Author: Kai Zhao

September 11, 2023: This post has been updated. Updated on July 6, 2023: This post has been updated to reflect the current guidance around the usage of S3 ACL and to include S3 Access Points and the Block Public Access for accounts and S3 buckets. Updated on April 27, 2023: Amazon S3 now automatically enables […]

You can use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and AWS Security Token Service (STS) to set up cross-account access between AWS accounts. When you assume an IAM role in another AWS account to obtain cross-account access to services and resources in that account, AWS CloudTrail logs the cross-account activity. Starting today, CloudTrail logs […]

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) supports identity federation, which enables external identities, such as users in your corporate directory, to sign in to the AWS Management Console via single sign-on (SSO). Now with a small configuration change, your AWS administrators can allow your federated users to work in the AWS Management Console for up […]

Deleting unused resources can help to improve the security of your AWS account and make your account easier to manage. However, if you have ever been unsure of whether an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user or role was being used actively, you probably erred on the side of caution and kept it. Starting […]

In my previous post, I introduced service last accessed data, a new feature of the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) console that helps you define policies that adhere better to the principle of least privilege. As part of that post, I walked through a sample use case demonstrating how you can use service last […]

As a security best practice, AWS recommends writing AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that adhere to the principle of least privilege, which means granting only the permissions required to perform a specific task. However, verifying which permissions an application or user actually needs can be a challenge. To help you determine which permissions […]

Today, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) enhanced the IAM console user interface to make it easier to view details about your users, groups, roles, and policies (“IAM entities”). The detail pages for these IAM entities now are organized with tabs for easier browsing so that you can quickly switch between them with minimal scrolling. […]

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 […]

Have you ever needed to quickly look up the last time one of your users signed in to your AWS account? Or have you been following security best practices and want verify that no one in your organization has been signing in using the AWS root account? If you use AWS CloudTrail, the information is […]

We are excited to announce the redesigned IAM console, now with a streamlined look and feel that makes it even easier to manage your IAM settings. We’ve made it more convenient to manage large resource lists (for example, hundreds of users, groups, or roles), eliminated tab switching, and optimized the console to offer a better […]