Terraform Provider for PolicyGuru

The Terraform Provider for PolicyGuru is designed for managing overly permissive IAM policies in AWS environments. This provider integrates with Policy Sentry, a tool designed to generate and audit least privilege IAM policies, ensuring that access is strictly limited to necessary resources and actions.

Technically, the provider leverages Terraform's infrastructure-as-code paradigm to create and manage IAM policies directly from within your code editor. It requires Terraform version 0.13.0 or later and works in conjunction with the AWS provider. The policyguru_document data source is used to define policy documents based on specific actions and resources, allowing for fine-grained control over permissions. For example, you can specify actions for resources at different access levels, include single actions without resource constraints, and exclude certain actions entirely.

Operationally, this provider simplifies policy management by automating the generation of least privilege policies, reducing the risk of human error and over-provisioning. However, it is important to note that the complexity of the policies generated can impact the performance of Terraform plans and applies, particularly in large-scale environments. Additionally, the provider's dependency on the Policy Sentry REST API means that API availability and performance can affect the overall usability of the tool.

From a technical details perspective, the provider supports detailed policy definitions, including versioning ("2012-10-17" for IAM policies), statement IDs, effects (Allow/Deny), actions, and resource ARNs. It also allows for outputting the policy document in JSON format for further review or integration into other automation workflows. Despite its robust capabilities, the provider's runtime dependencies are kept minimal to reduce the total cost of ownership, though users should remain vigilant about security updates and patches.