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AmazonGranted patentSecurity & privacyInterest 6/10

Amazon patents system to check if cloud users gain too much power

Amazon describes a service that checks security rules in cloud accounts to see if users can accidentally gain extra permissions. It works by testing if a user's actions could lead to a level of access that violates a specific security requirement. The system flags these potential issues before they become security risks.

Why it mattersThis helps cloud providers and businesses ensure that their internal security settings don't have gaps that could let employees or attackers gain unauthorized control over data.

In the filing’s own words

A policy auditing service can be implemented, in accordance with at least one embodiment that obtains a set of parameters that indicates a snapshot of a policy configuration for an account, a query, and a security policy. The security policy may encode a security requirement or invariant. The policy auditing system may determine states that can be reached via mutative operations (e.g., role assumption) and use a policy analyzer service to determine whether assuming a role results in a grant of access that is at least as permissive as the security policy of the set of parameters.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: obtaining a first request including a value to access a computing resource; obtaining one or more security policies usable to allow access to the computing resource; comparing the value to a preset value associated with a security policy of the one or more security policies; determining that the value matches the preset value associated with the security policy; indicating that role assumption is allowed for a principal based on the value matching the preset value for the principal; obtaining a second request for the principal to assume a role; and in response to the second request, granting access of the computing resource to the principal with the role in accordance with the role assumption.

Facts

Company
Amazon (Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
Official title
Techniques for analyzing security in computing environments with privilege escalation
Patent number
US12750376B1
Application number
17971425
Filed
Oct 21, 2022
Granted
Sep 29, 2026
Inventors
8
Claims
20

Classified under

H04L 63/105 Electricity & electronicsG06F 9/547 Physics & computingG06F 16/9024 Physics & computingH04L 63/20 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.