In today's fast-paced IT environments, maintaining control over user permissions and group memberships is crucial for security and compliance. AWS Identity Center (formerly known as AWS SSO) simplifies identity management across AWS, but monitoring changes in real-time can be challenging. This blog explores a serverless solution using AWS EventBridge and Lambda to notify you whenever key changes occur within your Identity Center.

Organizations often struggle with visibility into real-time changes within their identity management systems. Whether it's a new user being added, a permission change, or a group deletion, staying informed about these changes can help mitigate security risks and ensure compliance.

Setting Up the AWS Architecture

Step 1: Overview of AWS EventBridge and Lambda

AWS EventBridge is an event bus service that enables you to build event-driven applications using events generated from your AWS services, applications, or SaaS applications that you use. AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers.

Step 2: Creating EventBridge Rules

1.Navigate to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EventBridge service. 2.Create a Rule: Set up an event pattern to detect specific activities such as user additions, permission changes, or group deletions within AWS Identity Center. 3.Configure the Event Pattern: You may not find pre-configured templates for Identity Center, so you'll need to create a custom pattern. Here's an example of what your event pattern might look like:

{

  "source": ["aws.identitycenter"],
  "detail-type": ["AWS API Call via CloudTrail"],
  "detail": {
    "eventName": ["CreateGroup", "UpdateGroup", "DeleteGroup"]
  }
}

Step 3: Configuring AWS Lambda

1.Create a Lambda Function: Navigate to AWS Lambda and create a new function to process the events. 2.Set Up Permissions: Ensure your Lambda function has the necessary permissions to access EventBridge and perform actions based on the event data. 3.Implement Logic: Write the code to handle different types of events. For example, send notification emails or log entries to an S3 bucket for further analysis.

Step 4: Integrating EventBridge with Lambda

After creating the Lambda function, link it to the EventBridge rule as a target. This integration ensures that your Lambda function is triggered whenever the specified changes occur in AWS Identity Center.

Testing and Validation

Before going live, thoroughly test the setup by simulating the defined events and verifying that the Lambda function triggers appropriately and performs the intended actions.

Conclusion

Setting up real-time notifications for changes in AWS Identity Center using EventBridge and Lambda provides greater visibility and enhances security across your AWS environment. With this serverless approach, you can automate responses to critical events and maintain robust governance over your cloud resources.