MCPInstall

aws-iam

by aws OfficialDevOps & Cloud

Provides verified corrections for IAM behaviors that AI agents frequently get wrong — policy evaluation edge cases, trust policy gotchas, STS session limits, Organizations quirks, and SAML/MFA specifics. Also provides structured workflows for IAM role management and baseline policy generation from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON. Covers condition operator safety (ForAnyValue/ForAllValues with Null checks), bucket policy deny patterns (VPC endpoint restrictions, org paths), confused deputy protection, and service role creation for AWS services (Glue, CloudTrail, Lambda, ECS, etc.) with aws:SourceAccount/aws:SourceArn trust conditions. Applies when creating IAM roles, writing IAM or bucket policies, generating policies from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON, working with STS, Organizations, or condition operators, or any task needing a service or execution role. Does not cover non-IAM authorization like Cognito user-pool policies or app-level RBAC.

Installs
10.3K
Last 24h
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#2893
Security
Warn

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-iam
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads aws-iam automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

Security audits

Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.

Gen Agent Trust Hub PassSAFE ·This skill provides specialized guidance for AWS IAM and incorporates automated policy generation. It includes security considerations such as analyzing user-provided source code and discovering metadata from configuration files. These actions utilize trusted tools and official AWS resources to ensure secure and accurate configuration.
Socket PassNo alerts
Snyk WarnMEDIUM ·Risk: MEDIUM · 1 issue

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

AWS IAM — Common Pitfalls

About This Skill

This skill contains verified corrections for things that AI agents frequently get wrong about IAM. It is not a comprehensive IAM guide — for full IAM guidance, search AWS documentation. When answering IAM questions, verify specific claims (limits, quotas, exact API names, edge-case behaviors) against official AWS documentation rather than relying on pre-training. Prefer fetching known documentation URLs over broad searches. Trust official documentation over memory when they conflict.

Common Workflows

Use the best available tool for AWS operations — the AWS MCP server is recommended but not required; AWS CLI or SDK may be used as alternatives. Read reference files only when the conversation requires deeper detail.

  • Read references/aws-iam-role-management.md if the user needs to create, scope, or maintain IAM roles when provisioning or updating AWS resources. Covers service roles, execution roles, trust policies, confused deputy protection, and permission hygiene.

  • Read references/aws-iam-policy-generation.md if the user needs to generate IAM policies, determine required IAM actions for API calls, or understand action-to-operation mappings. CRITICAL: If the user provides application source code (in any language) or a Terraform plan JSON file (terraform show -json output), you MUST read this reference — it mandates using iam-policy-autopilot instead of manual policy construction. Uses the programmatic service authorization reference for accurate mappings.

Verified Edge Cases

CloudTrail:

  • AcceptHandshake/DeclineHandshake logged in ACTING account ONLY, not management account. Organization trail required for centralization.
  • ConsoleLogin region varies by endpoint/cookies, NOT always us-east-1. ?region= forces specific region.

STS:

  • GetSessionToken restrictions: (1) No IAM APIs unless MFA included (2) No STS except AssumeRole and GetCallerIdentity.
  • Cross-account AssumeRole to opt-in region: TARGET account must enable region, not calling account.
  • Role chaining: max 1-hour session.

Organizations:

  • Suspended/closed accounts CANNOT be removed until permanently closed (~90 days). Remove FIRST, then close.
  • Policy management delegation: use PutResourcePolicy, NOT register-delegated-administrator.
  • AI opt-out policies: management account required by default.
  • Organizations policy types for ListPolicies filter: fetch the current list via aws organizations list-available-policy-types or the Organizations API reference.

SDK Specifics:

  • Organizations: DuplicatePolicyAttachmentException (not PolicyAlreadyAttachedException).
  • Boto3 IAM AccessKey: methods are activate(), deactivate(), delete() — NO update().
  • Instance profiles: waiter + time.sleep(10) pattern.
  • Managed policy max versions: 5.

SAML:

  • Encrypted assertions URL: https://region-code.signin.aws.amazon.com/saml/acs/IdP-ID.
  • Private key from IdP uploaded to IAM in .pem format.

