I'm currently using Terraform, CDK, and even JSON for managing IAM, but I'm really struggling with finding good tools that help with implementing the principle of least privilege. The suggestions from AI seem off sometimes, like creating tags that don't exist! I've heard the IAM console editor has some basic linting features, but is there a more robust external tool I can integrate with my editor or maybe even some pre-commit hooks? Any recommendations?
5 Answers
I've heard that IAM Access Analyzer can be useful for this sort of task, although I haven't personally used it. You could also try **iamlive**, which generates policies based on the actual API calls made, but it's not really something you can integrate into your editing environment as far as I know.
You might want to check out **iamlive**. It monitors API calls and helps generate minimal policies based on actual usage. There are also tools like **parliament** (from Netflix) and **cloudsplaining** that catch common IAM issues. Additionally, look into **policy_sentry**; it can generate least-privilege policies using AWS documentation. If you're into pre-commit hooks, integrating the AWS **Access Analyzer** API can really help for validation. Remember, combining static analysis with runtime monitoring can improve accuracy since IAM often depends heavily on context.
Is there a good local IAM evaluation tool? That could help AI agents understand policy evaluations better.
I'm really into using CDK for IAM. It allows you to use snapshots to render the policy and lets you spot check for any unexpected changes.
When you say spot check, do you mean manually reviewing the policy?
I've seen suggestions about using LocalStack to generate and test policies. Another strategy is to deploy into a sandbox environment (which is the beauty of infrastructure as code), test it, and then destroy it after. Just be cautious though, it can be quite slow!
Yeah, but that sounds incredibly slow to me!
AWS IAM is powerful but can be complex. Tools like AWS IAM Access Analyzer can help a lot with least-privilege policies and auditing. If you prefer using the command line, the `aws iam simulate-principal-policy` command is a great way to test permissions before deploying. What's your favorite tool or workflow for IAM management?
I actually like the inline console editor from AWS. I'm surprised there isn't an integration for it in VS code or similar editors!
Can you elaborate on how to hook the AWS Access Analyzer API into pre-commit for validation?