SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a central logging account and multiple workload accounts. The security team requires that all VPC Flow Logs be delivered to a central S3 bucket in the logging account. The VPC Flow Logs are encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key in the logging account. The workload accounts have created VPC Flow Logs, but the logs are not appearing in the central S3 bucket. The IAM role used by VPC Flow Logs in the workload accounts has the necessary permissions to deliver logs to the central S3 bucket. What is the most likely cause of the issue?
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 KMS key policy in the logging account does not grant the VPC Flow Logs service principal permission to use the key.
Even though the IAM role in the workload account has permissions to write to the S3 bucket, the KMS key policy in the logging account must explicitly grant the VPC Flow Logs service principal permission to use the key for encryption. Without this key policy statement, the logs cannot be encrypted and delivered. Option A is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs can be delivered directly to S3 without CloudWatch Logs. Option B is incorrect because a bucket policy denying workload accounts would be an issue, but the question states the IAM role has necessary permissions, and the key policy is the missing piece. Option C is incorrect because encryption in transit is not a common requirement for VPC Flow Logs delivery to S3, and the issue is about encryption at rest using KMS.
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 VPC Flow Logs are being delivered to CloudWatch Logs instead of S3.
Why it's wrong here
If configured for S3, they go directly to S3.
- ✗
The S3 bucket policy denies access to the workload accounts.
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policy is likely correct if IAM role has permissions.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has a bucket policy that requires encryption in transit.
Why it's wrong here
Not relevant to missing logs.
- ✓
The KMS key policy in the logging account does not grant the VPC Flow Logs service principal permission to use the key.
Why this is correct
Key policy must allow the service principal from workload accounts.
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.