AWS gameliftservers documentation change
Summary
Restructured IAM documentation with condensed explanations, updated role-based guidance, removed ACL section, and streamlined policy type descriptions
Security assessment
The changes emphasize security best practices like using temporary credentials over long-term IAM user credentials and federation. However, there's no evidence of addressing a specific security vulnerability. The updates improve clarity around secure IAM configurations but don't fix a disclosed issue.
Diff
diff --git a/gameliftservers/latest/developerguide/security-iam.md b/gameliftservers/latest/developerguide/security-iam.md index 6101bb735..232808bf0 100644 --- a//gameliftservers/latest/developerguide/security-iam.md +++ b//gameliftservers/latest/developerguide/security-iam.md @@ -32 +32 @@ AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an AWS service that helps an adminis -How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the work that you do in Amazon GameLift Servers. +How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs based on your role: @@ -34 +34 @@ How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the w -**Service user** – If you use the Amazon GameLift Servers service to do your job, then your administrator provides you with the credentials and permissions that you need. As you use more Amazon GameLift Servers features to do your work, you might need additional permissions. Understanding how access is managed can help you request the right permissions from your administrator. If you cannot access a feature in Amazon GameLift Servers, see [Troubleshooting Amazon GameLift Servers identity and access](./security_iam_troubleshoot.html). + * **Service user** \- request permissions from your administrator if you cannot access features (see [Troubleshooting Amazon GameLift Servers identity and access](./security_iam_troubleshoot.html)) @@ -36 +36,3 @@ How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the w -**Service administrator** – If you're in charge of Amazon GameLift Servers resources at your company, you probably have full access to Amazon GameLift Servers. It's your job to determine which Amazon GameLift Servers features and resources your service users should access. You must then submit requests to your IAM administrator to change the permissions of your service users. Review the information on this page to understand the basic concepts of IAM. To learn more about how your company can use IAM with Amazon GameLift Servers, see [How Amazon GameLift Servers works with IAM](./security_iam_service-with-iam.html). + * **Service administrator** \- determine user access and submit permission requests (see [How Amazon GameLift Servers works with IAM](./security_iam_service-with-iam.html)) + + * **IAM administrator** \- write policies to manage access (see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon GameLift Servers](./security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.html)) @@ -38 +39,0 @@ How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the w -**IAM administrator** – If you're an IAM administrator, you might want to learn details about how you can write policies to manage access to Amazon GameLift Servers. To view example Amazon GameLift Servers identity-based policies that you can use in IAM, see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon GameLift Servers](./security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.html). @@ -40 +40,0 @@ How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs, depending on the w -## Authenticating with identities @@ -42 +41,0 @@ 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. @@ -44 +43 @@ 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. +## Authenticating with identities @@ -46 +45 @@ 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_. +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. @@ -48 +47 @@ Depending on the type of user you are, you can sign in to the AWS Management Con -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_. +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_. @@ -50 +49 @@ If you access AWS programmatically, AWS provides a software development kit (SDK -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_. @@ -54 +53 @@ 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_. @@ -58 +57 @@ 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. @@ -60 +59 @@ 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. @@ -62 +61 @@ 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_. @@ -66 +65 @@ 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 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_. @@ -68,3 +67 @@ An _[IAM user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users.html)_ -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. - -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_. @@ -74,21 +71 @@ Users are different from roles. A user is uniquely associated with one person or -An _[IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html)_ is an identity within your AWS account that has specific permissions. It is similar to an IAM user, but is not associated with a specific person. To temporarily assume an IAM role in the AWS Management Console, you can [switch from a user to an IAM role (console)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_use_switch-role-console.html). You can assume a role by calling an AWS CLI or AWS API operation or by using a custom URL. For more information about methods for using roles, see [Methods to assume a role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_manage-assume.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. - -IAM roles with temporary credentials are useful in the following situations: - - * **Federated user access** – To assign permissions to a federated identity, you create a role and define permissions for the role. When a federated identity authenticates, the identity is associated with the role and is granted the permissions that are defined by the role. For information about roles for federation, see [ Create a role for a third-party identity provider (federation)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_create_for-idp.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. If you use IAM Identity Center, you configure a permission set. To control what your identities can access after they authenticate, IAM Identity Center correlates the permission set to a role in IAM. For information about permissions sets, see [ Permission sets](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/singlesignon/latest/userguide/permissionsetsconcept.html) in the _AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide_. - - * **Temporary IAM user permissions** – An IAM user or role can assume an IAM role to temporarily take on different permissions for a specific task. - - * **Cross-account access** – You can use an IAM role to allow someone (a trusted principal) in a different account to access resources in your account. Roles are the primary way to grant cross-account access. However, with some AWS services, you can attach a policy directly to a resource (instead of using a role as a proxy). To learn the difference between roles and resource-based policies for cross-account access, see [Cross account resource access in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-cross-account-resource-access.