AWS Bites

134. Eliminate the IAM User

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In this episode, we discuss why IAM users and long-lived credentials are dangerous and should be avoided. We share war stories of compromised credentials and overprivileged access. We then explore solutions like centralizing IAM users, using tools like AWS Vault for temporary credentials, integrating with AWS SSO, and fully eliminating IAM users when possible.


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In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:

  • Episode 118 "The landing zone: Managing multiple AWS accounts": https://awsbites.com/118-the-landing-zone-managing-multiple-aws-accounts/
  • Episode 96: "AWS Governance and Landing Zone with Control Tower, Org Formation, and Terraform" https://awsbites.com/96-aws-governance-and-landing-zone-with-control-tower-org-formation-and-terraform/
  • Datadog Security Report (IAM stats): https://www.datadoghq.com/state-of-cloud-security/
  • Credentials provider chain in the JavaScript SDK: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-javascript/v3/developer-guide/setting-credentials-node.html
  • Credentials provider chain in the AWS CLI: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/v1/userguide/cli-chap-authentication.html
  • Episode 45 "What’s the magic of OIDC identity providers?": https://awsbites.com/45-what-s-the-magic-of-oidc-identity-providers/
  • Episode 112 "What is a Service Control Policy (SCP)?": https://awsbites.com/112-what-is-a-service-control-policy-scp
  • Episode 115 "What can you do with Permissions Boundaries?": https://awsbites.com/115-what-can-you-do-with-permissions-boundaries/


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