JIT access for AWS: secure, scalable, and effortless with Ploy

When it comes to securing your cloud infrastructure, balancing security and operational efficiency is critical. For security and engineering leaders, managing access to AWS resources is often a complex and high-stakes challenge. Ensuring the right people have the right access at the right time—without exposing your environment to unnecessary risk—requires a precise and dynamic approach.

That’s where Just-In-Time (JIT) access management comes in - a game changing approach that grants time-bound, need-based access to your resources. And with Ploy’s AWS integration, implementing JIT access has never been easier.

What Is Just-in-time (JIT) access and why does it matter?

JIT access ensures that employees have access to critical resources only when they need it—and only for as long as they need it. By eliminating standing privileges, JIT reduces the attack surface and protects against insider threats, credential misuse, and exploitation of stale access.

AWS environments are especially prone to over-permissioning, with unused access lingering in groups, roles, and policies. JIT access counters this by granting time-bound access only upon request, ensuring your AWS identities are secure and compliant.

How Ploy simplifies JIT access management for AWS

With Ploy’s AWS integration, JIT access for AWS isn’t just a concept—it’s a seamless, scalable reality. Here’s how we help:

1. Frictionless access requests

Employees no longer need to wade through bureaucracy for AWS access. Ploy’s self-service access catalog makes requesting access effortless. When employees need temporary access, they simply submit a request. Security policies within Ploy ensure requests are routed, reviewed, and approved automatically or with the necessary oversight.

2. Automated provisioning and deprovisioning

Ploy integrates directly with AWS, automating access to AWS Identity Center groups. Employees can seamlessly access key resources like S3 buckets, databases or servers only when they’re authorized and only for the required duration.

3. Real-time insights and oversight

Ploy’s access graph provides security leaders with a powerful, visual tool to understand and manage AWS access, enabling you to:

• Easily see who has access to what resource, and how—whether through direct assignments, group memberships, or inherited permissions. This clarity helps ensure that access aligns with your least-privilege policies.
• Quickly visualize high-risk attack paths - identify over-permissioned users, excessive access to critical resources, or potential privilege escalation routes. Immediately revoke over-privileged access.

Real-world examples of JIT access management for AWS

Ploy’s flexibility and automation make it ideal for a range of real-world access scenarios in AWS environments. Here are some key examples:‍

1. Critical project access for Engineering teams

An engineering team member is working on a time-sensitive project that requires access to specific AWS resources, such as S3 buckets or EC2 instances. Ploy provisions access just for the duration of the project and automatically revokes it once the project is completed.‍

2. Production database debugging

An engineer needs temporary access to a production database to debug an issue. Using Ploy, they can request access through a streamlined process, with security policies ensuring the request is approved and logged for auditing. Access is automatically revoked after the debugging session is complete.

3. Incident response and break-glass access

An on-call engineer requires immediate access to AWS resources, such as managing a production environment during an incident. Ploy integrates with incident management platforms to enable break-glass access, ensuring that critical access is provisioned without delay while adhering to least-privilege principles.

The benefits of JIT access with Ploy

1. Enhanced security

By enforcing least-privilege access and revoking unused permissions, JIT access reduces the attack surface. It protects your AWS resources from both internal and external threats.

2. Simplified management

With automated provisioning, seamless deprovisioning, and powerful analytics, Ploy takes the complexity out of access management. Security leaders can focus on strategy instead of firefighting.

3. Operational efficiency

Frictionless access requests mean employees get what they need without unnecessary delays, while automated workflows ensure security policies are consistently enforced.

4. Compliance made easy

Whether it’s SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR, Ploy’s access management features make audits a breeze. Detailed logs and reports provide the evidence you need to demonstrate compliance.

Closing thoughts

In a world where threats evolve daily, security leaders need tools that don’t just keep up but stay ahead. Ploy’s integration with AWS makes implementing JIT access simple, effective, and scalable. The future of frictionless and secure access management is here—let Ploy guide the way.

Ready to implement JIT access for AWS? Book a call with us here.