DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A company wants to enforce that all data written to an S3 bucket is encrypted with a customer-managed AWS KMS key. The data engineer has created the KMS key and attached an S3 bucket policy. However, users are still able to upload objects without specifying the KMS key. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
The S3 bucket policy does not include a condition that denies s3:PutObject without the correct encryption
The bucket policy must explicitly deny s3:PutObject if the encryption header does not match the required KMS key. Without this condition, users can upload objects without specifying the KMS key, even if the bucket has default encryption. Option B is wrong because default encryption with SSE-S3 does not enforce a customer-managed KMS key. Option C is wrong because the KMS key policy grants encryption permissions, but the issue is that the bucket policy does not deny non-compliant uploads. Option D is wrong because the IAM role's s3:PutObject permission is not the issue; the issue is the lack of a condition in the bucket policy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The S3 bucket policy does not include a condition that denies s3:PutObject without the correct encryption
Why this is correct
The bucket policy must have a deny condition.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has default encryption enabled with SSE-S3
Why it's wrong here
Default encryption does not enforce a specific KMS key.
- ✗
The KMS key policy does not grant the users kms:Encrypt permission
Why it's wrong here
Key policy is needed but not the primary cause of the issue.
- ✗
The IAM role for the users does not have s3:PutObject permission
Why it's wrong here
If they can upload, they have s3:PutObject.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-C01 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 DEA-C01 exam.