IAM Identity Center

Understand how centrally managed workforce permissions are assigned across AWS accounts.

AWS IAM Identity Center allows organizations to manage workforce access to multiple AWS accounts using permission sets rather than creating equivalent IAM users independently in every account. This changes the access question from “Which IAM policy is attached to this user?” to “Which permission set can this workforce identity receive, and in which AWS accounts?”

Securitain provides Identity Center context so security teams can investigate permission-set privilege and assignment scope.

Where to find Identity Center

The current governance view focuses on Permission Sets. You can also review permission sets from:

Inventory vs Governance view

Identity Center access model

Workforce User / Group
        ↓
Permission Set
        ↓
AWS Account Assignment
        ↓
AWS Role / Session
        ↓
AWS Access

Permission sets

A permission set can include:

• AWS managed policies
• customer managed policy references where applicable
• inline policy context
• session duration
• other supported configuration

Securitain treats the permission set as a security-relevant identity-governance object rather than just an inventory record.

Current Permission Sets view

Depending on the current product view, a permission set can include context such as:

• name, description and Identity Center instance
• session duration
• assignment count (user and group)
• target account count
• administrative-access indicator
• managed-policy count
• risk score
• last-seen time

The exact fields displayed differ slightly between the Inventory and Governance views.

Administrative permission sets

A permission set that grants broad administrative access can create significant consequence because it may be assigned across multiple accounts.

Admin Permission Set
      ↓
Engineering Group
      ↓
Production Account
Shared Services Account
Security Account

Use assignment and target-account context to understand scope.

Assignments

An Identity Center assignment connects:

• a user or group
• a permission set
• a target AWS account

PlatformAdmins Group
       ↓
Administrator Permission Set
       ↓
Production Account

Current assignment-view limitation

Securitain currently lets you inspect assignments per permission set. To review assignments, open the relevant permission set in the Governance view and expand its assignments.

Selected-account scope

The Inventory → Permission Sets view supports account scoping. When a specific AWS account is selected, Securitain can limit the permission-set inventory to sets assigned to that target account. This makes it easier to answer: which Identity Center permission sets can reach this particular AWS account?

Group assignments

Group assignments can be operationally efficient. However, group-based access should be reviewed carefully for powerful permission sets because a change in group membership can change AWS access without editing the AWS account itself.

Developers Group
      ↓
Developer Permission Set
      ↓
Development Accounts

User assignments

Direct user assignments can also exist. A direct assignment can be appropriate, but security teams should understand:

• why it exists
• whether group-based assignment would be easier to govern
• whether the permission set is highly privileged
• whether the target account is production

Session duration

Identity Center sessions are temporary. Permission sets can specify session duration. Longer sessions can increase the period during which valid credentials remain usable. The correct duration depends on workforce role, administrative sensitivity, application needs and IdP/session controls. Securitain can use session-duration context in risk analysis.

Managed policies and inline access

Permission sets can obtain permissions from multiple policy sources. When investigating a permission set:

• inspect managed policies
• inspect supported inline policy context
• identify broad or administrative actions
• understand the accounts to which the permission set is assigned

For deeper authorization analysis, use Effective Permissions where relevant and supported.

Identity Center risk context

Securitain can prioritize permission sets based on security-relevant characteristics. Representative concepts can include administrative access, broad permissions, sensitive actions, wide assignment scope and session duration. The full risk taxonomy is not published.

Identity Center vs IAM users

The central assignment model means permission-set governance becomes very important.

Identity Center vs Federation

An enterprise identity architecture can use both.

Collection requirements

Identity Center analysis requires:

• IAM Identity Center to be configured
• appropriate supported read access
• a Securitain assessment that includes the Identity Center capability

Investigating a high-risk permission set

1. 1

   Identify the permission set

   Review name, description, session duration and policies.

2. 2

   Determine privilege

   Look for administrative access, IAM-sensitive capabilities and broad resource access.

3. 3

   Review assignments

   Identify users, groups and target accounts.

4. 4

   Review account criticality

   Determine whether assignments reach production, security, shared services or other sensitive accounts.

5. 5

   Review whether access is necessary

   Confirm ownership and business purpose.

6. 6

   Reduce scope where appropriate

   Consider narrower permission set, narrower account assignment, smaller group or reduced session duration. Changes should go through the organization's normal Identity Center or IaC workflow.

Evidence and limitations

Identity Center results depend on:

• collected permission sets and assignments
• target-account context and policy information
• scan freshness and assessment permission

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