AWS announced the launch of a new capability in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) that allows security teams to centrally manage root access for member accounts in AWS Organizations. This feature helps eliminate long-term root credentials, perform privileged tasks via short-lived sessions, and centrally manage root access - aligning with security best practices.
Managing root user credentials at scale has long been a challenge for many organizations. As AWS environments grew, the manual approach to managing these credentials became cumbersome and error-prone. For example, large enterprises operating hundreds or thousands of member accounts struggled to secure root access consistently across all accounts. The manual intervention not only added operational overhead but also created a lag in account provisioning, preventing full automation and increasing security risks.
With this new feature, security teams can now centrally manage and secure privileged root credentials across all accounts in AWS Organizations. Root credentials management allows for the removal of long-term root credentials, prevents credential recovery, provisions secure-by-default accounts, and helps stay compliant. In addition, root sessions offer task-scoped, short-term root access to member accounts, eliminating the need for long-term root credentials.
One interesting example of how this feature solves problems is the ability for security teams to unlock an Amazon S3 bucket policy or an Amazon SQS resource policy without needing long-term root credentials. This capability provides a secure alternative to maintaining long-term root access, reducing potential security risks.
In short, this new feature allows organizations to manage root access more securely, efficiently, and compliantly. By eliminating long-term root credentials, performing privileged tasks via short-lived sessions, and centrally managing root access, organizations can improve their security posture and simplify their operations.
