← SCS-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 771 of 1,748

Security Logging and Monitoring →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Why Are CloudTrail Logs Not Delivered to Central S3? Bucket Policy Permissions

This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team wants to centralize all CloudTrail logs from all accounts into a single S3 bucket in the management account. The bucket policy allows cross-account access. However, logs from member accounts are not being delivered. What is the most likely cause?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

A
CloudTrail cannot deliver logs to a bucket in a different account.
Why wrong: Cross-account delivery is supported with proper permissions.
B
The S3 bucket is not configured with a CloudTrail prefix.
Why wrong: Prefix configuration does not affect delivery permissions.
C
CloudTrail is not enabled in the member accounts.
Why wrong: CloudTrail is enabled by default in all accounts.
D
The S3 bucket policy does not grant `s3:PutObject` permission to the member accounts.
Without this permission, CloudTrail cannot write logs to the bucket.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 S3 bucket policy does not grant `s3:PutObject` permission to the member accounts.

Option D is correct because the S3 bucket policy must explicitly grant the `s3:PutObject` permission to the IAM roles or users from the member accounts that CloudTrail uses to deliver logs. Without this permission, CloudTrail in the member accounts cannot write log files to the central bucket, even if the bucket is configured for cross-account access. The bucket policy must also include a condition that the object ownership is set to the bucket owner (via `s3:x-amz-acl: bucket-owner-full-control`) to ensure the management account retains control.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
CloudTrail cannot deliver logs to a bucket in a different account.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-account delivery is supported with proper permissions.
✗
The S3 bucket is not configured with a CloudTrail prefix.
Why it's wrong here
Prefix configuration does not affect delivery permissions.
✗
CloudTrail is not enabled in the member accounts.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail is enabled by default in all accounts.
✓
The S3 bucket policy does not grant `s3:PutObject` permission to the member accounts.
Why this is correct
Without this permission, CloudTrail cannot write logs to the bucket.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often assume CloudTrail cannot deliver across accounts (Option A) or that a missing prefix (Option B) is the issue, when in fact the root cause is almost always an insufficiently permissive S3 bucket policy that does not grant `s3:PutObject` to the member accounts' CloudTrail roles.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, CloudTrail in a member account assumes an IAM role (typically named `CloudTrailRole`) that has permissions to write to the destination S3 bucket. The bucket policy must include a statement that allows the `s3:PutObject` action for the member account's CloudTrail role ARN, and often includes a condition requiring `s3:x-amz-acl: bucket-owner-full-control` to ensure the management account owns the objects. A common real-world scenario is when the bucket policy is written with the wrong principal (e.g., the member account root user instead of the CloudTrail service principal or the specific role), causing silent failures.

KKey Concepts to Remember

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.

TExam Day Tips

Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.

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

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SCS-C02 question test?

Security Logging and Monitoring — This question tests Security Logging and Monitoring — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: The S3 bucket policy does not grant `s3:PutObject` permission to the member accounts. — Option D is correct because the S3 bucket policy must explicitly grant the `s3:PutObject` permission to the IAM roles or users from the member accounts that CloudTrail uses to deliver logs. Without this permission, CloudTrail in the member accounts cannot write log files to the central bucket, even if the bucket is configured for cross-account access. The bucket policy must also include a condition that the object ownership is set to the bucket owner (via `s3:x-amz-acl: bucket-owner-full-control`) to ensure the management account retains control.

What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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