- A
The condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped, causing the deny to apply to all principals including SecurityAdminRole.
Correct – The condition likely does not properly exclude SecurityAdminRole, so the deny applies to all.
- B
The SCP is applied to the root organizational unit (OU), which includes the management account where the root user is not affected by SCPs.
Why wrong: Incorrect – Root user is not affected by SCPs, but SecurityAdminRole is in a member account, so the SCP should affect it.
- C
The SecurityAdminRole does not have the necessary IAM permissions to stop CloudTrail logging.
Why wrong: Incorrect – The engineer would have granted the permissions via IAM policy; the issue is the SCP.
- D
The S3 bucket policy on the CloudTrail bucket denies access to the SecurityAdminRole.
Why wrong: Incorrect – The bucket policy could be the issue, but the most likely cause is the SCP condition.
SCS-C02 Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys 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. A key principle to apply: service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys. 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 runs a critical application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application processes financial transactions and must store transaction logs in an Amazon S3 bucket. The security team requires that all API calls to AWS services are logged and that the logs are stored in a secure, tamper-proof manner. The team enables AWS CloudTrail to log management events and Amazon S3 server access logs for the S3 bucket. They also enable AWS Config to track resource changes. The compliance team wants to ensure that no one can disable CloudTrail logging or delete the CloudTrail log files. The security engineer proposes a solution using an SCP in AWS Organizations to deny actions that would disable CloudTrail or delete log files. However, the engineer is concerned that the SCP might be applied too broadly and affect legitimate administrative actions. The engineer wants to ensure that only the security team’s IAM role (SecurityAdminRole) can perform these restricted actions, while all other principals (including IAM users, roles, and the root user) are denied. The engineer creates an SCP that denies cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject on the CloudTrail S3 bucket. The SCP includes a condition that allows the action if the principal is SecurityAdminRole. However, after applying the SCP, the security team finds that even SecurityAdminRole is unable to stop CloudTrail logging. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
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.
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 condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped, causing the deny to apply to all principals including SecurityAdminRole.
The most likely cause is that the condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped. SCPs deny by default; to allow only a specific role, you must explicitly exclude that role from the deny using a condition key like `aws:PrincipalArn` with a `StringNotEquals` operator. If the condition is misconfigured (e.g., using `StringEquals` instead of `StringNotEquals`, or incorrectly formatting the ARN), the deny will apply to the SecurityAdminRole as well. Option B is incorrect because SCPs applied to the root OU affect all accounts, including the management account except the root user, but that doesn't explain why SecurityAdminRole is blocked. Option C is incorrect because even if SecurityAdminRole has the necessary IAM permissions, SCP denies override them. Option D is incorrect because if the SCP denies the action, the S3 bucket policy is irrelevant for this issue.
Key principle: Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped, causing the deny to apply to all principals including SecurityAdminRole.
Why this is correct
Correct – The condition likely does not properly exclude SecurityAdminRole, so the deny applies to all.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys
- ✗
The SCP is applied to the root organizational unit (OU), which includes the management account where the root user is not affected by SCPs.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect – Root user is not affected by SCPs, but SecurityAdminRole is in a member account, so the SCP should affect it.
- ✗
The SecurityAdminRole does not have the necessary IAM permissions to stop CloudTrail logging.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect – The engineer would have granted the permissions via IAM policy; the issue is the SCP.
- ✗
The S3 bucket policy on the CloudTrail bucket denies access to the SecurityAdminRole.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect – The bucket policy could be the issue, but the most likely cause is the SCP condition.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Treat this as a scenario question. Identify the problem, the constraint, and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys
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
Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys
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 service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys, then practise related SCS-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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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 — Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped, causing the deny to apply to all principals including SecurityAdminRole. — The most likely cause is that the condition in the SCP is incorrectly scoped. SCPs deny by default; to allow only a specific role, you must explicitly exclude that role from the deny using a condition key like `aws:PrincipalArn` with a `StringNotEquals` operator. If the condition is misconfigured (e.g., using `StringEquals` instead of `StringNotEquals`, or incorrectly formatting the ARN), the deny will apply to the SecurityAdminRole as well. Option B is incorrect because SCPs applied to the root OU affect all accounts, including the management account except the root user, but that doesn't explain why SecurityAdminRole is blocked. Option C is incorrect because even if SecurityAdminRole has the necessary IAM permissions, SCP denies override them. Option D is incorrect because if the SCP denies the action, the S3 bucket policy is irrelevant for this issue.
What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 question wrong?
Review service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys, then practise related SCS-C02 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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?
Service Control Policy (SCP) Condition Keys
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
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