AWS Security Audit

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

Review scope and execution boundaries

Select the exact account/role, partition, regions and control/framework version before collecting evidence; verify identity with aws sts get-caller-identity. Read-only assessment is the default. Commands that create MFA devices, change policies/keys, enable services, rotate secrets or create alarms require an approved change scope and rollback plan. Keep evidence and secret material out of shared logs.

These are partial examples, not certification or complete benchmark implementations. Control numbers are illustrative historical mappings, not a pinned current benchmark. Record PASS/FAIL/UNKNOWN/NOT-APPLICABLE per control with evidence and coverage. AccessDenied, API errors, missing permissions, absent pages and unimplemented checks are UNKNOWN, never PASS. Use paginators for SDK listings and cover all selected regions/accounts; never infer completeness from no findings. Shell snippets require Bash/GNU date, AWS CLI, jq and error checking (set -euo pipefail in complete scripts). Generate the IAM credential report first, wait for COMPLETE and decode its base64 Content; parse CSV by header in production. Credential reports are sensitive.

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 object encryption and required key-policy coverage
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 --query Content --output text | base64 --decode | \
  awk -F, '$8=="false" && $1!="<root_account>" {print $1}'

# Find unused IAM users (no activity in 90 days)
aws iam list-users --query 'Users[*].[UserName]' --output text | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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`]'
# Scope Local excludes AWS-managed AdministratorAccess. Inspect attached and
# inline effective policies, boundaries, session policies and SCPs separately.

# Find access keys older than 90 days
aws iam list-users --query 'Users[*].UserName' --output text | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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 | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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 | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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

# Inspect default configuration; all new S3 uploads have SSE-S3 baseline encryption.
# Existing historical objects and required KMS policies need separate evidence.
aws s3api list-buckets --query 'Buckets[*].Name' --output text | tr '\t' '\n' | \
while read bucket; do
  encryption=$(aws s3api get-bucket-encryption \
    --bucket "$bucket" 2>&1)
  if echo "$encryption" | grep -q "ServerSideEncryptionConfigurationNotFoundError"; then
    echo "Default encryption query needs investigation: $bucket; not proof all objects lack encryption"
  fi
done

# Find RDS snapshots that are public
aws rds describe-db-snapshots \
  --query 'DBSnapshots[*].[DBSnapshotIdentifier]' --output text | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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 | tr '\t' '\n' | \
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 \
  --query 'IsLogging'

# Check if AWS Config is enabled
aws configservice describe-configuration-recorders \
  --query 'ConfigurationRecorders[*].[name,roleARN]' \
  --output table

# List S3 buckets without access logging
aws s3api list-buckets --query 'Buckets[*].Name' --output text | tr '\t' '\n' | \
while read bucket; do
  logging=$(aws s3api get-bucket-logging --bucket "$bucket" 2>&1)
  if ! echo "$logging" | grep -q "LoggingEnabled"; then
    echo "No access logging: $bucket"
  fi
done

Automated Security Audit Script

#!/bin/bash
# comprehensive-security-audit.sh

echo "=== AWS Security Audit Report ==="
echo "Generated: $(date)"
echo ""

# IAM Checks
echo "## IAM Security"
echo "Users without MFA:"
aws iam get-credential-report --query Content --output text | base64 --decode | \
  awk -F, '$8=="false" && $1!="<root_account>" {print "  - " $1}'

echo ""
echo "Root account access keys:"
aws iam get-account-summary \
  --query 'SummaryMap.AccountAccessKeysPresent' --output text

# Network Checks
echo ""
echo "## Network Security"
echo "Security groups open to 0.0.0.0/0:"
aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
  --query 'SecurityGroups[?IpPermissions[?IpRanges[?CidrIp==`0.0.0.0/0`]]].GroupId' \
  --output json | jq 'length'

# Data Protection
echo ""
echo "## Data Protection"
echo "Unencrypted EBS volumes:"
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --query 'Volumes[?Encrypted==`false`].VolumeId' \
  --output json | jq 'length'

echo ""
echo "Unencrypted RDS instances:"
aws rds describe-db-instances \
  --query 'DBInstances[?StorageEncrypted==`false`].DBInstanceIdentifier' \
  --output json | jq 'length'

# Logging
echo ""
echo "## Logging & Monitoring"
echo "CloudTrail status:"
aws cloudtrail describe-trails \
  --query 'trailList[*].[Name,TrailARN]'
# Get IsLogging from get-trail-status for each TrailARN, not describe-trails. \
  --output table

echo ""
echo "=== End of Report ==="

Assessment result model

Do not calculate a security score from stubs or skipped checks. For each control report account/region/resource, evidence timestamp, exact check and PASS/FAIL/UNKNOWN/NOT-APPLICABLE. Explicitly list unqueried regions, unavailable permissions, pagination failures and controls requiring manual evidence. Public ingress may be intentional; severity depends on port/protocol, IPv6 exposure, asset sensitivity and compensating controls.

Compliance Mapping

CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark

1.1: Root account usage
1.2-1.14: IAM policies and MFA
2.1-2.9: Logging (CloudTrail, Config, VPC Flow Logs)
4.1-4.3: Monitoring and alerting

PCI-DSS

Requirement 1: Network security controls
Requirement 2: Secure configurations
Requirement 8: Access controls and MFA
Requirement 10: Logging and monitoring

HIPAA

Access controls (IAM)
Audit controls (CloudTrail)
Encryption (EBS, RDS, S3)
Transmission security (TLS/SSL)

Remediation Priorities

Critical (Fix Immediately)

Root account access keys
Public RDS snapshots
Security groups open to 0.0.0.0/0 on sensitive ports
CloudTrail disabled

High (Fix Within 7 Days)

Users without MFA
Unencrypted data at rest
Missing VPC Flow Logs
Overly permissive IAM policies

Medium (Fix Within 30 Days)

Old access keys (>90 days)
Missing S3 access logging
Unused IAM users
KMS key rotation disabled

Example Prompts

"Run a comprehensive security audit on my AWS account"
"Check for IAM security issues"
"Find all unencrypted resources"
"Generate a security compliance report"
"Calculate my AWS security score"

Best Practices

Run audits weekly
Automate with Lambda/EventBridge
Export results to S3 for trending
Integrate with SIEM tools
Track remediation progress
Document exceptions with business justification

Kiro CLI Integration

kiro-cli chat "Use aws-security-audit to assess my security posture"
kiro-cli chat "Generate a security audit report with aws-security-audit"

Additional Resources

Limitations

Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.