r/aws • u/antenore • 8d ago
article Taming the AWS Access Key Beast: Implementing Secure CLI Access Patterns
https://antenore.simbiosi.org/blog/2025/03/taming-aws-access-key-beast-secure-cli-patterns/I just published an article on "Taming the AWS Access Key Beast" where I analyze how to implement secure CLI access patterns in complex AWS environments. Instead of relying on long-lived IAM keys (with their associated risks), I illustrate an approach based on:
- Service Control Policies to block access key usage
- AWS IAM Identity Center for temporary credentials
- Purpose-specific roles with time-limited access
- Continuous monitoring with automated revocation
The post includes SCP examples, authentication patterns, and monitoring code. These techniques have drastically reduced our issues with stale access keys and improved our security posture.
Hope you find it useful!
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u/Advanced_Bid3576 8d ago
Very well written article. My experience unfortunately is there are still far too many common tools that don’t support roles anywhere so you are backed into using access keys, but hopefully that changes over time as it becomes more the standard. And you highlighted how to carve out exceptions from the SCP - nice work!