CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A cloud administrator is asked to give the security team read-only visibility into all objects stored in an Amazon S3 bucket used for application logs, without granting the ability to delete or overwrite any object. The security team authenticates as an IAM role. Which action should the administrator take?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating a broad s3:* bucket policy as equivalent to read-only access when it also permits destructive actions.
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
✓
Attach an IAM policy granting s3:GetObject and s3:ListBucket on the bucket and its objects to the security team's role.
The request is for ongoing, role-based read access limited to viewing and listing log objects. An IAM policy naming s3:GetObject on the objects and s3:ListBucket on the bucket delivers precisely that, while omitting the write and delete actions that would breach the constraint. Broad wildcards, public sharing, and per-object presigned URLs either over-grant, fail to authenticate the role, or cannot cover future objects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Apply an S3 bucket policy that allows s3:* for the security team's role principal on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Allowing s3:* grants far more than read access, including the ability to delete and overwrite objects, which directly violates the requirement. It also creates a broad privilege that is hard to audit. Least privilege calls for naming only the read and list actions rather than wildcarding the entire service namespace.
- ✗
Enable S3 Block Public Access on the bucket and share the object URLs with the security team.
Why it's wrong here
Block Public Access prevents public exposure, which is good hygiene, but sharing URLs does not authenticate the security team as a role and does not grant programmatic list or read permissions through IAM. If the objects are private, the URLs fail for them. It does not deliver the requested role-based read access and could encourage loosening access later.
- ✓
Attach an IAM policy granting s3:GetObject and s3:ListBucket on the bucket and its objects to the security team's role.
Why this is correct
Granting s3:GetObject on the object ARN and s3:ListBucket on the bucket ARN gives exactly the read and enumerate permissions needed, and nothing more. Delete and overwrite operations require s3:DeleteObject and s3:PutObject, which are not included, so the team cannot modify the logs. This is the least-privilege way to satisfy the request using IAM.
- ✗
Create a presigned URL for each object and distribute the URLs to the security team.
Why it's wrong here
Presigned URLs grant temporary access to individual objects and expire, so they do not provide durable list-and-read visibility across the whole bucket. Distributing them is operationally heavy and does not map to the team's IAM role. They also cannot enumerate new objects added after the URLs were generated, which breaks ongoing log review.
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 |
Go deeper
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This CV0-004 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 CV0-004 exam.