Detection: IAM Identity Created Without CloudFormation

Overview

Detect when IAM entity (users, roles, or groups) was created outside of AWS CloudFormation. Manually created entities bypass centralized governance, auditing, and compliance controls, increasing the risk of over-permissioning and misconfigurations. Identifying such entities helps maintain secure resource management and ensures adherence to infrastructure-as-code (IaC) best practices.

References:

Usage

Run the detection in your terminal:

powerpipe detection run aws_cloudtrail_log_detections.detection.iam_identity_created_without_cloudformation

Snapshot and share results via Turbot Pipes:

powerpipe login
powerpipe detection run aws_cloudtrail_log_detections.detection.iam_identity_created_without_cloudformation --share

SQL

This detection uses a named query:

select
  tp_timestamp as timestamp,
string_split(event_source, '.')[1] || ':' || event_name as operation,
coalesce(request_parameters ->> 'userName', request_parameters ->> 'roleName', request_parameters ->> 'groupName') as resource,
user_identity.arn as actor,
tp_source_ip as source_ip,
tp_index as account_id,
aws_region as region,
tp_id as source_id,
*

from
  aws_cloudtrail_log
where
  event_source = 'iam.amazonaws.com'
  and event_name in ( 
    'CreateGroup', 
    'CreateRole', 
    'CreateUser'
  )
  and (
    user_identity.invoked_by is null 
    or user_identity.invoked_by != 'cloudformation.amazonaws.com'
  )
  and error_code is null

order by
  event_time desc;

Detection: IAM Identity Created Without CloudFormation

Overview

Usage

SQL

Tags