Policy Evaluation:

  • ForAllValues with empty/missing key: evaluates to true (vacuous truth). To avoid that, use a Null condition in addition to the ForAllValues on the same context key to require that key to be present and non-null. For example, when evaluating the aws:TagKeys context key:

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": {
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
    "Resource": "*",
    "Condition": {
      "ForAllValues:StringEquals": {
        "aws:TagKeys": ["Alpha", "Beta"]
      },
      "Null": {
        "aws:TagKeys": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

  • aws:TagKeys values are case-sensitive, but the tag key in aws:PrincipalTag/<key>, aws:ResourceTag/<key>, and aws:RequestTag/<key> is not. The Allow allowlist above is unaffected (a re-cased key is simply not in the list), but a Deny that protects a tag key with ForAnyValue:StringEquals on aws:TagKeys is bypassed by a re-cased key (PROTECTED-TAG) — use ForAnyValue:StringEqualsIgnoreCase. See references/common-pitfalls.md.

  • Resource-based policies granting to IAM user ARN bypass permissions boundaries in same account.

  • 8 privilege escalation actions via direct IAM policy manipulation: PutGroupPolicy, PutRolePolicy, PutUserPolicy, CreatePolicy, CreatePolicyVersion, AttachGroupPolicy, AttachRolePolicy, AttachUserPolicy.

  • iam:PassRole with Resource: "*" + create/update on a compute service (EC2 RunInstances, Lambda CreateFunction/UpdateFunctionConfiguration, ECS RegisterTaskDefinition, Glue, SageMaker, CloudFormation, etc.) = privilege escalation to any passable role in the account, including Administrator. Scope Resource to specific role ARNs or an IAM path; optionally constrain with iam:PassedToService / iam:AssociatedResourceArn. See IAM User Guide — Grant a user permissions to pass a role.

MFA:

  • Unassigned virtual MFA devices auto-deleted when adding new ones.
  • MFA resync-only policy NotAction needs exactly: iam:ListMFADevices, iam:ListVirtualMFADevices, iam:ResyncMFADevice.

SigV4:

  • IncompleteSignatureException includes SHA-256 hash of Authorization header for transit modification diagnosis.

Service-Specific Roles:

  • Redshift Serverless trust policy: include BOTH redshift-serverless.amazonaws.com AND redshift.amazonaws.com as service principals (per AWS docs; omitting serverless causes Not authorized to get credentials of role on COPY).
  • IAM OIDC providers: thumbprints are not required for most providers (AWS verifies via trusted CAs).

Policy Summary Display:

  • Single statement with multi-service wildcard actions (e.g. codebuild:*, codecommit:*) + service-specific resource ARNs: each resource appears ONLY under its matching service's summary (CodeBuild ARN under CodeBuild, etc.). A resource whose service prefix matches NO action in the statement is the only case where it appears in all action summaries ("mismatched resource").

FAQ

What does the aws-iam skill do?

Provides verified corrections for IAM behaviors that AI agents frequently get wrong — policy evaluation edge cases, trust policy gotchas, STS session limits, Organizations quirks, and SAML/MFA specifics. Also provides structured workflows for IAM role management and baseline policy generation from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON. Covers condition operator safety (ForAnyValue/ForAllValues with Null checks), bucket policy deny patterns (VPC endpoint restrictions, org paths), confused deputy protection, and service role creation for AWS services (Glue, CloudTrail, Lambda, ECS, etc.) with aws:SourceAccount/aws:SourceArn trust conditions. Applies when creating IAM roles, writing IAM or bucket policies, generating policies from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON, working with STS, Organizations, or condition operators, or any task needing a service or execution role. Does not cover non-IAM authorization like Cognito user-pool policies or app-level RBAC.

How do I install aws-iam?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-iam in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/aws-iam/ (personal) or .claude/skills/aws-iam/ (project).

Which AI agents can use aws-iam?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is aws-iam safe to install?

Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub passed; Socket passed; Snyk flagged items to review. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.

Who maintains aws-iam?

It is published by aws in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, and it is an official skill from the maker of the technology it covers. It has 10,289 recorded installs.

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