ISC Infrastructure And System Security Practice Question
You are auditing a GCP environment. You discover that a Cloud Function is accessing a Cloud Storage bucket using the default Compute Engine service account. What is the primary security risk?
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 default service account has excessive permissions and is shared across services.
The default service account often has 'Editor' permissions on the project, violating the principle of least privilege. It should be replaced with a dedicated, fine-grained identity.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Functions do not support custom service accounts.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Functions support custom service accounts and it is a best practice.
- ✗
The storage bucket requires a specific bucket-level IAM policy.
Why it's wrong here
While true, this does not address the risk of the overly permissive identity.
- ✗
The default service account lacks the 'Owner' role.
Why it's wrong here
The lack of 'Owner' is a positive security posture, not a risk.
- ✓
The default service account has excessive permissions and is shared across services.
Why this is correct
Using default accounts leads to privilege escalation risks and visibility issues.
About these practice questions
This ISC question is part of Courseiva's 208-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 and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official (ISC)² exam blueprint
This ISC practice question is part of Courseiva's free (ISC)² 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 ISC exam.