A security engineer is responding to an incident that is affecting an AWS account.

AWS KMS enforces amandatory minimum waiting period of 7 daysbefore a customer managed key can be deleted. According to AWS Certified Security – Specialty incident response guidance,no method exists to immediately delete a KMS key. The fastest possible deletion is achieved by scheduling deletion with theminimum 7-day waiting period.

In this scenario, although deletion was previously scheduled, the key remains enabled and usable. The most authoritative and reliable method to regain control and reissue deletion immediately is touse the AWS account root user, which has implicit permissions to manage KMS keys regardless of compromised IAM principals.

Option B is incorrect because KMS keys are regional resources; multi-Region keys require coordinated deletion but do not shorten the waiting period. Option C is unnecessary because the key policy already allows kms:*. Option D increases the deletion waiting period to 30 days, which violates the requirement to delete the key as quickly as possible.

AWS documentation clearly states thatroot user access is the ultimate authority for KMS key managementand that7 days is the minimum deletion window, making this the fastest valid option.

AWS Certified Security – Specialty Official Study Guide

AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide

AWS Incident Response Best Practices