Enforcing Strong Password Policies for ML Workspace Access

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

When dealing with machine learning workspaces, enforcing strong password policies is crucial to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive data and computational resources. Password policies can be used to require passwords of certain lengths, complexities, and rotations, which enhances security by reducing the risk of weak passwords being exploited by unauthorized users.

In cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, you often use Identity and Access Management (IAM) services to manage access to resources and enforce security policies, including password policies.

For the purpose of enforcing strong password policies for machine learning workspace access, we'll use the AWS IAM service as an example. In AWS, you can create an account password policy within your IAM configuration to enforce password characteristics such as minimum length, the inclusion of uppercase characters, numbers, and non-alphanumeric characters, and password expiration.

Below is a Pulumi program written in Python that creates a strong password policy in AWS using the `aws.iam.AccountPasswordPolicy` resource. This policy enforces passwords to be at least 14 characters long, include at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one non-alphanumeric character. Passwords must also be rotated every 90 days, and users cannot reuse any of the last 24 passwords they've used.

Before the program block, let's look at a brief explanation of the resources used in the program:

- `aws.iam.AccountPasswordPolicy`: This Pulumi resource is used to enforce password policy settings on all IAM users within an AWS account. It allows you to define the password complexity requirements and other specifications such as password expiration and reuse prevention.

Here's a detailed Pulumi program that enforces a strong password policy:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_aws as aws

# Create an IAM Account Password Policy to enforce strong password rules
account_password_policy = aws.iam.AccountPasswordPolicy("strongPasswordPolicy",
    # Minimum password length
    minimum_password_length=14,

# Require at least one uppercase letter
    require_uppercase_characters=True,

# Require at least one lowercase letter
    require_lowercase_characters=True,

# Require at least one number
    require_numbers=True,

# Require at least one non-alphanumeric character
    require_symbols=True,

# Enforce password expiration after 90 days
    max_password_age=90,

# Do not allow password re-use for 24 generations
    password_reuse_prevention=24,

# Allow users to change their own password
    allow_users_to_change_password=True,
)

# Exporting the password policy ID
pulumi.export('account_password_policy_id', account_password_policy.id)
```

This Pulumi program can be executed `out of the box` with no modifications if AWS CLI is already configured on the user's machine.

Please note, this code assumes that you have already configured your AWS credentials for Pulumi either by configuring the AWS CLI on your machine or by setting the environment variables `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` and `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`.

Once you run this program using the Pulumi CLI, you will have a strong password policy applied to your AWS account, helping to secure access to all IAM users, which can include those with access to ML workspaces.