Five IAM Condition Keys That Help Prevent AWS Overpermission Risks

AWS IAM policies that appear narrow — such as granting a single S3 action on all resources — can still expose sensitive data across an entire account. Condition keys add a second layer of control by defining the circumstances under which a permission applies, not just what action is allowed. Key options include aws:SourceIp to restrict calls by network origin, aws:RequestedRegion to limit activity to approved AWS regions, and iam:PassedToService to scope the dangerous PassRole permission to specific services. Tag-based conditions like aws:ResourceTag and aws:PrincipalTag enable attribute-based access control, helping large teams manage hundreds of roles without sprawling policy documents. Together, these five condition keys address the most common overpermission patterns that standard resource-level restrictions alone tend to miss.