hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped

A developer needs to ensure that every cryptographic operation performed on an AWS KMS customer master key (CMK) used for server-side encryption in Amazon S3 is recorded in AWS CloudTrail for auditing. The developer has already enabled CloudTrail and is logging management events. However, the security team wants to see all calls to the KMS Decrypt and Encrypt APIs for this specific key. What must the developer do?

Question 1hardmultiple choice
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A developer needs to ensure that every cryptographic operation performed on an AWS KMS customer master key (CMK) used for server-side encryption in Amazon S3 is recorded in AWS CloudTrail for auditing. The developer has already enabled CloudTrail and is logging management events. However, the security team wants to see all calls to the KMS Decrypt and Encrypt APIs for this specific key. What must the developer do?

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.

A

Distractor review

Enable CloudTrail data events for the S3 bucket containing the encrypted objects.

S3 data events log S3 object-level operations (e.g., GetObject, PutObject), not KMS API calls. The KMS operations are separate.

B

Distractor review

Create an additional CloudTrail trail that logs all management events for the KMS key.

Management events already include KMS management operations, but not data operations like Encrypt and Decrypt. A separate trail will still only log management events unless data events are configured.

C

Best answer

Enable CloudTrail data events for the specific KMS key ARN.

CloudTrail data events for KMS record every call to Decrypt, Encrypt, GenerateDataKey, etc. By specifying the key ARN in the data event selector, only operations on that key are logged, meeting the audit requirement without excessive logging.

D

Distractor review

Enable CloudTrail Insights events on the existing trail.

Insights events detect unusual API activity but do not change which events are logged. The base event logging must still include data events.

Common exam trap

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Technical deep dive

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

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.
  • Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

  • Underline the problem statement mentally.
  • 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.

Related practice questions

Related DVA-C02 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

More questions from this exam

Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.

Question 1

A developer is building a REST API using Amazon API Gateway that will serve static content from an Amazon S3 bucket. The API should cache responses for frequently accessed objects to reduce latency. Which API Gateway feature should the developer enable?

Question 2

A developer is running a web application on multiple Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application needs to store user session state that must be available across all instances. The session data is small and temporary but must survive individual instance failures. Which AWS service should the developer use to store this session state?

Question 3

A developer has an AWS Lambda function that processes messages from an Amazon SQS standard queue. The function is idempotent and currently has a batch size of 10. The developer wants to increase throughput and increases the batch size to 100. After the change, CloudWatch metrics show a significant increase in throttles and the queue backlog is growing. The function's reserved concurrency is set to 10. What is the most effective action to resolve the throttling and improve throughput?

Question 4

A developer is managing an application running on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Users report that the application becomes unresponsive after several hours, and restarting the instance temporarily fixes the issue. The developer suspects a memory leak but cannot add custom instrumentation. Which AWS service can collect memory utilization metrics and help identify the memory leak with minimal configuration?

Question 5

A developer is building a serverless web application using AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. The application needs to perform complex aggregations on data stored in DynamoDB. Which AWS service should the developer use to perform these aggregations efficiently without reading all the data into Lambda?

Question 6

A developer has an Amazon S3 bucket containing private user documents. The application must generate a time-limited URL for users to download their own documents without requiring the users to have AWS credentials. Which solution should the developer use?

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DVA-C02 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Enable CloudTrail data events for the specific KMS key ARN. — By default, CloudTrail logs management events for KMS, but to capture all data plane operations (like Decrypt and Encrypt), you must enable CloudTrail data events for KMS. This is done by adding a data event for the specific key ARN in the CloudTrail trail configuration. Management events only log KMS key management operations (e.g., CreateKey, ScheduleKeyDeletion).

What should I do if I get this DVA-C02 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.

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