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Serverless function without unique IAM role

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Metadata

Id: cloudformation-aws-serverless-function-without-unique-iam-role

Provider: AWS

Platform: CloudFormation

Severity: High

Category: Insecure Configurations

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Description

Sharing an IAM execution role across multiple AWS Serverless functions increases blast radius and can give unrelated functions identical privileges, making privilege escalation or lateral movement easier if one function is compromised. For AWS::Serverless::Function resources, the Properties.Role value must be unique for each function and should reference a function-specific IAM role ARN. This rule flags Resources.<name>.Properties.Role when the same Role value is assigned to more than one AWS::Serverless::Function. Fix this by defining a distinct AWS::IAM::Role per function (or omitting Role to let AWS SAM create unique roles) and applying least-privilege policies to each role.

Secure configuration with distinct roles:

MyFunctionRole1:
  Type: AWS::IAM::Role
  Properties:
    AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
      Version: "2012-10-17"
      Statement:
        - Effect: Allow
          Principal:
            Service: lambda.amazonaws.com
          Action: sts:AssumeRole
    Policies:
      - PolicyName: MyFunction1Policy
        PolicyDocument:
          Version: "2012-10-17"
          Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
              Action:
                - logs:CreateLogGroup
                - logs:CreateLogStream
                - logs:PutLogEvents
              Resource: "*"

MyFunction1:
  Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
  Properties:
    Role: !GetAtt MyFunctionRole1.Arn
    Handler: index.handler
    Runtime: nodejs14.x

MyFunctionRole2:
  Type: AWS::IAM::Role
  Properties:
    AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
      Version: "2012-10-17"
      Statement:
        - Effect: Allow
          Principal:
            Service: lambda.amazonaws.com
          Action: sts:AssumeRole
    Policies:
      - PolicyName: MyFunction2Policy
        PolicyDocument:
          Version: "2012-10-17"
          Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
              Action:
                - dynamodb:GetItem
              Resource: arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/MyTable

MyFunction2:
  Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
  Properties:
    Role: !GetAtt MyFunctionRole2.Arn
    Handler: index.handler
    Runtime: nodejs14.x

Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Description: AWS SAM template with a simple API definition
Resources:
  Function3:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Description: AWS SAM template with a simple API definition
Resources:
  Function1:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: !Ref Role2
  Function2:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: !Ref Role4

Non-Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Description: AWS SAM template with a simple API definition
Resources:
  Function1:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role
  Function2:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/lambda-role

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31
Description: AWS SAM template with a simple API definition
Resources:
  Function1:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: !Ref Role
  Function2:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      PackageType: Image
      ImageUri: account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/ecr-repo-name:image-name
      ImageConfig:
        Command:
          - "app.lambda_handler"
        EntryPoint:
          - "entrypoint1"
        WorkingDirectory: "workDir"
      Tags:
        - Key: Type
          Value: AWS Serverless Function
      Role: !Ref Role