Question

Difficulty: Very hardMulti-Account Identity and Access Management Federation

An enterprise is designing a multi-account AWS environment utilizing AWS Organizations. The enterprise has a corporate identity provider (IdP) that supports SAML 2.0. Users in the IdP must be able to authenticate and gain access to resources across multiple AWS member accounts based on their department attributes. The security architect wants to configure direct federation to the member accounts using IAM SAML Identity Providers and IAM Roles. To enforce centralized security, a Service Control Policy (SCP) is applied at the root of the organization. During implementation, users are unable to authenticate and receive access denied errors. Which TWO configuration steps are required to establish the trust relationship and resolve the authentication failures? (Select TWO.)

  1. Configure an IAM SAML identity provider in each target member account, and create a federated IAM role in each member account with a trust policy that allows the 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' action for the local SAML provider principal.Answer
  2. Configure the corporate SAML Identity Provider to send assertions containing the 'https://aws.amazon.com/SAML/Attributes/Role' attribute, specifying the comma-separated ARNs of the target IAM role and the local SAML provider in the member account.Answer
  3. C
    Configure the trust policy of the IAM roles in the member accounts to use 'sts:AssumeRole' instead of 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' to enable cross-account access, since SAML assertions are validated globally by AWS STS.
  4. D
    Attach a Service Control Policy (SCP) to the organization's root OU that grants the 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' action to the corporate IdP principal, which automatically creates the trust relationship and grants federated access to all member accounts.
  5. E
    Set up a single SAML provider in the organization's management account and configure the IAM roles in the member accounts to use 'sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity' with the management account's SAML provider as the federated principal.

Answer

To establish direct SAML 2.0 federation to AWS member accounts, you must configure an IAM SAML identity provider in each target member account with a corresponding role whose trust policy allows the 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' action. Additionally, the corporate IdP must be configured to pass SAML assertions containing the 'https://aws.amazon.com/SAML/Attributes/Role' attribute, containing the comma-separated ARNs of the target IAM role and the local SAML provider.
The correct configurations involve setting up an IAM SAML identity provider in each target member account, assigning a federated IAM role with a trust policy using the 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' action, and configuring the corporate IdP to pass the required SAML attributes, specifically the role and provider ARNs in the 'https://aws.amazon.com/SAML/Attributes/Role' attribute.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Configure an IAM SAML identity provider in each target member account.
Establishes a trust relationship between AWS and the corporate IdP within each target account.
SAML federation is account-specific, and the SAML provider metadata must reside in the account containing the federated role.
2
Configure the trust policy of the IAM roles in the member accounts.
Allows the federated principal to assume the role.
The trust policy must specify the SAML provider ARN as the principal and allow the 'sts:AssumeRoleWithSAML' action.
3
Configure the corporate IdP to pass the correct SAML attributes.
AWS receives the mapping of the user's role and provider.
AWS STS requires the 'https://aws.amazon.com/SAML/Attributes/Role' attribute to match the incoming request to the target role.

Key Concept

Direct SAML 2.0 Identity Federation in a Multi-Account AWS Organization
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