I've been working with IAM configurations using Terraform, CDK, and even plain JSON, but I'm really struggling to find effective tools to help implement the principle of least privilege. I often find that suggestions from AI are inaccurate, like recommending tags that aren't even created. While I know the IAM console editor offers some linting features, I'm looking for external tools that could work with my editor or pre-commit hooks for better integration. Any recommendations?
4 Answers
I've heard about the IAM Access Analyzer being useful for these situations, but I haven't used it myself. For generating policies based on actual API calls, you might find **iamlive** helpful, but it might not integrate directly into your editor.
AWS IAM can be powerful yet complex. Tools like the AWS IAM Access Analyzer can really help streamline creating least-privilege policies and handling audits. If you prefer using the command line, the `aws iam simulate-principal-policy` command is a nice tool for testing permissions before you deploy.
I lean toward using CDK for IAM management. Utilizing snapshots can help visualize your policies and spot any unexpected changes.
You might want to check out **iamlive**. It monitors your API calls and creates minimal policies based on actual usage. There are also **parliament** and **cloudsplaining**, which can help catch common IAM issues. Additionally, try using **policy_sentry** for generating least-privilege policies directly sourced from AWS documentation. Hooking the AWS **Access Analyzer** API into your pre-commit setup for validation is also a good idea. Combining static analysis with runtime monitoring could really help, especially since AI can miss context for IAM.
Can you explain more about hooking AWS Access Analyzer into pre-commit hooks? How does that work?
Is there a good way to evaluate IAM locally? It would help an AI tool understand how a policy performs.
I really like the inline console editor from AWS! It's surprising that it's not integrated with something like VS Code yet.