Managing Access Across Multiple Accounts

Cross Account Roles

Organizations

Managing access across multiple AWS accounts is essential for security, scalability, and governance. SecureCart follows AWS best practices by using AWS Organizations, IAM Identity Center (SSO), and IAM roles to enforce secure and centralized access management.

✔ Why SecureCart Needs Multi-Account Access Management?

• Ensures security and compliance across environments (Dev, Staging, Production).

• Reduces administrative overhead by using centralized identity management.

• Enforces least privilege access while allowing cross-account collaboration.

• Provides a scalable way to grant and revoke permissions across accounts.

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🔹 Step 1: Structuring AWS Accounts for SecureCart

✔ SecureCart organizes accounts using AWS Organizations to simplify governance and access control.

AWS Account Type	Purpose	SecureCart Implementation
Management Account	Controls governance, security, and billing across all accounts.	SecureCart restricts access to security and finance teams only.
Workload Accounts	Separate Dev, Staging, and Production environments.	SecureCart assigns different permissions to developers and operations teams.
Security & Logging Account	Stores security logs and audit trails.	SecureCart ensures logs cannot be deleted or modified by workload accounts.

✅ Best Practices: ✔ Use AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts efficiently. ✔ Apply Service Control Policies (SCPs) to enforce security guardrails. ✔ Use a dedicated security account for centralized logging and auditing. ✔ Restrict access to the management account to security and finance teams only.

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🔹 Step 2: Centralized Authentication with IAM Identity Center (SSO)

✔ SecureCart uses IAM Identity Center for centralized identity and authentication management.

IAM Identity Center Feature	Purpose	SecureCart Implementation
Centralized User Management	Eliminates the need for IAM Users in multiple accounts.	SecureCart integrates IAM Identity Center with Okta for federated access.
Permission Sets for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)	Defines permissions at the account level.	SecureCart assigns separate permission sets for Developers, Admins, and Security teams.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)	Enforces strong authentication across accounts.	SecureCart enables MFA for all privileged access.

✅ Best Practices: ✔ Use IAM Identity Center for user authentication instead of IAM Users. ✔ Assign permissions using IAM roles and permission sets instead of direct policies. ✔ Enforce MFA for all privileged users accessing AWS accounts. ✔ Use federated access with Okta or Azure AD for single sign-on.

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🔹 Step 3: Implementing IAM Roles for Cross-Account Access

✔ SecureCart grants cross-account access using IAM roles instead of IAM users.

Cross-Account Access Strategy	Purpose	SecureCart Implementation
Use IAM Roles Instead of IAM Users	Grants temporary, least-privilege access.	SecureCart developers assume roles instead of using static credentials.
Define Trust Policies for Secure Access	Ensures only authorized users can assume roles.	SecureCart uses trust relationships to allow DevOps teams access to production accounts.
Limit Role Permissions with IAM Policies	Prevents privilege escalation.	SecureCart restricts permissions using IAM permission boundaries.

✅ Best Practices: ✔ Use IAM roles instead of creating IAM users for cross-account access. ✔ Define trust policies to restrict which accounts can assume roles. ✔ Apply permission boundaries to limit maximum role permissions. ✔ Monitor role usage with AWS CloudTrail and IAM Access Analyzer.

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🔹 Step 4: Enforcing Governance with Service Control Policies (SCPs)

✔ SecureCart uses SCPs to enforce security and compliance across all accounts.

SCP Rule	Purpose	SecureCart Implementation
Prevent IAM User Creation	Ensures all access is managed via IAM Identity Center.	SecureCart applies an SCP to block IAM user creation in workload accounts.
Restrict Deletion of CloudTrail Logs	Prevents security logs from being tampered with.	SecureCart enforces an SCP that denies CloudTrail deletion.
Block Unapproved AWS Regions	Ensures resources are only deployed in approved locations.	**SecureCart limits deployments to North America and Europe.

✅ Best Practices: ✔ Apply SCPs at the Organizational Unit (OU) level for consistent policy enforcement. ✔ Use SCPs to restrict critical actions like disabling CloudTrail or IAM changes. ✔ Regularly review and update SCPs to align with security and compliance requirements. ✔ Ensure SCPs do not override necessary permissions for legitimate workflows.

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🔹 Step 5: Monitoring & Auditing Multi-Account Access

✔ SecureCart ensures security by continuously monitoring access across accounts.

AWS Monitoring Tool	Purpose	SecureCart Implementation
AWS IAM Access Analyzer	Detects unintended public access and cross-account permissions.	SecureCart scans all IAM policies for overly permissive configurations.
AWS CloudTrail	Logs all IAM role assumptions and API calls.	SecureCart monitors IAM role usage across all accounts.
AWS Config	Ensures compliance with security best practices.	SecureCart flags non-compliant IAM role assignments.
AWS Security Hub	Aggregates security findings across multiple accounts.	SecureCart enables centralized security monitoring.

✅ Best Practices: ✔ Use IAM Access Analyzer to detect unintended public and cross-account access. ✔ Monitor CloudTrail logs to track IAM role assumptions and API calls. ✔ Enable AWS Config to ensure IAM roles follow best practices. ✔ Use AWS Security Hub to centralize security monitoring across accounts.

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🚀 Summary

✔ Use AWS Organizations to manage multiple AWS accounts efficiently. ✔ Centralize authentication with IAM Identity Center instead of creating IAM users. ✔ Use IAM roles for cross-account access instead of IAM users. ✔ Apply Service Control Policies (SCPs) to enforce security guardrails. ✔ Monitor multi-account access using IAM Access Analyzer, CloudTrail, and AWS Config.