SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a centralized logging account that receives VPC Flow Logs from all accounts in the organization. The logs are stored in an S3 bucket. A security analyst needs to query the logs to identify traffic to a specific IP address. The analyst has been granted read-only access to the S3 bucket. However, the analyst cannot access the logs. What is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often overlook bucket policy conditions that restrict principal types, assuming that granting read-only access to the S3 bucket via IAM is sufficient, when in fact the bucket policy itself may explicitly deny access to non-service principals.
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 S3 bucket policy includes a condition that only allows access from the logging account's AWS service principals, not from individual IAM users.
The S3 bucket policy likely includes a condition that restricts access to only AWS service principals (e.g., the logging account's own services) rather than individual IAM users or roles from other accounts. Even with read-only access granted to the analyst's IAM user or role, the bucket policy's explicit deny for non-service principals overrides any allow, preventing the analyst from accessing the logs. This is a common cross-account access issue where bucket policies must explicitly allow principals from other accounts.
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 S3 bucket has a lifecycle policy that deletes logs after a short period.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies do not affect access permissions.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has a bucket policy that requires the analyst to assume a role in the logging account.
Why it's wrong here
The analyst already has read-only access; assuming a role may not be necessary.
- ✓
The S3 bucket policy includes a condition that only allows access from the logging account's AWS service principals, not from individual IAM users.
Why this is correct
The bucket policy likely restricts access to the logging account's role, so the analyst's direct access is denied.
- ✗
The S3 bucket is encrypted with an AWS KMS key, and the analyst does not have permissions to decrypt.
Why it's wrong here
The question does not mention encryption; this is not the most likely cause.
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
This SAP-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 SAP-C02 exam.