket without encryption, it cannot automatically detect or remediate noncompliant bucket encryption configurations.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor inspects an AWS environment and provides best practice recommendations in categories such as cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance. It can alert users about S3 buckets with insecure configurations but does not provide automated remediation to enforce specific encryption settings.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config's compliance evaluation and remediation capabilities with GuardDuty's threat detection or CloudTrail's audit logging, assuming any security-related service can enforce encryption policies.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
AWS CloudTrail records API activity across an AWS account for auditing, security analysis, and operational troubleshooting. While CloudTrail logs can show who created a bucket without encryption, it cannot automatically detect or remediate noncompliant bucket encryption configurations.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS Config uses a configuration recorder to capture resource state changes and evaluates them against custom or managed rules. For this use case, the s3-bucket-kms-encryption-specific-key rule checks the sse-kms-key-id parameter against the required CMK ARN; if a mismatch is found, the resource is marked noncompliant. A real-world scenario might involve a multi-account environment where a central security account deploys an AWS Config conformance pack with an automatic remediation action (e.g., an SSM Automation document) to update the bucket policy or encryption settings, ensuring consistent enforcement across hundreds of accounts.
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: AWS Config — AWS Config is the correct service because it provides managed rules (e.g., s3-bucket-server-side-encryption-enabled and s3-bucket-kms-encryption-specific-key) that can evaluate whether S3 buckets are encrypted with the required KMS customer-managed key. When a noncompliant bucket is detected, AWS Config can trigger an AWS Lambda function via an Amazon EventBridge rule to automatically apply the correct encryption configuration, enabling automated remediation without manual intervention.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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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