DOP-C02 Incident and Event Response Practice Question
A company uses AWS CloudTrail to audit API activity. During an incident investigation, they find that a user with the IAM policy 'AdministratorAccess' deleted an S3 bucket. The security team wants to know the source IP address and user agent used for the delete operation. Which action should the team take to obtain this information?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse S3 server access logs (which log object-level operations) with CloudTrail management events, leading them to incorrectly choose option B for a bucket deletion that is a management API call.
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
✓
View the CloudTrail event history for the delete-bucket event.
CloudTrail event history captures all management events, including DeleteBucket, and records the source IP address and user agent for each API call. By viewing the event history for the specific delete-bucket event, the security team can directly retrieve the required metadata without needing additional log sources or configurations. Option B is incorrect because S3 server access logs log object-level operations, not management events like bucket deletion. Option C is not the most direct method; CloudWatch Logs can be used if CloudTrail is configured to send events to a log group, but the simplest way is from CloudTrail event history directly. Option D is incorrect because AWS Config tracks resource configuration changes, not API call details like source IP.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
View the CloudTrail event history for the delete-bucket event.
Why this is correct
Viewing the CloudTrail event history for the delete-bucket event provides the source IP address and user agent because CloudTrail records management API calls, including DeleteBucket. This is the direct and correct method to obtain the required information.
- ✗
Check the S3 server access logs for the deleted bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 server access logs are object-level access logs that capture requests made directly to an S3 bucket, such as GET, PUT, and DELETE on objects. The DeleteBucket API call is a management-plane operation, not a data-plane operation; it is recorded by CloudTrail, not by S3 server access logging. Moreover, if the bucket is deleted, the server access log files (which are typically delivered to a separate logging bucket) may still exist, but they would not contain the DeleteBucket event. Therefore, checking these logs would not reveal the source IP or user agent for the bucket deletion.
- ✗
Use CloudWatch Logs to search for the event in the CloudTrail log group.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs can only search CloudTrail events if you have configured a CloudTrail trail to deliver events to a CloudWatch Logs log group. Even if that delivery is in place, searching CloudWatch Logs is an indirect and more complex method than viewing the Event history directly in the CloudTrail console. The CloudTrail console's Event history provides the exact event details—including source IP and user agent—for the DeleteBucket action without requiring any additional setup or query syntax. For an immediate audit need, this direct approach is the correct and simplest answer.
- ✗
Query AWS Config to find the configuration item for the bucket deletion.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config provides configuration history of AWS resources, but it does not record API call details such as source IP or user agent for the DeleteBucket action. It tracks resource changes, not the API call metadata.
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DOP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company uses AWS CloudTrail to monitor API activity. The security team notices that an IAM user 'dev-user' deleted an S3 bucket. They need to quickly identify the source IP address of the delete request. Which CloudTrail feature should they use to find this information?
medium- A.Use CloudTrail Lake to query the event and extract the IP address from the userIdentity field.
- B.Check S3 server access logs for the bucket deletion event.
- C.Enable CloudTrail Insights to analyze unusual activity.
- ✓ D.Search the CloudTrail event history for the delete event and review the sourceIPAddress field.
Why D: CloudTrail event history records include the `sourceIPAddress` field, which directly provides the IP address from which the `DeleteBucket` API call was made. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail Lake can query events, but the IP address is in the `sourceIPAddress` field, not in `userIdentity`. Option B is incorrect because S3 server access logs capture requests to S3 objects, not bucket-level API calls like deletion; CloudTrail captures management events such as `DeleteBucket`. Option C is incorrect because CloudTrail Insights detects unusual activity patterns but does not provide the source IP for individual events.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DOP-C02 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 DOP-C02 exam.