More Info:

Users who are infrequent or do not need access to console, their account access should be cleared off.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

CBP

Triage and Remediation

How to Prevent

To prevent User Console Access Inactive in IAM using the AWS Management Console, follow these steps:

  1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):

    • Navigate to the IAM dashboard.
    • Select “Users” from the left-hand menu.
    • Click on the username of the user you want to enable MFA for.
    • Under the “Security credentials” tab, click on “Manage” next to “Assigned MFA device.”
    • Follow the prompts to assign an MFA device to the user.
  2. Set Up Password Policies:

    • Go to the IAM dashboard.
    • Click on “Account settings” in the left-hand menu.
    • Under “Password policy,” click on “Set password policy.”
    • Configure the password policy to enforce strong passwords, password expiration, and password reuse prevention.
  3. Regularly Review and Rotate Access Keys:

    • In the IAM dashboard, select “Users” from the left-hand menu.
    • Click on the username of the user whose access keys you want to review.
    • Under the “Security credentials” tab, review the access keys and rotate them regularly.
    • Ensure that old access keys are deactivated and deleted.
  4. Monitor and Audit User Activity:

    • Enable AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls made in your account.
    • Go to the CloudTrail dashboard.
    • Click on “Trails” in the left-hand menu and ensure a trail is created and enabled.
    • Configure CloudTrail to send logs to an S3 bucket and enable log file validation.
    • Regularly review CloudTrail logs to monitor user activity and detect any inactive or suspicious behavior.

By following these steps, you can help ensure that user console access remains active and secure, reducing the risk of misconfigurations and unauthorized access.

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