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Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Cloud IAM Deep Dive

Introduction

Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the foundation of cloud security. Misconfigured IAM policies remain the leading cause of cloud data breaches. Understanding how to properly scope permissions across AWS, GCP, and Azure is essential for any cloud security practitioner.

AWS IAM Policies

AWS IAM uses JSON policy documents to define permissions. Policies can be attached to users, groups, or roles. AWS evaluates all policies attached to a principal, combining them with resource-based policies, and applies an explicit deny override.

{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"s3:GetObject",

"s3:ListBucket"

],

"Resource": [

"arn:aws:s3:::critical-data",

"arn:aws:s3:::critical-data/*"

],

"Condition": {

"IpAddress": {

"aws:SourceIp": "203.0.113.0/24"

}

}

}

]

}

Key AWS IAM concepts:

• Principal: Entity requesting access (user, role, federated identity)

• Action: Service operation being requested

• Resource: ARN identifying the target resource

• Condition: Contextual constraints (IP, time, MFA, TLS version)

• Effect: Allow or Deny

Least Privilege with AWS

AWS Access Advisor shows service last-accessed information, helping identify unused permissions. IAM Access Analyzer generates policies based on CloudTrail access patterns.

Generate policy from CloudTrail activity

aws accessanalyzer create-analyzer --analyzer-name my-analyzer --type ACCOUNT

aws accessanalyzer start-policy-generation \

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\--policy-generation-details \

'{"principalArn":"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/service-account"}' \

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