CloudWiki
Rules
Critical

S3 inline policy is over permissive

Security & Compliance
Description

An S3 inline policy that is over-permissive is a policy that provides more access than required to a specific S3 resource or a set of resources. Such a policy can pose a security risk as it can allow unauthorized access to the resources, leading to data breaches or data loss. An over-permissive policy can also lead to an insider threat if an authenticated user with access to the policy uses it to maliciously access the resources. It is, therefore, essential to ensure that S3 inline policies provide only the required access to the resources and nothing more.

Remediation

When an S3 inline policy is overly permissive, it can grant unauthorized access to the S3 bucket and its objects, leading to potential data breaches. Here are the steps to remediate the issue:

  1. Identify the S3 bucket with an overly permissive inline policy.
  2. Review the inline policy to determine the level of access granted and the resources it affects.
  3. Modify the inline policy to remove any unnecessary permissions that are not required by the application or service that needs access to the S3 bucket.
  4. Test the modified inline policy to ensure it does not cause any issues or disruptions to the application or service.
  5. Implement a review process for inline policies to prevent over-permissioning in the future. This review process should include the removal of any unused policies, regular auditing of policies to ensure they are up-to-date and necessary, and monitoring of S3 bucket activity logs to detect any unusual or unauthorized access attempts.
Enforced Resources
Note: Remediation steps provided by Lightlytics are meant to be suggestions and guidelines only. It is crucial to thoroughly verify and test any remediation steps before applying them to production environments. Each organization's infrastructure and security needs may differ, and blindly applying suggested remediation steps without proper testing could potentially cause unforeseen issues or vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you validate and customize any remediation steps to meet your organization's specific requirements and ensure that they align with your security policies and best practices.