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. - - * **Cross-service access** – Some AWS services use features in other AWS services. For example, when you make a call in a service, it's common for that service to run applications in Amazon EC2 or store objects in Amazon S3. A service might do this using the calling principal's permissions, using a service role, or using a service-linked role. - - * **Forward access sessions (FAS)** – 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). - - * **Service role** – A service role is an [IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html) that a service assumes to perform actions on your behalf. An IAM administrator can create, modify, and delete a service role from within IAM. For more information, see [Create a role to delegate permissions to an AWS service](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_create_for-service.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. - - * **Service-linked role** – A service-linked role is a type of service role that is linked to an AWS service. The service can assume the role to perform an action on your behalf. Service-linked roles appear in your AWS account and are owned by the service. An IAM administrator can view, but not edit the permissions for service-linked roles. - - * **Applications running on Amazon EC2** – You can use an IAM role to manage temporary credentials for applications that are running on an EC2 instance and making AWS CLI or AWS API requests. This is preferable to storing access keys within the EC2 instance. To assign an AWS role to an EC2 instance and make it available to all of its applications, you create an instance profile that is attached to the instance. An instance profile contains the role and enables programs that are running on the EC2 instance to get temporary credentials. For more information, see [Use an IAM role to grant permissions to applications running on Amazon EC2 instances](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_use_switch-role-ec2.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. - - +An _[IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html)_ is an identity with specific permissions that provides temporary credentials. You can assume a role by [switching from a user to an IAM role (console)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_use_switch-role-console.html) or by calling an AWS CLI or AWS API operation. For more information, see [Methods to assume a role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_manage-assume.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -95,0 +73 @@ IAM roles with temporary credentials are useful in the following situations: +IAM roles are useful for federated user access, temporary IAM user permissions, cross-account access, cross-service access, and applications running on Amazon EC2. For more information, see [Cross account resource access in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-cross-account-resource-access.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -99 +77 @@ IAM roles with temporary credentials are useful in the following situations: -You control access in AWS by creating policies and attaching them to AWS identities or resources. A policy is an object in AWS that, when associated with an identity or resource, defines their permissions. AWS evaluates these policies when a principal (user, root user, or role session) makes a request. Permissions in the policies determine whether the request is allowed or denied. Most policies are stored in AWS as JSON documents. For more information about the structure and contents of JSON policy documents, see [Overview of JSON policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#access_policies-json) in the _IAM User Guide_. +You control access in AWS by creating policies and attaching them to AWS identities or resources. A policy defines permissions when associated with an identity or resource. AWS evaluates these policies when a principal makes a request. Most policies are stored in AWS as JSON documents. For more information about JSON policy documents, see [Overview of JSON policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#access_policies-json) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -101 +79 @@ You control access in AWS by creating policies and attaching them to AWS identit -Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources** , and under what **conditions**. +Using policies, administrators specify who has access to what by defining which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources** , and under what **conditions**. @@ -103,3 +81 @@ Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That -By default, users and roles have no permissions. To grant users permission to perform actions on the resources that they need, an IAM administrator can create IAM policies. The administrator can then add the IAM policies to roles, and users can assume the roles. - -IAM policies define permissions for an action regardless of the method that you use to perform the operation. For example, suppose that you have a policy that allows the `iam:GetRole` action. A user with that policy can get role information from the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API. +By default, users and roles have no permissions. An IAM administrator creates IAM policies and adds them to roles, which users can then assume. IAM policies define permissions regardless of the method used to perform the operation. @@ -109 +85 @@ IAM policies define permissions for an action regardless of the method that you -Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you can attach to an identity, such as an IAM user, group of users, or role. These policies control what actions users and roles can perform, on which resources, and under what conditions. To learn how to create an identity-based policy, see [Define custom IAM permissions with customer managed policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_create.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. +Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you attach to an identity (user, group, or role). These policies control what actions identities can perform, on which resources, and under what conditions. To learn how to create an identity-based policy, see [Define custom IAM permissions with customer managed policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_create.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -111 +87 @@ Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you can attac -Identity-based policies can be further categorized as _inline policies_ or _managed policies_. Inline policies are embedded directly into a single user, group, or role. Managed policies are standalone policies that you can attach to multiple users, groups, and roles in your AWS account. Managed policies include AWS managed policies and customer managed policies. To learn how to choose between a managed policy or an inline policy, see [Choose between managed policies and inline policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-choosing-managed-or-inline.