Best practice 5.2 – Implement least privilege policies for source and downstream systems
The principle of least privilege works by giving only enough access for systems to do the job. Set an expiry on temporary permissions to ensure that re-authentication occurs periodically. The system actions on the data should determine the permission and granting permissions to other systems should not be permitted.
Suggestion 5.2.1 – Ensure that permissions are least for the action performed by user/system
Identify the minimum privileges that each user or system requires, and only allow the permissions that they need. For example, if a downstream system requests to read an Amazon Redshift table from an analytics workload, only give the read permission for the table using Amazon Redshift user privilege controls.
For more details, refer to the following information:
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AWS Security Blog: Techniques for writing least privilege IAM policies
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Amazon Redshift Database Developer Guide: Managing database security
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AWS Security Blog: IAM Access Analyzer makes it easier to implement least privilege permissions by
generating IAM policies based on access activity
Suggestion 5.2.2 – Implement the two-person rule to prevent accidental or malicious actions
Even if you have implemented the least privilege policies, someone must have critical permissions for the business, such as the ability to delete datasets from analytics workloads.
The two-person rule is a safety mechanism that requires the presence of two authorized personnel to perform tasks that are considered important. It has its origins in military protocol, but the IT security space has also widely adopted the practice.
By implementing the two-person rule, you can have additional prevention of accidental or malicious actions of the people who have critical permissions.
