This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of threat detection and incident response. 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.
During a security review, a security engineer notices that an S3 bucket contains sensitive data but has a bucket policy that allows access from any principal in the account. The engineer needs to identify any unintended cross-account access to this bucket. Which AWS service should be used?
AWS Config
Why wrong: Config tracks configuration changes, but does not analyze policies for cross-account access.
AWS IAM Access Analyzer
Access Analyzer reviews resource policies to identify external entities.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: Trusted Advisor checks for security best practices but not specific policy analysis.
Amazon Macie
Why wrong: Macie discovers sensitive data, but does not analyze policies for unintended access.
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 IAM Access Analyzer
AWS IAM Access Analyzer helps identify resources that are shared with external principals by analyzing resource-based policies (like S3 bucket policies). In this scenario, the bucket policy allows access from any principal in the account, but IAM Access Analyzer can detect if the policy also grants access to principals outside the AWS account (cross-account access). It generates findings for any policy that allows access from an external entity, making it the correct service to identify unintended cross-account access.
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.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config tracks configuration changes, but does not analyze policies for cross-account access.
AWS IAM Access Analyzer
Why this is correct
Access Analyzer reviews resource policies to identify external entities.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor checks for security best practices but not specific policy analysis.
Amazon Macie
Why it's wrong here
Macie discovers sensitive data, but does not analyze policies for unintended access.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Config (which can detect public S3 buckets) with IAM Access Analyzer (which specifically detects cross-account access), leading them to choose Config when the question explicitly asks for unintended cross-account access, not just public access.
Detailed technical explanation
IAM Access Analyzer uses a form of automated reasoning (based on Zelkova, AWS's policy analysis engine) to evaluate all resource-based policies in a zone of trust and generate findings when a policy grants access to a principal outside that zone. For S3 buckets, it examines the bucket policy, ACLs, and any public access block settings to determine if cross-account access is allowed. A subtle behavior: IAM Access Analyzer does not consider IAM user or role permissions—only resource-based policies—so if cross-account access is granted via an IAM role in the same account, it would not generate a finding.
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
Threat Detection and Incident Response — This question tests Threat Detection and Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS IAM Access Analyzer — AWS IAM Access Analyzer helps identify resources that are shared with external principals by analyzing resource-based policies (like S3 bucket policies). In this scenario, the bucket policy allows access from any principal in the account, but IAM Access Analyzer can detect if the policy also grants access to principals outside the AWS account (cross-account access). It generates findings for any policy that allows access from an external entity, making it the correct service to identify unintended cross-account access.
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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