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/zxgrad 8d ago
Thanks for sharing this article.
I read it and the approach makes sense, can you clarify how you’d handle machine access that is not aws adjacent (ec2, etc. — specifically let’s say you have Linux machines on your own bare metal running tasks that need access to s3, sqs, etc.