SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management Practice Question

An IAM policy includes the following statement: 'Effect': 'Deny', 'Action': 's3:*', 'Resource': '*', 'Condition': {'Bool': {'aws:SecureTransport': 'false'}}. What does this policy do?

⚠ Common exam trap

SCS-C02 often tests the difference between explicit Deny and Allow, and candidates may misinterpret the condition as allowing HTTPS instead of denying HTTP.

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

✓

Denies all S3 actions when the request is not using HTTPS.

The policy statement has an explicit Deny effect for all S3 actions on all resources, with a condition that the request must have aws:SecureTransport set to false. aws:SecureTransport is a global condition key that evaluates to true if the request uses SSL/TLS, and false otherwise. Therefore, the policy denies all S3 actions when the request is not using HTTPS (i.e., when SecureTransport is false).

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
Denies all S3 actions when the request is not using HTTPS.
Why this is correct
The policy statement uses "Effect": "Deny" with a condition key "aws:SecureTransport" set to "false". Since "Resource" is "*", it denies every S3 API action—on any bucket or object—when the request is transmitted over HTTP without TLS. This is a standard pattern to enforce HTTPS: any request where the secure transport boolean is false is blocked, while HTTPS requests remain unaffected by this statement.
✗
Denies all S3 actions to a specific bucket.
Why it's wrong here
The "Resource" element is set to "*", which matches all S3 buckets and objects across the account, not a singular bucket ARN such as "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket". The policy’s scope is global from a resource standpoint, so it cannot be characterized as denying actions to a specific bucket. Moreover, the denial is conditionally tied to the lack of HTTPS, not to any particular bucket name or prefix.
✗
Denies all S3 actions for all users.
Why it's wrong here
The statement does not apply unconditionally to every user; it includes a condition that only triggers the deny when "aws:SecureTransport" is "false", meaning the request is over HTTP. Users or principals that send requests via HTTPS will not be denied by this statement. Additionally, the policy has no explicit "Principal" field, so its effect depends on where it is attached (e.g., an IAM user, group, or role), and it does not by itself apply to all IAM users globally.
✗
Allows all S3 actions only when using HTTPS.
Why it's wrong here
This option misstates the effect: the policy has "Deny", not "Allow", so it never grants or permits an S3 action. The condition is phrased as a deny when SecureTransport is false, which indirectly favors HTTPS by blocking HTTP requests, but it does not positively allow access. An "Allow only when HTTPS" pattern would require an separate Allow statement with a condition like "Bool": {"aws:SecureTransport": "true"}; this statement alone cannot allow anything.

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

SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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