SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": "s3:PutObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringNotEquals": {
                    "s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption": "aws:kms"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": "s3:PutObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringNotEquals": {
                    "s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/abc123"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer applied this bucket policy to an S3 bucket. A developer tries to upload an object using the AWS CLI without specifying any encryption. What is the outcome?

⚠ Common exam trap

Watch out — candidates often assume a Deny without a matching Allow automatically blocks all requests, but they overlook that the Deny only applies when the condition is met; however, in this case, the condition is met because the request lacks the required encryption headers, so the Deny is triggered.

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 upload fails because the policy denies PutObject when encryption is not KMS with the specific key.

The bucket policy includes a Deny statement that explicitly denies s3:PutObject unless the request includes the x-amz-server-side-encryption header with value aws:kms and the x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id header matching the specific KMS key ARN. Since the developer does not specify any encryption, the condition fails, and the Deny statement applies, causing the upload to fail.

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 upload succeeds because the policy only denies if encryption is not KMS.
Why it's wrong here
The first statement denies PutObject if encryption is not equal to aws:kms. Since no encryption is specified, the condition evaluates to true (StringNotEquals), so the Deny applies.
✗
The upload fails because the bucket policy is malformed and rejects all requests.
Why it's wrong here
The policy is syntactically correct.
✓
The upload fails because the policy denies PutObject when encryption is not KMS with the specific key.
Why this is correct
Both statements deny the upload if the encryption does not match the required key. Without encryption, the condition is true, so the upload is denied.
✗
The upload succeeds because the developer is using the AWS CLI with default encryption settings.
Why it's wrong here
Default encryption settings are not applied at the time of upload; the request must include the encryption header.

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 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity

Exhibit

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Related to this question