SCS-C02 Management and Security Governance Practice Question
A company has an S3 bucket that contains sensitive data. The bucket policy allows access only from a specific VPC endpoint. A security engineer notices that objects in the bucket are being deleted by an IAM user from outside the VPC. The engineer checks the bucket policy and confirms that the policy denies access if the request does not come from the VPC endpoint. However, the deletions continue. What is the most likely cause?
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 IAM user is the bucket owner and the bucket policy does not apply to the owner.
The bucket owner (the root user of the AWS account that owns the bucket) is not subject to bucket policies. Since the IAM user is the bucket owner (same account), the bucket policy's deny condition does not restrict their actions. Therefore, the IAM user can delete objects from outside the VPC. Option A is incorrect because the bucket policy does deny s3:DeleteObject for non-VPC requests; the issue is that the policy does not apply to the owner. Option B is incorrect because the VPC endpoint policy only applies to requests coming through the endpoint, and the user is not using the endpoint. Option D is incorrect because ACLs are not relevant here; even if an ACL allowed the deletion, the bucket policy would typically override it, but again, the policy does not apply to the owner.
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 bucket policy is missing a Deny statement for the s3:DeleteObject action.
Why it's wrong here
The policy already denies access from outside VPC; it should cover all actions.
- ✗
The VPC endpoint policy allows the deletion.
Why it's wrong here
VPC endpoint policy is separate; if the bucket policy denies, it should block.
- ✓
The IAM user is the bucket owner and the bucket policy does not apply to the owner.
Why this is correct
Bucket policies do not apply to the account that owns the bucket; IAM policies would need to be used.
- ✗
The bucket has an ACL that allows the IAM user to delete objects.
Why it's wrong here
ACLs are not likely if the policy is set to VPC endpoint.
Visual reference
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SCS-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 376-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SCS-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 SCS-C02 exam.