Specifying the account root or an entire AWS account as a principal (ARNs that end with :root) grants every identity in that account the ability to assume the role or act as that principal. This increases the risk of privilege escalation, lateral movement, and unauthorized access if any identity is compromised.
This rule checks Ansible tasks using the amazon.aws.iam_managed_policy or iam_managed_policy modules and flags policy statements where policy.Statement[].Principal.AWS contains :root. Principal values must be explicit and least-privileged — use specific IAM role or user ARNs or service principals instead of account-root ARNs (or wildcards). Resources with Principal.AWS containing :root are flagged.