List of expensive / long-term effect AWS IAM actions

gistfile1.txt

route53domains:RegisterDomain
route53domains:RenewDomain
route53domains:TransferDomain
ec2:ModifyReservedInstances
ec2:PurchaseHostReservation
ec2:PurchaseReservedInstancesOffering
ec2:PurchaseScheduledInstances
rds:PurchaseReservedDBInstancesOffering
dynamodb:PurchaseReservedCapacityOfferings
s3:PutObjectRetention
s3:PutObjectLegalHold
s3:BypassGovernanceRetention
s3:PutBucketObjectLockConfiguration
elasticache:PurchaseReservedCacheNodesOffering
redshift:PurchaseReservedNodeOffering
savingsplans:CreateSavingsPlan
aws-marketplace:AcceptAgreementApprovalRequest
aws-marketplace:Subscribe
shield:CreateSubscription
acm-pca:CreateCertificateAuthority
es:PurchaseReservedElasticsearchInstanceOffering
outposts:CreateOutpost
snowball:CreateCluster
s3-object-lambda:PutObjectLegalHold
s3-object-lambda:PutObjectRetention
glacier:InitiateVaultLock
glacier:CompleteVaultLock
es:PurchaseReservedInstanceOffering
backup:PutBackupVaultLockConfiguration
bedrock:CreateProvisionedModelThroughput
bedrock:UpdateProvisionedModelThroughput
ses:PutDeliverabilityDashboardOption

These are IAM permissions that gate calls that could be potentially expensive or result in a long-term commitment.

acm-pca:CreateCertificateAuthority at $400/month https://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/pricing/

Nice @danquack, added.

Maybe cloudfront:CreateDistribution

You pay $600 per month for each custom SSL certificate associated with one or more CloudFront distributions using the Dedicated IP version of custom SSL certificate support.

Could be useful thread: https://twitter.com/quinnypig/status/1243316557993795586?lang=en

Thanks for sharing. For commitments, we additionally have es:PurchaseReservedElasticsearchInstanceOffering (Amazon Elasticsearch Service) on our list.

@thebostik: Thanks, added!

@z0ph: That might be good if this moves to a more defined list with certain rules (i.e. no call over $500 or something). At that point we can convert it to an actual policy with conditionals etc.

How about outposts:Create* and snowball:Create*?

Thanks @lorengordon, added.

Nice list - makes a good basis for an SCP in AWS Organizations covering, for example, otherwise unrestricted dev accounts.

kendra:CreateIndex costs 7$ an hour and seems like a good addition to this list. (adds up to about 5K/month)
There is a free trial developer edition, but the "edition" parameter is optional in the API call and the default value is ENTERPRISE_EDITION. 🤦

"s3-object-lambda:PutObjectLegalHold"
"s3-object-lambda:PutObjectRetention"
I saw those in the IAM changelogs. Sounds dangerous ;-)

Thanks @shotty1 ! Added.

glacier:*VaultLock

Thanks @tdmalone, added!

@tdmalone FYI you can't use that with an SCP, you can only have wildcards at the END of a SCP. I tried similar with *ReservedInstance* and it does not work.

Note
In an SCP, the wildcard characters (*) and (?) in an Action or NotAction element can be used only by itself
or at the end of the string. It can't appear at the beginning or middle of the string. Therefore,
"servicename:action*" is valid, but "servicename:*action" and "servicename:some*action" are both invalid in SCPs.

Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps_syntax.html#scp-syntax-action

backup:PutBackupVaultLockConfiguration

Thanks @shotty1 , added.

bedrock:CreateProvisionedModelThroughput
bedrock:UpdateProvisionedModelThroughput

https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/pricing/

Provisioned Throughput pricing
An application developer, buys one model unit of Anthropic Claude Instant with 1-month commitment for their text summarization use case.
Total monthly cost incurred is 1 model unit * $39.60 * 24 hours * 31 days = $29,462.40

Thanks @sam-cox-tracebit, added.

I've got one sneaky b*****d to be added to the list:
Amazon Pinpoint-Deliverability dashboard
https://aws.amazon.com/pinpoint/pricing/

The Deliverability Dashboard is available for a fixed price of USD $1,250 per month. This charge includes reputation monitoring for up to five domains and 25 predictive email placement tests.

Note: If you cancel your subscription before the end of a billing period, we continue to charge you for the remaining days in the billing period. However, we don't charge you for the next billing period.

Thanks, added ses:PutDeliverabilityDashboardOption.