Episode 12 — Audit IAM policies for overreach, wildcard abuse, and accidental admin
This episode focuses on how to read and audit IAM policy documents the way an attacker and an auditor would, because the exam commonly probes your ability to spot “looks fine” permissions that are actually dangerous. You’ll define policy components such as actions, resources, conditions, and effect, then learn why wildcard patterns are high risk: they widen the set of allowed operations, expand to newly introduced services, and often hide privilege escalation paths. We’ll cover common accidental-admin patterns like broad write permissions on identity services, permissions that allow role assumption into more powerful identities, and permissions that grant the ability to attach or modify policies. A scenario walkthrough shows a team granting “temporary troubleshooting” access that quietly includes policy edit rights, enabling full takeover if credentials are compromised. You’ll also learn practical audit habits: search for wildcards, enumerate sensitive actions, check conditions, and validate effective permissions rather than trusting intent. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
