For AI agents: A markdown version of this page is available at https://docs.datadoghq.com/security/code_security/iac_security/iac_rules/cloudformation-aws-iam-user-login-profile-password-is-in-plaintext.md. A documentation index is available at /llms.txt.

IAM user LoginProfile password is in plaintext

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Metadata

Id: cloudformation-aws-iam-user-login-profile-password-is-in-plaintext

Provider: AWS

Platform: CloudFormation

Severity: High

Category: Secret Management

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Description

Defining an IAM user’s console password as a plaintext string in an AWS CloudFormation template embeds credentials in source control and template history, increasing the risk of credential leakage and unauthorized account access. For AWS::IAM::User resources, Properties.LoginProfile.Password must not be a string literal. Resources where Properties.LoginProfile.Password is a literal string will be flagged. Use an AWS Secrets Manager dynamic reference to supply the password so it is not stored directly in the template.

Secure configuration example using a Secrets Manager dynamic reference:

MyUser:
  Type: AWS::IAM::User
  Properties:
    UserName: example-user
    LoginProfile:
      Password: "{{resolve:secretsmanager:my-app/iam/user-password:SecretString:password}}"
      PasswordResetRequired: true

Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: A sample template
Resources:
    myTopuser:
      Type: AWS::IAM::User
      Properties:
        Path: "/"
        LoginProfile:
         Password:
         - !Ref NoEcho
         PasswordResetRequired: false
        Policies:
        - PolicyName: giveaccesstoqueueonly
          PolicyDocument:
            Version: '2012-10-17'
            Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              Resource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn
            - Effect: Deny
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              NotResource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn


AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: A sample template
Resources:
    myNewuser:
      Type: AWS::IAM::User
      Properties:
        Path: "/"
        LoginProfile:
         Password:
         - !Ref secretsmanager
         PasswordResetRequired: false
        Policies:
        - PolicyName: giveaccesstoqueueonly
          PolicyDocument:
            Version: '2012-10-17'
            Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              Resource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn
            - Effect: Deny
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              NotResource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn

Non-Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: A sample template
Resources:
    myuser:
      Type: AWS::IAM::User
      Properties:
        Path: "/"
        LoginProfile:
         Password: myP@ssW0rd
         PasswordResetRequired: false
        Policies:
        - PolicyName: giveaccesstoqueueonly
          PolicyDocument:
            Version: '2012-10-17'
            Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              Resource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn
            - Effect: Deny
              Action:
              - sqs:*
              NotResource:
              - !GetAtt myqueue.Arn