VA-003 Assess Vault tokens Practice Question
An administrator receives an access denied error when trying to use the token accessor to revoke a token. The administrator's token has the following policy capabilities: path "auth/token/revoke-accessor" { capabilities = ["create", "update"] }. What is the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common misconception is that having 'create' and 'update' capabilities on a path is sufficient for all operations on that path, but in Vault certain sensitive endpoints like 'auth/token/revoke-accessor' also require the 'sudo' capability.
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 administrator lacks the 'sudo' capability on that path
The `auth/token/revoke-accessor` endpoint requires the `sudo` capability in addition to `create` or `update`. In Vault, certain sensitive token management operations, such as revoking a token by its accessor, are protected by the `sudo` privilege to prevent unauthorized revocation. Without `sudo`, the administrator receives an access denied error even though they have `create` and `update` capabilities on the path.
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 administrator lacks the 'sudo' capability on that path
Why this is correct
Revoking a token via its accessor requires the `sudo` capability on `auth/token/revoke-accessor`, regardless of `create` or `update` grants. Vault's token store enforces this elevated privilege because accessor-based revocation bypasses knowledge of the token ID itself, so the policy must explicitly include `sudo` to satisfy that constraint.
- ✗
The administrator's token does not have any capabilities on the path
Why it's wrong here
The policy explicitly grants create and update on auth/token/revoke-accessor, so capabilities are present and this cannot explain the denial. The real cause is that Vault checks the update capability on auth/token/revoke-accessor, which the granted set already includes. This option would fit a token with no matching policy stanza.
- ✗
The path requires 'create' and 'update' but not 'sudo'
Why it's wrong here
Vault's token revoke-accessor endpoint is not a sudo-protected path; create and update are the capabilities it checks. Adding sudo changes nothing and the access denied persists. sudo is required for paths such as sys/raw or auth/token/revoke-orphan, not for accessor revocation.
- ✗
The accessor path is incorrect; it should be auth/token/accessors/revoke
Why it's wrong here
Vault's endpoint is auth/token/revoke-accessor, taking the accessor as a parameter; auth/token/accessors/revoke does not exist, so this path is fabricated. The policy already targets the correct path. The accessors path is used for listing accessors, not revoking them.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This VA-003 question is part of Courseiva's 366-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VA-003 practice question is part of Courseiva's free HashiCorp 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 VA-003 exam.