Hey everyone, we're stuck and could really use your advice. Our AWS account is locked because the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is tied to the phone of a former employee who we had to let go due to misconduct. Unfortunately, they're not cooperating and won't assist us in transferring or disabling the MFA. On top of that, we don't have any IAM accounts set up, which means we can't manage things from our end. We've reached out to AWS support, but they just directed us to the AWS Shared Responsibility Model, which doesn't help our situation at all. We need to regain access urgently. Has anyone faced a problem like this before? Are there any potential workarounds for resetting the MFA or getting around this issue? We don't have a paid support plan but are ready to explore any options that might work. Any insights or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
2 Answers
If you still have access to the root email and the phone number tied to the account, you can actually remove the MFA yourself. But it’s crazy that you’re using the root account for everything and didn’t set up IAM accounts!
Look, if an ex-employee had access to your root account, that's a massive red flag. You should never give one person that level of access. You might want to consider legal advice if this employee owned the root account. Also, it’s wild how only one developer had access to your AWS setup—totally risky!
Absolutely! It's essential to build secure pipelines where only the root and a bastion account have access. This should be a wake-up call for your future architecture.