SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company wants to ensure that no IAM user in any account can create access keys. The company uses AWS Organizations. Which approach should be used?
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
✓
Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies iam:CreateAccessKey
A Service Control Policy (SCP) attached to the root organizational unit denies the iam:CreateAccessKey action across all accounts in the organization, providing centralized enforcement. Option A is wrong because CloudTrail logs events but does not prevent them. Option B is wrong because applying an IAM policy in each account is not centrally managed and may be overridden by administrator permissions. Option D is wrong because AWS Config detects but cannot prevent the action, and the remediation Lambda may have a delay.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable AWS CloudTrail and set up a metric filter for CreateAccessKey
Why it's wrong here
Only logs, does not prevent.
- ✗
Apply an IAM policy to all users in each account that denies iam:CreateAccessKey
Why it's wrong here
Not centrally managed.
- ✓
Attach an SCP to the root OU that denies iam:CreateAccessKey
Why this is correct
SCPs centrally deny actions across all accounts.
- ✗
Use AWS Config to detect access key creation and trigger a Lambda to delete the key
Why it's wrong here
Reactive, not preventive.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.