Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills/skills/implementing-aws-iam-permission-boundaries/references/standards.md

AWS IAM Permission Boundaries - Standards Reference

AWS IAM Policy Types

Policy Type	Scope	Purpose
Identity-Based	Attached to users/roles/groups	Grants permissions
Resource-Based	Attached to resources (S3, KMS)	Cross-account access
Permission Boundary	Attached to users/roles	Maximum permission limit
Organizations SCP	Attached to OUs/accounts	Organization-wide limit
Session Policy	Passed during AssumeRole	Session-level limit

AWS Well-Architected Framework - Security Pillar

SEC02 - Identity Management

• SEC02-BP02: Use temporary credentials (permission boundaries enforce this)
• SEC02-BP05: Audit and rotate credentials regularly
• SEC02-BP06: Employ user groups and attributes for fine-grained access

SEC03 - Permissions Management

• SEC03-BP01: Define access requirements (boundary defines maximum)
• SEC03-BP02: Grant least privilege access
• SEC03-BP06: Manage access based on lifecycle
• SEC03-BP07: Analyze public and cross-account access

CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark v3.0

• 1.4: Ensure no root account access key exists
• 1.15: Ensure IAM users receive permissions only through groups
• 1.16: Ensure IAM policies that allow full admin privileges are not attached
• 1.17: Ensure a support role has been created for incident management
• 1.22: Ensure IAM policies with admin access are reviewed regularly

NIST SP 800-53 Mapping

• AC-2: Account Management (boundary controls role creation)
• AC-3: Access Enforcement (intersection of policies)
• AC-5: Separation of Duties (boundary prevents security role access)
• AC-6: Least Privilege (boundary enforces maximum permissions)
• AC-6(1): Authorize Access to Security Functions
• AC-6(5): Privileged Accounts (boundary limits even admin roles)