SCS-C02 Management and Security Governance Practice Question
Network Topology
A security engineer runs the above CloudTrail lookup command to investigate a change to the S3 bucket policy. The command only returns one event, but the engineer knows that the bucket policy was changed multiple times. What is the most likely reason?
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 command is limiting results to one event.
The command uses --max-results 1, limiting output to one event. Option A is wrong because changes through the AWS Management Console are logged by CloudTrail. Option B is wrong because PutBucketPolicy is supported by CloudTrail and the event shown confirms it. Option C is wrong because filtering by ResourceName is not the issue; the --max-results parameter is the cause.
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 changes were made through the AWS Management Console, which is not logged.
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect because AWS CloudTrail records management events regardless of whether they originate from the AWS Management Console, CLI, or SDKs. PutBucketPolicy is a management event for S3 and appears in CloudTrail when performed through the console. The actual reason no events seem to appear is that the command uses --max-results 1, which truncates the output to a single event.
- ✗
The event is not logged because PutBucketPolicy is not supported by CloudTrail.
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect. PutBucketPolicy is a supported S3 control-plane (management) API and is logged by CloudTrail as a management event. S3 API calls such as PutBucketPolicy, DeleteBucketPolicy, and GetBucketPolicy are all tracked, so the absence of output is not due to lack of CloudTrail support. The command's --max-results parameter is what hides additional matching events.
- ✗
The command is filtering by the wrong attribute.
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect because EventName is a valid LookupAttribute Key for the lookup-events operation, and PutBucketPolicy is an accurate event name for that API call. Other valid attribute keys include EventSource, Username, ResourceType, and ResourceName, but EventName is appropriate here. The filtering attribute is correct; the output is constrained by the maximum-results setting.
- ✓
The command is limiting results to one event.
Why this is correct
This is correct. The aws cloudtrail lookup-events --max-results 1 option instructs CloudTrail to return only one event from the matching results, even if many PutBucketPolicy events exist. The LookupEvents API returns up to 50 events per page, and --max-results limits that page size; additional matches require pagination with NextToken or a higher value. Thus the command does not prove that no other bucket policy changes occurred.
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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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.