hardMultiple Choice
CCSP Practice Question: A cloud security analyst is investigating a…
A cloud security analyst is investigating a potential data breach. They discover that an employee's credentials were used to access a cloud storage bucket containing sensitive files. The access logs show the employee accessed the bucket from an IP address in a different country during the time of the incident. Which of the following is the MOST likely attack vector?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between credential theft and misconfiguration; the trap here is that candidates see 'different country' and assume a public bucket (option C) because they confuse geographic anomaly with open access, but the logs explicitly show credential usage, ruling out anonymous access.
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 employee's credentials were stolen via a phishing attack
The scenario describes a classic credential theft attack: an employee's credentials are used from an anomalous geographic location to access sensitive cloud storage. Phishing is the most common vector for stealing credentials, as it tricks users into revealing their passwords, which are then reused by attackers to authenticate to cloud services like AWS S3 or Azure Blob Storage. The access logs showing a foreign IP address strongly indicate the credentials were compromised and used by an unauthorized party, not the employee.
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 employee intentionally accessed the data from that country
Why it's wrong here
Deliberate access by the legitimate employee would not explain the foreign IP unless the employee was abroad; the scenario's framing points to credential compromise, such as phishing or credential stuffing, where stolen credentials are replayed from attacker infrastructure. It is tempting because insider threat is a valid vector, but only when evidence ties the employee to the activity.
- ✗
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack overwhelmed access controls
Why it's wrong here
A DDoS attack saturates availability; it does not authenticate as a user or grant access to a bucket. The logs show successful authenticated access from a foreign IP, which points to stolen credentials. DDoS would be the answer if the symptom were service unavailability rather than unauthorised data retrieval.
- ✗
The cloud storage bucket was misconfigured as public
Why it's wrong here
A public bucket would allow unauthenticated access without using the employee's credentials, yet the logs show those specific credentials were used, indicating credential compromise rather than exposure. Public buckets are the right finding when anonymous requests appear in access logs, not authenticated ones from an unexpected location.
- ✓
The employee's credentials were stolen via a phishing attack
Why this is correct
Credentials valid for the employee account, combined with access from a foreign IP inconsistent with normal behaviour, indicate the account was compromised rather than misused legitimately. Phishing captures credentials directly, enabling the attacker to authenticate as the employee and reach the bucket.
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
Related to this question
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CCSP exam.