AWS Security Blog
Category: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
How to Delegate Management of Multi-Factor Authentication to AWS IAM Users
Note from September 20, 2017: Based on customer feedback, we have moved the process outlined in this post to the official AWS documentation. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) has a list of best practices that you are encouraged to use. One of those best practices is to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your AWS root […]
How to Implement Federated API and CLI Access Using SAML 2.0 and AD FS
Feb 21 2023: This post is out of date. AWS now recommends using IAM Identity Center for federated identities accessing AWS by the CLI. Please see this post for more info: AWS CLI v2 Preview Now Supports AWS Single Sign-On Important note from July 18, 2019: The original version of this blog uses Python2.x scripts. […]
Test Your Roles’ Access Policies Using the AWS Identity and Access Management Policy Simulator
You can now use the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy simulator to test and validate your roles’ access control policies. The policy simulator is a tool to help you author and validate the policies that set permissions on your AWS resources. This tool provides a “playground” where you can iteratively author least privilege […]
Register for and Attend This May 22 Webinar: Getting Started with AWS Identity and Access Management
As part of the AWS Webinar Series, AWS will present Getting Started with AWS Identity and Access Management on Friday, May 22. This webinar will start at 10:30 A.M. and end at 11:30 A.M. Pacific Time (UTC-7). AWS Security Solutions Architect Jonathan Desrocher will introduce the fundamental concepts of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) […]
New in IAM: Quickly Identify When an Access Key Was Last Used
Rotate access keys regularly and remove inactive users. You’ve probably heard us mention these as two AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) security best practices. But how do you know when access keys (for an IAM user or the root account) are no longer in use and safe to delete? To help you answer this […]
How to Create a Limited IAM Administrator by Using Managed Policies
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) recently launched managed policies, which enable you to attach a single access control policy to multiple entities (IAM users, groups, and roles). Managed policies also give you precise, fine-grained control over how your users can manage policies and permissions for other entities. For example, you can control which managed […]
Newly Upgraded: Identity and Access Management Policy Validation
Earlier this month, we let you know that AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) would be upgrading policy validation today (March 25, 2015) to help you ensure that your IAM policies match your intentions. This upgrade is now in effect for all IAM policies. Starting today, to save changes to your IAM policies, you must […]
Coming March 25, 2015: Upgrades to IAM Policy Validation
On March 25, 2015, we will upgrade the Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy validation to help ensure that your policies reflect your intentions. Starting on this day, to save changes to policies, you must first ensure that your policies comply with the IAM policy grammar. Your existing policies will continue to work as they […]
Enable Autoformatting for Your Policies in the Identity and Access Management Console
Have you ever thought that authoring Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies would be easier if the JSON of your policies were automatically formatted? If so, you will be excited to hear you can now enable autoformatting for all your policies by simply selecting a single check box. In this blog post, I will show […]
Quickly Diagnose Policy Errors by Using the AWS Identity and Access Management Console
Have you ever spent time searching for a syntax error—such as a missing comma—when editing an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy? If so, you will be happy to hear that AWS has made it easier for you to identify and correct such errors. To help you find the source of the errors, we’ve […]