Courseiva
← SAA-C03
Full test
mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped

A media platform stores originals in an S3 bucket. The application must: (1) prevent any public access to the bucket, (2) allow authenticated users to upload and download objects using presigned URLs, and (3) enforce that all requests use HTTPS and only touch objects under the user-specific prefix (for example, s3://media-originals/user-123/*). The bucket currently allows uploads but sometimes returns 403 AccessDenied for presigned URLs.

Which change is the best fix while meeting the security requirements?

Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →

A media platform stores originals in an S3 bucket. The application must: (1) prevent any public access to the bucket, (2) allow authenticated users to upload and download objects using presigned URLs, and (3) enforce that all requests use HTTPS and only touch objects under the user-specific prefix (for example, s3://media-originals/user-123/*). The bucket currently allows uploads but sometimes returns 403 AccessDenied for presigned URLs.

Which change is the best fix while meeting the security requirements?

Full question →

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

Disable S3 Block Public Access and add an ACL that grants READ and WRITE to the bucket owner only.

Disabling Block Public Access increases risk of unintended public exposure. ACL-based approaches are also commonly mismanaged and do not address HTTPS or prefix scoping.

B

Best answer

Keep Block Public Access enabled, remove any Allow statement to Principal="*", and use a bucket policy or access point policy that denies non-HTTPS requests and allows PutObject/GetObject only when the object key matches the authenticated user's session tag, such as arn:aws:s3:::media-originals/${aws:PrincipalTag/userId}/*.

Block Public Access ensures the bucket cannot become public. A policy that denies non-HTTPS traffic and scopes object ARNs to a session tag or equivalent identity attribute enforces user-specific access without relying on public principals.

C

Distractor review

Use bucket website hosting and allow public GET requests so presigned URLs are not needed for downloads.

Public website hosting violates the requirement to prevent any public access. It also changes the access pattern and does not resolve the need for secure presigned URL behavior.

D

Distractor review

Use ACLs to grant ObjectOwner full control and rely on the application to generate presigned URLs with longer expirations to avoid 403 errors.

ACLs are not aligned with the requirement to avoid public access and can introduce permission inconsistencies. Increasing expiration does not address access denied causes like policy conditions or transport enforcement.

Common exam trap

Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic

NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.

Technical deep dive

How to think about this question

NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
  • PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
  • Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
  • NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.

TExam Day Tips

  • Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
  • Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
  • Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.

Related practice questions

Related SAA-C03 practice-question pages

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

SAA-C03 VPC practice questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.

SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.

SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.

SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.

SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.

SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.

SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.

SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.

SAA-C03 Auto Scaling practice questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 Auto Scaling.

SAA-C03 disaster recovery questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 disaster recovery questions.

SAA-C03 high availability questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 high availability questions.

SAA-C03 cost optimization questions

Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 cost optimization questions.

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 team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?

Question 2

A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?

Question 3

A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.

Question 4

A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a claims portal. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?

Question 5

A team wants to delegate IAM management to developers, but must ensure developers can never grant themselves permissions beyond a specific limit. Which AWS mechanism best matches this requirement?

Question 6

A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Keep Block Public Access enabled, remove any Allow statement to Principal="*", and use a bucket policy or access point policy that denies non-HTTPS requests and allows PutObject/GetObject only when the object key matches the authenticated user's session tag, such as arn:aws:s3:::media-originals/${aws:PrincipalTag/userId}/*. — Presigned URLs work without making the bucket public because S3 authorizes the request using the signature. The best design is to keep S3 Block Public Access enabled and ensure the bucket policy does not include public principals. Then add explicit controls: deny any request that is not using HTTPS and scope object access to the caller's identity, for example by using a session tag that maps the user to a specific prefix. This resolves AccessDenied while meeting confinement and transport requirements. Why others are wrong: Option A weakens security by disabling Block Public Access and relies on ACLs instead of policy-based constraints, risking public exposure and misconfiguration. Option C creates a public-read model via website hosting, which directly contradicts no public access and changes the access pattern. Option D changes expiration settings and uses ACLs, which does not fix policy condition failures that commonly cause 403 AccessDenied for presigned URLs.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

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

Discussion

Loading comments…

Sign in to join the discussion.