SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
A security engineer notices that S3 server access logs are not being delivered to the specified destination bucket. The source bucket has a bucket policy that grants s3:PutObject permission to the Log Delivery group. The destination bucket is in the same AWS account but a different region. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume cross-region S3 operations are always supported (e.g., cross-region replication), but S3 server access logging has a specific regional restriction that is easy to overlook.
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 destination bucket is in a different AWS region.
S3 server access logs are delivered by the Log Delivery group, which is a special AWS service principal. When the destination bucket is in a different AWS region, the Log Delivery group cannot write logs cross-region because S3 server access logging only supports delivering logs to a bucket in the same region as the source bucket. This is a hard limitation of the S3 service, not a permission or configuration issue.
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 destination bucket does not have versioning enabled.
Why it's wrong here
S3 server access logging does not require the destination bucket to have versioning enabled. Versioning is an optional data-protection feature that maintains multiple versions of objects; while it can help preserve log files, its absence has no effect on whether S3 can write new log objects. The only hard requirements are that the destination bucket is in the same AWS Region and that the Log Delivery group has write permission via a bucket policy or ACL. Therefore, a non-versioned destination bucket would not cause logs to be missing.
- ✗
The destination bucket is in a different AWS account.
Why it's wrong here
S3 server access logs can be delivered to a destination bucket in a different AWS account, so this is not inherently a problem. The destination bucket needs a bucket policy that explicitly grants the source account's Log Delivery group the s3:PutObject permission, and the source bucket's logging configuration must reference the target bucket's name. When properly configured, cross-account log delivery is commonly used for centralized security monitoring across organizational accounts. Thus, a different AWS account would not prevent log delivery.
- ✗
The Log Delivery group does not have an IAM role assigned.
Why it's wrong here
The Log Delivery group is a canonical AWS user, not an IAM role, so assigning an IAM role to it is neither possible nor necessary. S3 server access logging relies on the destination bucket's ACL or bucket policy to grant the Log Delivery group's canonical user ID write access (s3:PutObject). IAM roles are used by other AWS services, but S3 server access logs specifically use this pre-defined group for authorization. Consequently, the absence of an assigned IAM role is irrelevant to the missing logs.
- ✓
The destination bucket is in a different AWS region.
Why this is correct
S3 server access logs must be delivered to a destination bucket in the same AWS Region as the source bucket. The S3 logging infrastructure delivers log objects using regional endpoints, and cross-region log delivery is not supported for server access logging. If you attempt to use a destination bucket in a different Region, the configuration may fail validation in the console or, in some cases, the logs will not be delivered. This Region mismatch is precisely why the security engineer observes no server access logs flowing to the destination bucket.
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 |
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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.