AWS AmazonRDS documentation change
Summary
Updated IAM authentication documentation with simplified explanations, removed detailed MFA recommendations, emphasized temporary credentials over long-term IAM user credentials, and updated references.
Security assessment
The changes emphasize temporary credentials and federation as security best practices, adding security documentation. While MFA references were removed, there's no evidence this addresses a specific vulnerability. The focus on temporary credentials improves security guidance.
Diff
diff --git a/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAM.md b/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAM.md index b7623a63b..f3e3e1b82 100644 --- a//AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAM.md +++ b//AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.IAM.md @@ -48 +48 @@ How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the w -Authentication is how you sign in to AWS using your identity credentials. You must be _authenticated_ (signed in to AWS) as the AWS account root user, as an IAM user, or by assuming an IAM role. +Authentication is how you sign in to AWS using your identity credentials. You must be authenticated as the AWS account root user, an IAM user, or by assuming an IAM role. @@ -50 +50 @@ Authentication is how you sign in to AWS using your identity credentials. You mu -You can sign in to AWS as a federated identity by using credentials provided through an identity source. AWS IAM Identity Center (IAM Identity Center) users, your company's single sign-on authentication, and your Google or Facebook credentials are examples of federated identities. When you sign in as a federated identity, your administrator previously set up identity federation using IAM roles. When you access AWS by using federation, you are indirectly assuming a role. +You can sign in as a federated identity using credentials from an identity source like AWS IAM Identity Center (IAM Identity Center), single sign-on authentication, or Google/Facebook credentials. For more information about signing in, see [How to sign in to your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/signin/latest/userguide/how-to-sign-in.html) in the _AWS Sign-In User Guide_. @@ -52,5 +52 @@ You can sign in to AWS as a federated identity by using credentials provided thr -Depending on the type of user you are, you can sign in to the AWS Management Console or the AWS access portal. For more information about signing in to AWS, see [How to sign in to your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/signin/latest/userguide/how-to-sign-in.html) in the _AWS Sign-In User Guide_. - -If you access AWS programmatically, AWS provides a software development kit (SDK) and a command line interface (CLI) to cryptographically sign your requests by using your credentials. If you don't use AWS tools, you must sign requests yourself. For more information about using the recommended method to sign requests yourself, see [AWS Signature Version 4 for API requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. - -Regardless of the authentication method that you use, you might be required to provide additional security information. For example, AWS recommends that you use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to increase the security of your account. To learn more, see [Multi-factor authentication](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/singlesignon/latest/userguide/enable-mfa.html) in the _AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide_ and [AWS Multi-factor authentication in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_mfa.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. +For programmatic access, AWS provides an SDK and CLI to cryptographically sign requests. For more information, see [AWS Signature Version 4 for API requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -60 +56 @@ Regardless of the authentication method that you use, you might be required to p -When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity that has complete access to all AWS services and resources in the account. This identity is called the AWS account _root user_ and is accessed by signing in with the email address and password that you used to create the account. We strongly recommend that you don't use the root user for your everyday tasks. Safeguard your root user credentials and use them to perform the tasks that only the root user can perform. For the complete list of tasks that require you to sign in as the root user, see [Tasks that require root user credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_root-user.html#root-user-tasks) in the _IAM User Guide_. +When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity called the AWS account _root user_ that has complete access to all AWS services and resources. We strongly recommend that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks. For tasks that require root user credentials, see [Tasks that require root user credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_root-user.html#root-user-tasks) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -64 +60 @@ When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity that has com -As a best practice, require human users, including users that require administrator access, to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS services by using temporary credentials. +As a best practice, require human users to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS services using temporary credentials. @@ -66 +62 @@ As a best practice, require human users, including users that require administra -A _federated identity_ is a user from your enterprise user directory, a web identity provider, the AWS Directory Service, the Identity Center directory, or any user that accesses AWS services by using credentials provided through an identity source. When federated identities access AWS accounts, they assume roles, and the roles provide temporary credentials. +A _federated identity_ is a user from your enterprise directory, web identity provider, or AWS Directory Service that accesses AWS services using credentials from an identity source. Federated identities assume roles that provide temporary credentials. @@ -68 +64 @@ A _federated identity_ is a user from your enterprise user directory, a web iden -For centralized access management, we recommend that you use AWS IAM Identity Center. You can create users and groups in IAM Identity Center, or you can connect and synchronize to a set of users and groups in your own identity source for use across all your AWS accounts and applications. For information about IAM Identity Center, see [What is IAM Identity Center?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/singlesignon/latest/userguide/what-is.html) in the _AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide_. +For centralized access management, we recommend AWS IAM Identity Center. For more information, see [What is IAM Identity Center?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/singlesignon/latest/userguide/what-is.html) in the _AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide_. @@ -72,3 +68 @@ For centralized access management, we recommend that you use AWS IAM Identity Ce -An _[IAM user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users.html)_ is an identity within your AWS account that has specific permissions for a single person or application. Where possible, we recommend relying on temporary credentials instead of creating IAM users who have long-term credentials such as passwords and access keys. However, if you have specific use cases that require long-term credentials with IAM users, we recommend that you rotate access keys. For more information, see [Rotate access keys regularly for use cases that require long-term credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#rotate-credentials) in the _IAM User Guide_. - -An [_IAM group_](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html) is an identity that specifies a collection of IAM users. You can't sign in as a group. You can use groups to specify permissions for multiple users at a time. Groups make permissions easier to manage for large sets of users. For example, you could have a group named _IAMAdmins_ and give that group permissions to administer IAM resources. +An _[IAM user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users.html)_ is an identity with specific permissions for a single person or application. We recommend using temporary credentials instead of IAM users with long-term credentials. For more information, see [Require human users to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS using temporary credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#bp-users-federation-idp) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -76 +70 @@ An [_IAM group_](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html -Users are different from roles. A user is uniquely associated with one person or application, but a role is intended to be assumable by anyone who needs it. Users have permanent long-term credentials, but roles provide temporary credentials. To learn more, see [Use cases for IAM users](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/gs-identities-iam-users.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. +An [_IAM group_](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html) specifies a collection of IAM users and makes permissions easier to manage for large sets of users. For more information, see [Use cases for IAM users](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/gs-identities-iam-users.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -107 +101 @@ IAM roles with temporary credentials are useful in the following situations: - * **Forward access sessions** – When you use an IAM user or role to perform actions in AWS, you are considered a principal. When you use some services, you might perform an action that then initiates another action in a different service. FAS uses the permissions of the principal calling an AWS service, combined with the requesting AWS service to make requests to downstream services. FAS requests are only made when a service receives a request that requires interactions with other AWS services or resources to complete. In this case, you must have permissions to perform both actions. For policy details when making FAS requests, see [Forward access sessions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_forward_access_sessions.html). + * **Forward access sessions** – Forward access sessions (FAS) use the permissions of the principal calling an AWS service, combined with the requesting AWS service to make requests to downstream services. For policy details when making FAS requests, see [Forward access sessions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_forward_access_sessions.html).