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DVA-C02 Security Practice Question

This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 developer needs to grant cross-account access to an Amazon S3 bucket. The developer's AWS account (Account A) owns the bucket, and a user in another account (Account B) needs to write objects to it. The developer has already added a bucket policy that grants the user in Account B permissions. What additional step is required?

Question 1easymultiple choice

Full question →

A
No additional steps are needed; the bucket policy alone is sufficient.
Why wrong: A bucket policy alone is not sufficient for cross-account access; the IAM user in Account B must also have an IAM policy that allows the action.
B
The administrator of Account B must attach an IAM policy to the user that allows the required S3 actions.
The user in Account B needs an IAM policy that explicitly grants permissions to write to the bucket. Cross-account access requires both resource-based and identity-based policies.
C
Create a new IAM role in Account B and have the user assume the role.
Why wrong: Using an IAM role is an alternative method, but the simplest is to attach a policy directly to the user. The question states the user needs to write objects, so a policy on the user works.
D
Enable S3 ACLs on the bucket and grant write access to the Account B user.
Why wrong: ACLs are legacy and not recommended. Also, ACLs are for granting access to another AWS account explicitly, but the IAM user in that account still needs an IAM policy. The bucket policy approach is preferred.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 administrator of Account B must attach an IAM policy to the user that allows the required S3 actions.

Option B is correct because cross-account access to S3 requires both a resource-based policy (the bucket policy in Account A) and a user-based policy (an IAM identity-based policy in Account B). The bucket policy grants permissions to the Account B user, but that user cannot perform actions unless their own account explicitly allows those actions via an IAM policy. Without this, the request is denied by the user's own account's implicit deny, even if the bucket policy permits it.

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.

✗
No additional steps are needed; the bucket policy alone is sufficient.
Why it's wrong here
A bucket policy alone is not sufficient for cross-account access; the IAM user in Account B must also have an IAM policy that allows the action.
✓
The administrator of Account B must attach an IAM policy to the user that allows the required S3 actions.
Why this is correct
The user in Account B needs an IAM policy that explicitly grants permissions to write to the bucket. Cross-account access requires both resource-based and identity-based policies.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a new IAM role in Account B and have the user assume the role.
Why it's wrong here
Using an IAM role is an alternative method, but the simplest is to attach a policy directly to the user. The question states the user needs to write objects, so a policy on the user works.
✗
Enable S3 ACLs on the bucket and grant write access to the Account B user.
Why it's wrong here
ACLs are legacy and not recommended. Also, ACLs are for granting access to another AWS account explicitly, but the IAM user in that account still needs an IAM policy. The bucket policy approach is preferred.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often assume a bucket policy alone is enough for cross-account access, forgetting that the requesting user's account must also explicitly authorize the action via an IAM policy.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, AWS evaluates both the resource-based policy (bucket policy) and the identity-based policy (IAM user policy) for cross-account requests. The request is allowed only if both policies grant the permission and there is no explicit deny. This is known as the 'intersection' of permissions in cross-account scenarios. A real-world scenario is when Account A's bucket policy grants s3:PutObject to Account B's user ARN, but Account B's IAM policy lacks that action; the request fails with an AccessDenied error, which can be confusing if developers assume the bucket policy is sufficient.

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.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DVA-C02 question test?

Security — This question tests Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: The administrator of Account B must attach an IAM policy to the user that allows the required S3 actions. — Option B is correct because cross-account access to S3 requires both a resource-based policy (the bucket policy in Account A) and a user-based policy (an IAM identity-based policy in Account B). The bucket policy grants permissions to the Account B user, but that user cannot perform actions unless their own account explicitly allows those actions via an IAM policy. Without this, the request is denied by the user's own account's implicit deny, even if the bucket policy permits it.

What should I do if I get this DVA-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.

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