SAP-C02 AWS CloudFormation StackSets Practice Question

A company has multiple AWS accounts managed using AWS Organizations. The security team wants to enforce that all new accounts automatically have a specific AWS Config rule enabled to prohibit public S3 bucket access. Which solution requires the least operational overhead?

⚠ Common exam trap

Test-takers frequently think SCPs can enforce configuration standards, but SCPs only control API actions and cannot create or enable resources like Config rules. The correct approach is to use a deployment mechanism such as CloudFormation StackSets to automatically deploy the rule across accounts.

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

✓

Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy the AWS Config rule to all accounts.

AWS CloudFormation StackSets can deploy the AWS Config rule to all accounts in the organization. With automatic deployment enabled, new accounts will automatically receive the rule, requiring minimal operational overhead after initial setup. Option B is incorrect because it only sets up an aggregator and does not enable any rule. Option C is incorrect because SCPs cannot automatically enable Config rules; they only control API actions. Option D is incorrect because it denies the s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock action but does not enable the required Config rule, failing to meet the explicit requirement.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy the AWS Config rule to all accounts.
Why this is correct
Correct. CloudFormation StackSets can deploy the Config rule to all accounts, and with automatic deployment, new accounts automatically receive it, offering the least operational overhead for this requirement.
✗
Enable AWS Config in the management account and use an aggregator for all accounts.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Enabling AWS Config in the management account and using an aggregator only provides a central view of compliance; it does not enable any specific rule in individual accounts.
✗
Use an SCP to automatically enable the AWS Config rule in all accounts.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. SCPs cannot automatically enable AWS Config rules; they only control allowed or denied API actions and cannot create resources.
✗
Use an SCP to deny the s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock action if a specific tag is not present.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. This SCP denies an API action but does not enable the required Config rule. The requirement is to have a specific Config rule enabled, which is not achieved by this SCP.

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

SAP-C02 AWS CloudFormation StackSets Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Related to this question