Quick Answer
The correct answers are AWS Trusted Advisor and AWS Config. Trusted Advisor performs a high-level check of S3 bucket permissions within its security category, flagging any bucket that grants public read or write access based on the bucket’s ACLs or policies. AWS Config goes deeper by continuously evaluating S3 bucket policies against managed rules like s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited and s3-bucket-public-write-prohibited, allowing you to detect noncompliant buckets and automate remediation. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of both proactive advisory checks and continuous compliance monitoring—a common trap is assuming only one service handles public bucket detection, but the exam expects you to recognize that Trusted Advisor provides a snapshot report while Config offers ongoing evaluation and rule-based enforcement. Remember the mnemonic “TAC” for Trusted Advisor and Config: one tells you what’s open now, the other keeps watch forever.
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of management and security governance. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 needs to ensure that its S3 buckets are not publicly accessible. Which TWO AWS services can be used to detect and report on public S3 buckets? (Choose two.)
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: Incorrect: GuardDuty detects threats, not configuration issues.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Correct: Trusted Advisor checks for publicly accessible S3 buckets.
AWS Config
Correct: Config rules can evaluate S3 bucket policies for public access.
AWS CloudTrail
Why wrong: Incorrect: CloudTrail logs API calls, not bucket configurations.
Amazon Inspector
Why wrong: Incorrect: Inspector assesses EC2 instances, not S3 buckets.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Trusted Advisor
AWS Trusted Advisor (option B) checks S3 bucket permissions and reports any bucket that has open access policies, including public read or write access. AWS Config (option C) can evaluate S3 bucket policies against custom or managed rules (e.g., s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited, s3-bucket-public-write-prohibited) to detect noncompliant buckets and trigger remediation. Both services provide detection and reporting capabilities for public S3 buckets.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: GuardDuty detects threats, not configuration issues.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why this is correct
Correct: Trusted Advisor checks for publicly accessible S3 buckets.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Config
Why this is correct
Correct: Config rules can evaluate S3 bucket policies for public access.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: CloudTrail logs API calls, not bucket configurations.
Amazon Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Inspector assesses EC2 instances, not S3 buckets.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon GuardDuty's threat detection capabilities with S3 bucket policy auditing, but GuardDuty does not evaluate bucket permissions for public access; it only detects suspicious API activity after the fact.
Detailed technical explanation
AWS Config uses managed rules like s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited and s3-bucket-public-write-prohibited, which evaluate bucket ACLs and bucket policies against the 'Effect': 'Allow' and 'Principal': '*' conditions. Trusted Advisor performs a similar check by scanning bucket policies and ACLs for any grants to 'AllUsers' or 'AuthenticatedUsers' groups. Both services can integrate with Amazon EventBridge to trigger automated remediation (e.g., applying a bucket policy that denies public access).
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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.
What to study next
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FAQ
Management and Security Governance — This question tests Management and Security Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Trusted Advisor — AWS Trusted Advisor (option B) checks S3 bucket permissions and reports any bucket that has open access policies, including public read or write access. AWS Config (option C) can evaluate S3 bucket policies against custom or managed rules (e.g., s3-bucket-public-read-prohibited, s3-bucket-public-write-prohibited) to detect noncompliant buckets and trigger remediation. Both services provide detection and reporting capabilities for public S3 buckets.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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