This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 SysOps administrator needs to grant cross-account access to an S3 bucket in Account A for an IAM user in Account B. The bucket policy in Account A allows the IAM user's account root principal. What additional configuration is required?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Attach an IAM policy to the user in Account B that allows the required S3 actions
D is correct because cross-account access to an S3 bucket requires both a bucket policy that grants access to the root principal of the target account (Account B) and an IAM policy attached to the user in Account B that explicitly allows the desired S3 actions. Without the IAM policy, the user in Account B has no permissions to perform any S3 operations, even though the bucket policy in Account A permits the account root. The IAM policy acts as the identity-based permission that authorizes the specific user to invoke the S3 API calls.
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.
✗
Modify the AWS KMS key policy to allow the user in Account B
Why it's wrong here
This is only needed if the bucket uses SSE-KMS.
✗
Add a bucket ACL granting access to the user in Account B
Why it's wrong here
Bucket ACLs are not required and are less secure than bucket policies.
✗
Add an AWS Organizations service control policy to allow access
Why it's wrong here
SCPs restrict permissions, they do not grant them.
✓
Attach an IAM policy to the user in Account B that allows the required S3 actions
Why this is correct
The user needs an IAM policy that grants the S3 actions.
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 assume the bucket policy alone is sufficient for cross-account access, forgetting that the IAM user in the target account must also have an explicit IAM policy allowing the S3 actions, as AWS requires both resource-based and identity-based permissions to be evaluated and both must allow the operation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-account S3 access relies on a combination of resource-based policies (bucket policy) and identity-based policies (IAM user policy). The bucket policy in Account A must specify the root user ARN of Account B (e.g., `arn:aws:iam::AccountB:root`) to delegate permission to the entire account, and then the IAM policy in Account B must explicitly allow the user to perform actions like `s3:GetObject` or `s3:PutObject`. This two-step authorization is enforced by AWS IAM's evaluation logic, where both policies must grant the action for the request to succeed. A common real-world scenario is when a company needs to share logs or data with a partner; the partner's IAM users must have their own policies to access the shared bucket.
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.
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.
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Attach an IAM policy to the user in Account B that allows the required S3 actions — D is correct because cross-account access to an S3 bucket requires both a bucket policy that grants access to the root principal of the target account (Account B) and an IAM policy attached to the user in Account B that explicitly allows the desired S3 actions. Without the IAM policy, the user in Account B has no permissions to perform any S3 operations, even though the bucket policy in Account A permits the account root. The IAM policy acts as the identity-based permission that authorizes the specific user to invoke the S3 API calls.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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