Setup
Overview
IAM Access Analyzer helps monitor and manage access to AWS resources by identifying external access and unused access permissions. It uses service-linked roles to analyze resources and requires proper IAM permissions to operate.
Key IAM Permissions:
IAMAccessAnalyzerFullAccess: Full access for administrators, including the ability to create service-linked roles.
IAMAccessAnalyzerReadOnlyAccess: Read-only access to view findings.
Service-Linked Role:
IAM Access Analyzer uses AWSServiceRoleForAccessAnalyzer to analyze resource-based policies and identify unused access.
Types of Analyzers:
External Access Analyzer:
Purpose: Identifies resources that are shared outside of your zone of trust (AWS account or organization).
Findings Update: It may take up to 30 minutes to reflect changes after a policy modification.
Creation Steps:
Open the IAM console and go to Access Analyzer.
Create a new analyzer for external access.
Choose either Current AWS account or Current organization as the zone of trust.
Optionally, apply tags for management.
Scope: An analyzer is Region-specific, meaning you must create one in each Region to monitor external access.
Unused Access Analyzer:
Purpose: Identifies unused IAM roles, permissions, passwords, or access keys within a defined time frame.
Creation Steps:
Open the IAM console and create a new Unused Access Analyzer.
Specify the tracking period (1–180 days).
Choose whether the analyzer applies to Current account or Current organization.
Optionally, apply tags to the analyzer.
Scope: Findings are not Region-specific. One analyzer can monitor all unused permissions across multiple Regions.
Analyzer Status:
Active: Monitoring is in progress, and new findings are generated.
Creating: Analyzer creation is underway.
Disabled: The analyzer is disabled, often due to administrative actions.
Failed: Creation failed due to configuration issues—requires deletion and re-creation.
Managing Findings and Permissions:
Viewing Findings: Permissions are required to use the following API actions:
GetAnalyzer
ListAnalyzers
GetFindingsStatistics
Dashboards and Refresh Delays: Findings may take time to appear after analyzer creation or updates; manual browser refreshes may be necessary.
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