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. +Identity-based policies can be _inline policies_ (embedded directly into a single identity) or _managed policies_ (standalone policies attached to multiple identities). To learn how to choose between managed and inline policies, see [Choose between managed policies and inline policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-choosing-managed-or-inline.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -115 +91 @@ Identity-based policies can be further categorized as _inline policies_ or _mana -Resource-based policies are JSON policy documents that you attach to a resource. Examples of resource-based policies are IAM _role trust policies_ and Amazon S3 _bucket policies_. In services that support resource-based policies, service administrators can use them to control access to a specific resource. For the resource where the policy is attached, the policy defines what actions a specified principal can perform on that resource and under what conditions. You must [specify a principal](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_principal.html) in a resource-based policy. Principals can include accounts, users, roles, federated users, or AWS services. +Resource-based policies are JSON policy documents that you attach to a resource. Examples include IAM _role trust policies_ and Amazon S3 _bucket policies_. In services that support resource-based policies, service administrators can use them to control access to a specific resource. You must [specify a principal](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_principal.html) in a resource-based policy. @@ -119,6 +94,0 @@ Resource-based policies are inline policies that are located in that service. Yo -### Access control lists (ACLs) - -Access control lists (ACLs) control which principals (account members, users, or roles) have permissions to access a resource. ACLs are similar to resource-based policies, although they do not use the JSON policy document format. - -Amazon S3, AWS WAF, and Amazon VPC are examples of services that support ACLs. To learn more about ACLs, see [Access control list (ACL) overview](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/acl-overview.html) in the _Amazon Simple Storage Service Developer Guide_. - @@ -127 +97 @@ Amazon S3, AWS WAF, and Amazon VPC are examples of services that support ACLs. T -AWS supports additional, less-common policy types. These policy types can set the maximum permissions granted to you by the more common policy types. +AWS supports additional policy types that can set the maximum permissions granted by more common policy types: @@ -129 +99 @@ AWS supports additional, less-common policy types. These policy types can set th - * **Permissions boundaries** – A permissions boundary is an advanced feature in which you set the maximum permissions that an identity-based policy can grant to an IAM entity (IAM user or role). You can set a permissions boundary for an entity. The resulting permissions are the intersection of an entity's identity-based policies and its permissions boundaries. Resource-based policies that specify the user or role in the `Principal` field are not limited by the permissions boundary. An explicit deny in any of these policies overrides the allow. For more information about permissions boundaries, see [Permissions boundaries for IAM entities](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_boundaries.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. + * **Permissions boundaries** – Set the maximum permissions that an identity-based policy can grant to an IAM entity. For more information, see [Permissions boundaries for IAM entities](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_boundaries.html) in the _IAM User Guide_. @@ -131 +101 @@ AWS supports additional, less-common policy types. These policy types can set th - * **Service control policies (SCPs)** – SCPs are JSON policies that specify the maximum permissions for an organization or organizational unit (OU) in AWS Organizations. AWS Organizations is a service for grouping and centrally managing multiple AWS accounts that your business owns. If you enable all features in an organization, then you can apply service control policies (SCPs) to any or all of your accounts. The SCP limits permissions for entities in member accounts, including each AWS account root user. For more information about Organizations and SCPs, see [Service control policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html) in the _AWS Organizations User Guide_. + * **Service control policies (SCPs)** – Specify the maximum permissions for an organization or organizational unit in AWS Organizations. For more information, see [Service control policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html) in the _AWS Organizations User Guide_. @@ -133 +103 @@ AWS supports additional, less-common policy types. These policy types can set th - * **Resource control policies (RCPs)** – RCPs are JSON policies that you can use to set the maximum available permissions for resources in your accounts without updating the IAM policies attached to each resource that you own. The RCP limits permissions for resources in member accounts and can impact the effective permissions for identities, including the AWS account root user, regardless of whether they belong to your organization. For more information about Organizations and RCPs, including a list of AWS services that support RCPs, see [Resource control policies (RCPs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_rcps.html) in the _AWS Organizations User Guide_. + * **Resource control policies (RCPs)** – Set the maximum available permissions for resources in your accounts. For more information, see [Resource control policies (RCPs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_rcps.html) in the _AWS Organizations User Guide_. @@ -135 +105 @@ AWS supports additional, less-common policy types. These policy types can set th - * **Session policies** – Session policies are advanced policies that you pass as a parameter when you programmatically create a temporary session for a role or federated user. The resulting session's permissions are the intersection of the user or role's identity-based policies and the session policies. Permissions can also come from a resource-based policy. An explicit deny in any of these policies overrides the allow. For more information, see [Session policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#policies_session) in the _IAM User Guide_. + * **Session policies** – Advanced policies passed as a parameter when creating a temporary session for a role or federated user. For more information, see [Session policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#policies_session) in the _IAM User Guide_.