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Introduction

Each key managed by the AWS Key Management Service (KMS) must have a resource policy that describes what AWS security principals can use and manage the key. If you create a policy that does not include management privileges for any principal or if principals named in the policy are themselves deleted, you may find yourself unable to manage a KMS key. Fortunately AWS provides a way to regain control of the key in such a situation.

(warning) Note that even the root user for the AWS account cannot manage KSM keys unless specifically allowed in the key policy!

As of , we could not find AWS documentation that discusses how to recover management access to a key, thus we created this short article.

To avoid being locked out of a KMS key from an accidentally deleted IAM principal, using a Condition in the Key Policy is recommended.

Key Policy Example
{
    "Sid": "Allow administration",
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": {
        "AWS": "*"
    },
    "Action": "kms:*",
    "Resource": "*",
    "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
            "aws:PrincipalArn": [
                "arn:aws:iam::${SOME_ACCOUNT_ID}:role/shib-admin",
                "arn:aws:iam::${SOME_ACCOUNT_ID}:root"
            ]
        }
    }
}


Process

  1. First, try to access the KMS key with any/all security principals (IAM Roles and Users) that might have previously had access to the key. If any principal has even kms:DescribeKey privileges to the target key, use that principal to review the key policy (resource policy) attached to the key. That may reveal a security principal that has access to manage the key.
  2. If Step 1 doesn't reveal any way to manage the key, create a support ticket for the CIT Cloud Team (cloud-support@cornell.edu) describing the situation. Be sure to include the ID/Arn of the problematic key.
    • The CIT Cloud Team will in turn create a support case with AWS to aid in recovering access to the key. As a Cornell AWS user, you could also directly create the AWS support case, but you will still need to involve the CIT Cloud Team because part of the recovery process is a phone call to the phone number associated with the AWS account. For most Cornell AWS accounts, that phone number is directed to a CIT Cloud Team phone extension.

References

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