hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CV0-004 Practice Question: A company experiences a data breach where an…
A company experiences a data breach where an attacker exfiltrated data from a cloud storage bucket. The security team discovers that the bucket had a policy allowing public access. The cloud administrator had previously set the bucket to be private. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason the bucket became public?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that setting a bucket to private in the console or via ACLs is sufficient to prevent public access, ignoring that a bucket policy can independently grant public access and override those settings.
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
✓
An IAM role with administrative privileges applied a bucket policy that overrode the private setting.
A bucket policy that grants public access (e.g., `Principal: "*"` with `Effect: "Allow"`) can override the private block public access setting at the bucket level. Even if the cloud administrator set the bucket to private via the console or ACLs, an IAM role with administrative privileges can apply a bucket policy that explicitly allows public access, effectively making the bucket public. This is because bucket policies are evaluated separately and can grant permissions that supersede other access controls.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
An IAM role with administrative privileges applied a bucket policy that overrode the private setting.
Why this is correct
A bucket policy can supersede the block public access settings if the role has sufficient permissions.
- ✗
The bucket had versioning enabled, which reverted to a previous public state.
Why it's wrong here
Versioning does not revert access policies.
- ✗
Access logs were not enabled, so the change was not recorded.
Why it's wrong here
Lack of logging does not cause the bucket to become public.
- ✗
Server-side encryption was disabled, causing the bucket to become public.
Why it's wrong here
Encryption settings do not affect public access.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.