DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A data engineer manages an AWS Glue ETL job that reads from an Amazon S3 bucket and writes to another S3 bucket. Both buckets are encrypted with SSE-KMS using customer managed keys. The Glue job execution role has permissions to read from the source bucket and write to the target bucket, and has kms:Decrypt permission on the source key, but the job fails with an error indicating it cannot write to the target bucket due to encryption. What is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that kms:Decrypt is sufficient for both reading and writing encrypted data, when in fact writing requires kms:GenerateDataKey.
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 Glue job execution role lacks kms:GenerateDataKey permission on the target bucket's KMS key.
Writing to an SSE-KMS encrypted S3 bucket requires the kms:GenerateDataKey permission on the KMS key used for the target bucket. The Glue job role already has read and decrypt permissions on the source, but lacks the necessary permission to encrypt data for the target. Without GenerateDataKey, the S3 PutObject operation fails.
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 Glue job execution role lacks kms:GenerateDataKey permission on the target bucket's KMS key.
Why this is correct
When writing to an SSE-KMS encrypted S3 bucket, the writer must call kms:GenerateDataKey to obtain a data key for encryption. Without this permission, the write fails. The role already has read access and decrypt permission on the source key, but the target key requires GenerateDataKey to encrypt the data.
- ✗
The Glue job execution role lacks s3:PutObjectAcl permission on the target bucket.
Why it's wrong here
s3:PutObjectAcl is used to set access control lists on objects. While it might be needed if the job sets ACLs, the error specifically mentions encryption, and missing PutObjectAcl would produce a different error. The core issue is KMS permissions, not ACL permissions.
- ✗
The target S3 bucket's default encryption uses SSE-S3 instead of SSE-KMS, causing a conflict.
Why it's wrong here
If the target bucket uses SSE-S3, the Glue job would not need KMS permissions to write. The scenario states both buckets use SSE-KMS with customer managed keys. A conflict between encryption types would not cause a KMS permission error; the job would simply use the bucket's default encryption.
- ✗
The Glue job execution role lacks kms:Decrypt permission on the target bucket's KMS key.
Why it's wrong here
kms:Decrypt is required for reading encrypted data, not writing. Since the job is writing to the target bucket, it needs kms:GenerateDataKey to encrypt. The role already has Decrypt on the source key, but that is irrelevant for the write operation.
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 |
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.