How to Find Unused AWS IAM Credentials

To increase the security of your AWS account, remove IAM user credentials (that is, passwords and access keys) that are not needed. For example, when users leave your organization or no longer need AWS access.

info

This security check is part of the CIS Amazon Web Services Benchmarks and is rated severity medium.

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you have already installed and configured Fix Inventory to collect your AWS resources.

Directions

1. Execute the following search command in Fix Inventory Shell:

   > search is(aws_iam_user) and password_last_used<-45d
   ​kind=aws_iam_access_key, ..., region=fixinventory-poweruser
   ​kind=aws_iam_access_key, ..., account=poweruser-team

2. Pipe the search command into the dump command:

   > search is(aws_iam_user) and password_last_used<-45d | dump
   ​reported:
   ​  id: /aws/iam/123
   ​  name: some-name
   ​  ctime: '2022-12-05T22:53:14Z'
   ​  kind: aws_iam_access_key
   ​  age: 2mo28d

   The command output will list the details of all non-compliant aws_iam_access_key resources.

Remediation

• From the IAM console: generate credential report.
• Disable not required keys.

note

Please refer to the AWS IAM documentation for details.

Further Reading

• Search
• Command-Line Interface
• aws_iam_access_key Resource Data Model

External Links

• CIS Amazon Web Services Benchmarks
• AWS Documentation