The answer is AWS IAM Access Analyzer. This service is the correct choice because it systematically analyzes resource-based policies—such as S3 bucket policies, IAM role trust policies, and KMS key policies—to identify any resources shared with an external entity outside your AWS account. It evaluates the principal, action, and condition elements within each policy to detect grants of access to external AWS accounts, IAM users in other accounts, or public principals like `"Principal": "*"`, directly addressing the need to find resources accessible from outside the account. On the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of how to audit resource exposure for security compliance, often appearing as a scenario where a company must locate publicly accessible S3 buckets or cross-account IAM roles. A common trap is confusing IAM Access Analyzer with AWS Config or Trusted Advisor, but remember: Access Analyzer is the dedicated tool for policy-based external access analysis. A helpful memory tip is to think “Access Analyzer = Access outside your account,” linking the name directly to its purpose of analyzing external access.
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 wants to identify all resources in their AWS account that are accessible from outside the account — such as S3 buckets with public access or IAM roles with external trust. Which AWS service provides this analysis?
Why wrong: Inspector scans for software vulnerabilities in EC2 and containers — it doesn't analyze resource policies for external access.
B
AWS IAM Access Analyzer
IAM Access Analyzer uses automated reasoning to identify resources accessible from outside the account or organization, generating findings for S3, IAM roles, KMS keys, Lambda, SQS, and more.
C
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: GuardDuty detects active threats using behavioral analysis — it doesn't perform static analysis of resource policies for external access.
D
AWS Config
Why wrong: Config evaluates resource configurations against rules — it doesn't perform the automated reasoning analysis of IAM Access Analyzer for identifying external access paths.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS IAM Access Analyzer
AWS IAM Access Analyzer is the correct service because it analyzes resource-based policies (such as S3 bucket policies, IAM role trust policies, and KMS key policies) to identify resources shared with an external entity outside the AWS account. It uses a policy analysis engine that evaluates the principal, action, and condition elements to determine if a policy grants access to an external AWS account, an IAM user in another account, or a public principal (e.g., `"Principal": "*"`). This directly matches the requirement to find resources accessible from outside the account.
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 Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Inspector scans for software vulnerabilities in EC2 and containers — it doesn't analyze resource policies for external access.
✓
AWS IAM Access Analyzer
Why this is correct
IAM Access Analyzer uses automated reasoning to identify resources accessible from outside the account or organization, generating findings for S3, IAM roles, KMS keys, Lambda, SQS, and more.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty detects active threats using behavioral analysis — it doesn't perform static analysis of resource policies for external access.
✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config evaluates resource configurations against rules — it doesn't perform the automated reasoning analysis of IAM Access Analyzer for identifying external access paths.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon Inspector's network reachability analysis with policy-based external access analysis, but Inspector only checks for network-level exposure (e.g., open ports), not for resource policies that grant permissions to external principals.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
IAM Access Analyzer uses a policy analysis engine that evaluates the effective permissions of resource-based policies by simulating the policy evaluation logic, including conditions like `aws:SourceArn` or `aws:SourceAccount`. It generates findings for each resource that is shared with an external principal, and these findings are updated as policies change. A real-world scenario is an S3 bucket with a bucket policy that grants `s3:GetObject` to `"Principal": "*"` — IAM Access Analyzer will flag this as a public access finding, even if the bucket ACLs are private.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this CLF-C02 question in full detail.
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 IAM Access Analyzer — AWS IAM Access Analyzer is the correct service because it analyzes resource-based policies (such as S3 bucket policies, IAM role trust policies, and KMS key policies) to identify resources shared with an external entity outside the AWS account. It uses a policy analysis engine that evaluates the principal, action, and condition elements to determine if a policy grants access to an external AWS account, an IAM user in another account, or a public principal (e.g., `"Principal": "*"`). This directly matches the requirement to find resources accessible from outside the account.
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 →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.