IAM compliance automation: enforce MFA and clean up access keys in AWS

Automated AWS IAM Compliance Workflow for MFA Enforcement and Access Key Deactivation

> This workflow leverages AWS IAM APIs and n8n automation to ensure strict security compliance by continuously monitoring IAM users for MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) enforcement.

Who’s it for

This workflow is designed for DevOps, Security, or Cloud Engineers responsible for maintaining IAM security compliance in AWS accounts. It's ideal for teams who want to enforce MFA usage and automatically disable access for non-compliant IAM users.

How it works / What it does

This automated workflow performs a daily check to detect IAM users without an MFA device and deactivate their access keys.

Step-by-step:

1. Daily scheduler: Triggers the workflow once a day.
2. Get many users: Retrieves a list of all IAM users in the account.
3. Get IAM User MFA Devices: Calls AWS API to get MFA device info for each user.
4. Filter out IAM users with MFA: Keeps only users without any MFA device.
5. Send warning message(s): Sends Slack alerts for users who do not have MFA enabled.
6. Get User Access Key(s): Fetches access keys for each non-MFA user.
7. Parse the list of user access key(s): Extracts and flattens key information like AccessKeyId, Status, and UserName.
8. Filter out inactive keys: Keeps only active access keys for further action.
9. Deactivate Access Key(s): Calls AWS API to deactivate each active key for non-MFA users.

How to set up

1. Configure AWS credentials in your environment (IAM role or AWS access key with required permissions).
2. Connect Slack via the Slack node for alerting (set channel and credentials).
3. Set the scheduler to your preferred frequency (e.g., daily at 9AM).
4. Adjust any Slack message template or filtering conditions as needed.

Requirements

• IAM user or role credentials with the following AWS IAM permissions:
  • iam:ListUsers
  • iam:ListMFADevices
  • iam:ListAccessKeys
  • iam:UpdateAccessKey
• Slack credentials (Bot token with chat:write permission).
• n8n environment with:
  • Slack integration
  • AWS credentials (set via environment or credentials manager)

How to customize the workflow

• Alert threshold: Instead of immediate deactivation, you can delay action (e.g., alert first, wait 24h, then disable).
• Change notification channel: Modify the Slack node to send alerts to a different channel or add email integration.
• Whitelist exceptions: Add a Set or IF node to exclude specific usernames (e.g., service accounts).
• Add audit logging: Use Google Sheets, Airtable, or a database to log which users were flagged or had access disabled.
• Extend access checks: Include console password check (GetLoginProfile) if needed.