easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

CISA Practice Question: Refer to the exhibit

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Exhibit:
Configuration file for an Amazon S3 bucket policy:
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": "*",
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}

Refer to the exhibit. A CISA is reviewing this S3 bucket policy. What is the PRIMARY security concern?

⚠ Common exam trap

ISACA often tests the distinction between 'public read' and 'public write' — candidates may incorrectly assume the policy allows write access because it uses `"*"`, but the action is specifically `s3:GetObject`, so only read is permitted.

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 bucket is configured for public read access

The bucket policy explicitly grants `s3:GetObject` to `Principal: "*"` with `Effect: "Allow"`, which means any unauthenticated user on the internet can read objects in the bucket. This is a classic misconfiguration that leads to public read access, exposing sensitive data. While encryption and versioning are important security controls, the immediate and most severe risk is unauthorized data disclosure via public read.

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 bucket is configured for public read access
Why this is correct
The policy grants anonymous read access to all objects.
✗
Encryption is not enforced on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Encryption is not addressed in this policy.
✗
The policy allows unauthorized write access
Why it's wrong here
The policy only allows GetObject (read), not write.
✗
Versioning is not enabled on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Versioning is not indicated in the policy.

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

CISA Practice Question: Refer to the exhibit

Exhibit

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Related to this question