AWS Security Audit

Perform comprehensive security assessments of AWS environments to identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to audit AWS security posture, identify vulnerabilities, or prepare for compliance assessments.

Audit Categories

Identity & Access Management

• Overly permissive IAM policies
• Unused IAM users and roles
• MFA enforcement gaps
• Root account usage
• Access key rotation

Network Security

• Open security groups (0.0.0.0/0)
• Public S3 buckets
• Unencrypted data in transit
• VPC flow logs disabled
• Network ACL misconfigurations

Data Protection

• Unencrypted EBS volumes
• Unencrypted RDS instances
• S3 bucket encryption disabled
• Backup policies missing
• KMS key rotation disabled

Logging & Monitoring

• CloudTrail disabled
• CloudWatch alarms missing
• VPC Flow Logs disabled
• S3 access logging disabled
• Config recording disabled

Security Audit Commands

IAM Security Checks

# List users without MFA
aws iam get-credential-report --output text | \
  awk -F, '$4=="false" && $1!="<root_account>" {print $1}'

# Find unused IAM users (no activity in 90 days)
aws iam list-users --query 'Users[*].[UserName]' --output text | \
while read user; do
  last_used=$(aws iam get-user --user-name "$user" \
    --query 'User.PasswordLastUsed' --output text)
  echo "$user: $last_used"
done

# List overly permissive policies (AdministratorAccess)
aws iam list-policies --scope Local \
  --query 'Policies[?PolicyName==`AdministratorAccess`]'

# Find access keys older than 90 days
aws iam list-users --query 'Users[*].UserName' --output text | \
while read user; do
  aws iam list-access-keys --user-name "$user" \
    --query 'AccessKeyMetadata[*].[AccessKeyId,CreateDate]' \
    --output text
done

# Check root account access keys
aws iam get-account-summary \
  --query 'SummaryMap.AccountAccessKeysPresent'

Network Security Checks

# Find security groups open to the world
aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
  --query 'SecurityGroups[?IpPermissions[?IpRanges[?CidrIp==`0.0.0.0/0`]]].[GroupId,GroupName]' \
  --output table

# List public S3 buckets
aws s3api list-buckets --query 'Buckets[*].Name' --output text | \
while read bucket; do
  acl=$(aws s3api get-bucket-acl --bucket "$bucket" 2>/dev/null)
  if echo "$acl" | grep -q "AllUsers"; then
    echo "PUBLIC: $bucket"
  fi
done

# Check VPC Flow Logs status
aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[*].VpcId' --output text | \
while read vpc; do
  flow_logs=$(aws ec2 describe-flow-logs \
    --filter "Name=resource-id,Values=$vpc" \
    --query 'FlowLogs[*].FlowLogId' --output text)
  if [ -z "$flow_logs" ]; then
    echo "No flow logs: $vpc"
  fi
done

# Find RDS instances without encryption
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --query 'DBInstances[?StorageEncrypted==`false`].[DBInstanceIdentifier]' \
  --output table

Data Protection Checks

# Find unencrypted EBS volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --query 'Volumes[?Encrypted==`false`].[VolumeId,Size,State]' \
  --output table

# Check S3 bucket encryption
aws s3api list-buckets --query 'Buckets[*].Name' --output text | \
while read bucket; do
  encryption=$(aws s3api get-bucket-encryption \
    --bucket "$bucket" 2>&1)
  if echo "$encryption" | grep -q "ServerSideEncryptionConfigurationNotFoundError"; then
    echo "No encryption: $bucket"
  fi
done

# Find RDS snapshots that are public
aws rds describe-db-snapshots \
  --query 'DBSnapshots[*].[DBSnapshotIdentifier]' --output text | \
while read snapshot; do
  attrs=$(aws rds describe-db-snapshot-attributes \
    --db-snapshot-identifier "$snapshot" \
    --query 'DBSnapshotAttributesResult.DBSnapshotAttributes[?AttributeName==`restore`].AttributeValues' \
    --output text)
  if echo "$attrs" | grep -q "all"; then
    echo "PUBLIC SNAPSHOT: $snapshot"
  fi
done

# Check KMS key rotation
aws kms list-keys --query 'Keys[*].KeyId' --output text | \
while read key; do
  rotation=$(aws kms get-key-rotation-status --key-id "$key" \
    --query 'KeyRotationEnabled' --output text 2>/dev/null)
  if [ "$rotation" = "False" ]; then
    echo "Rotation disabled: $key"
  fi
done

Logging & Monitoring Checks

# Check CloudTrail status
aws cloudtrail describe-trails \
  --query 'trailList[*].[Name,IsMultiRegionTrail,LogFileValidationEnabled]' \
  --output table

# Verify CloudTrail is logging
aws cloudtrail get-trail-status --name my-trail \

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