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Identity and Access Management →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SCS-C02 Identity and Access Management Practice Question

This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of identity and access management. 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 security engineer is designing an IAM policy to allow an application running on an EC2 instance to read objects from a specific S3 bucket (my-bucket) and write objects to a different S3 bucket (my-other-bucket). The application uses an IAM role with the following trust policy. Which additional policy should be attached to the role to meet the requirements with least privilege?

Clue words in this question

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

Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

A
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::*/*" } ] }
Why wrong: Grants access to all S3 buckets, overly permissive.
B
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": "s3:*", "Resource": "*" } ] }
Why wrong: Grants full S3 access, violating least privilege.
C
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-other-bucket/*" } ] }
Correctly scopes read to my-bucket and write to my-other-bucket.
D
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" } ] }
Why wrong: Grants PutObject to my-bucket instead of my-other-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

✓

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-other-bucket/*" } ] }

Option C is the correct answer because it grants only the necessary actions (s3:GetObject and s3:PutObject) on the specific buckets (my-bucket for read, my-other-bucket for write), adhering to the principle of least privilege. Option A is incorrect because it allows both GetObject and PutObject on all buckets (*/*), which is too permissive. Option B grants full S3 access (*) to all resources, violating least privilege. Option D only allows PutObject on my-bucket instead of my-other-bucket, failing to meet the write requirement.

Key principle: Authentication proves identity; authorization controls what that identity can do after login. Both must work for full privileged access.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

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

✗
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::*/*" } ] }
Why it's wrong here
Grants access to all S3 buckets, overly permissive.
✗
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": "s3:*", "Resource": "*" } ] }
Why it's wrong here
Grants full S3 access, violating least privilege.
✓
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-other-bucket/*" } ] }
Why this is correct
Correctly scopes read to my-bucket and write to my-other-bucket.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Authentication checks who the user is.
✗
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" } ] }
Why it's wrong here
Grants PutObject to my-bucket instead of my-other-bucket.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: authentication is not authorization

Logging in proves the user can authenticate. It does not automatically mean the user is allowed to enter privileged or configuration mode. Watch for AAA authorization, privilege level and command authorization details.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This kind of question is testing the difference between identity and permission. A user may successfully log in to a router because authentication is working, but still fail to enter configuration mode because authorization is missing, misconfigured or mapped to a lower privilege level.

KKey Concepts to Remember

Authentication checks who the user is.
Authorization controls what the user is allowed to do after login.
Privilege levels affect access to EXEC and configuration commands.
AAA, TACACS+ and RADIUS can separate login success from command access.

TExam Day Tips

Do not assume successful login means full administrative access.
Look for words such as cannot enter configuration mode, privilege level, authorization or command access.
Separate login problems from permission problems before choosing the answer.

Key takeaway

Authentication proves identity; authorization controls what that identity can do after login. Both must work for full privileged access.

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.

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.

Review Cisco AAA concepts — authentication, authorization, and accounting. Study privilege levels (0–15), command authorization under TACACS+, and how RADIUS differs. Then practise related SCS-C02 questions on access control and AAA configuration.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SCS-C02 question test?

Identity and Access Management — This question tests Identity and Access Management — Authentication checks who the user is..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-other-bucket/*" } ] } — Option C is the correct answer because it grants only the necessary actions (s3:GetObject and s3:PutObject) on the specific buckets (my-bucket for read, my-other-bucket for write), adhering to the principle of least privilege. Option A is incorrect because it allows both GetObject and PutObject on all buckets (*/*), which is too permissive. Option B grants full S3 access (*) to all resources, violating least privilege. Option D only allows PutObject on my-bucket instead of my-other-bucket, failing to meet the write requirement.

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

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Authentication checks who the user is.

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