AWS Security Architecture — InfraTales Hub

AWS security is not a feature you add at the end. This hub covers the architecture patterns that make security a structural property of the system.

AWS Security Architecture

Security on AWS is not about adding a WAF and calling it done. It is about making the architecture itself resistant to the most common failure modes — credential leaks, lateral movement, and misconfigured permissions.

This hub covers the security architecture patterns used in production.


Security Architecture Posts


The IAM Mistakes That End Careers

Wildcard actions in production
"Action": "*" in a production IAM policy is a ticking clock. Every AWS security incident in the last 5 years involved overly permissive IAM. Use aws iam simulate-principal-policy to validate before deploying.

Long-lived access keys
Rotate them or — better — eliminate them. EC2 instance profiles, Lambda execution roles, and ECS task roles all use short-lived credentials that rotate automatically. There is no reason for a long-lived access key in a well-designed system.

Not using SCPs
Service Control Policies at the AWS Organizations level are the last line of defence. Even if a role is misconfigured, SCPs can prevent the damage. At minimum: deny root API access, deny disabling CloudTrail, deny creating IAM users without MFA.

Secrets in environment variables
Lambda environment variables are visible to anyone with lambda:GetFunctionConfiguration. Use Secrets Manager or Parameter Store, and fetch at runtime rather than at deploy time.


Security architecture review needed? Work with Rahul

Every week: one AWS failure broken down + the fix that worked