IAM Misconfiguration
Overly permissive IAM roles and policies in cloud environments grant excessive privileges to users, services, or applications. Attackers who compromise any component gain broader access than necessary.
Overview
IAM (Identity and Access Management) is the foundation of cloud security. Misconfigured IAM policies -- overly broad permissions, unused roles, wildcard resource access, or missing MFA requirements -- create opportunities for attackers to escalate privileges and move laterally through cloud infrastructure.
Impact
Lateral movement in cloud infrastructure, privilege escalation, resource abuse, data access beyond intended scope.
Remediation
Follow the principle of least privilege, use temporary credentials, implement MFA for privileged actions, regularly audit IAM policies, and use policy simulators.
Apply the principle of least privilege to all IAM policies
Use temporary credentials (STS AssumeRole) instead of long-lived keys
Require MFA for all privileged operations
Regularly audit and remove unused IAM roles and policies
Use policy simulators to test before deploying changes
Related SuperClue scanner checks
These scanner checks look for signs of IAM Misconfiguration. What a scan can confirm from outside depends on your application.
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