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CV0-004 Practice Question: Refer to the exhibit
Exhibit
Error: ["Failed to retrieve secret. Your access key is invalid."]
Refer to the exhibit. A cloud administrator is trying to retrieve a secret from a cloud secrets manager using a script with an access key and secret key. The script returns the error shown. The keys were newly created. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
This question tests the concept of eventual consistency and propagation delays for newly created IAM credentials, tricking candidates into thinking the issue is with the secret itself or the region rather than the access key activation status.
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 access key is not activated or has a propagation delay.
Newly created access keys in IAM can take several minutes to propagate across all regions and services due to eventual consistency. The script returns an authentication error because the access key is not yet activated or fully propagated, even though the keys were just created. This is a common issue when using access keys immediately after creation.
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 secret is encrypted with a different KMS key.
Why it's wrong here
This would typically cause an 'access denied' error, not 'invalid access key'.
- ✗
The script is using the wrong region.
Why it's wrong here
Wrong region would result in an error like 'The secret 'arn:...' does not exist in this region'.
- ✗
The secret does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
If the secret did not exist, the error would be 'secret not found', not 'access key invalid'.
- ✓
The access key is not activated or has a propagation delay.
Why this is correct
Newly created keys can take a few minutes to propagate; until then, they may be considered invalid.
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JA
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.