Custom IAM policy grants administrator access

Severity
Low
Service
IAM
Check ID
IAM_CUSTOM_POLICY_ALLOWS_ADMIN

What this check finds

Instead of using the AdministratorAccess policy, a custom policy was created that does the same thing, or allows escalation to the same thing.

Passing looks like: No custom policy granting admin.

How to fix it

Replace the custom admin-equivalent policy with a scoped least-privilege policy. Only specific break-glass roles should have AdministratorAccess.

AWS console

IAM → Policies → select policy → Edit policy.

Compliance controls it is evidence for

A failing result counts against these controls in KloudLytics; a passing one is evidence towards them. How compliance mapping works

Compliance controls mapped to Custom IAM policy grants administrator access
FrameworkControls
PCI-DSS v4.0.1
  • 7.2 Access to system components and data is appropriately defined and assigned
HIPAA Security Rule
  • 164.308(a)(3) Workforce Security — Access Authorization
  • 164.308(a)(4) Information Access Management
SOC 2 — Trust Services Criteria
  • CC6.2 Role-Based Access Control
NIST SP 800-53 Rev5 (Moderate)
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
  • PR.AA-05 Access permissions and authorizations are enforced with least privilege
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A
  • A.8.2 Privileged access rights

Checked on every scan

KloudLytics runs this check each time it scans a connected AWS account, through a read-only role, and lists every affected resource with its region. On Pro and Business a fix is written for the specific resource rather than the general case above. The exact access it needs

More IAM checks

All IAM checks

Find out what is actually exposed in your AWS environment.

Connect one AWS account and run your first security assessment.

No credit card · Agentless · Read-only