DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
ERROR: An error occurred (AccessDenied) when calling the PutObject operation: Access Denied
Bucket policy snippet:
{
"Effect": "Deny",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": "s3:PutObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*",
"Condition": {
"StringNotEquals": {
"s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption": "aws:kms"
}
}
}A data engineer receives the error shown in the exhibit when trying to upload a file to my-bucket. The engineer uses the AWS CLI with the following command: aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket/. What is the most likely cause of the error?
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 object is not encrypted with SSE-KMS
The error indicates that the upload was denied because the object is not encrypted with SSE-KMS. The bucket policy likely requires SSE-KMS for all PutObject requests, but the AWS CLI command `aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket/` does not specify the `--sse aws:kms` flag, so the object is uploaded without the required encryption header. This causes the policy condition to evaluate to false, resulting in an access denied error. Option A is wrong because the command does not specify any KMS key; the error is about encryption header, not key validity. Option B is wrong because the error is not related to VPC endpoint policies. Option D is wrong because a default encryption configuration would automatically apply encryption, but the error suggests the upload attempted to skip encryption entirely, which is denied by the explicit policy requirement.
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 KMS key specified in the command is incorrect
Why it's wrong here
The command does not specify any KMS key.
- ✗
The VPC endpoint policy is blocking the request
Why it's wrong here
The error message indicates an S3 access denied, not network.
- ✓
The object is not encrypted with SSE-KMS
Why this is correct
The policy requires SSE-KMS encryption header.
- ✗
The bucket does not have a default encryption configuration
Why it's wrong here
Default encryption would not override the bucket policy.
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
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