Trust Issues - What Do All These JSON Files Actually Mean?

Explore a pragmatic approach to understanding AWS IAM permissions in this 24-minute conference talk that addresses the challenge of answering basic security questions like "Who can access this S3 bucket?" or "What can this role actually do?" Learn how to move beyond manually parsing JSON policy files to systematically verify effective IAM permissions across services, accounts, organizations, and trust layers. Discover a simulation-based system that analyzes deployed IAM configuration and evaluates real-world access across identities, resources, and trust relationships, complementing existing pre-deploy linters and policy review processes. See how to quickly identify which principals have specific permissions to critical resources and which external accounts can assume sensitive roles through a practical demonstration. Gain access to new open-source tools designed to support these workflows and develop a clearer understanding of how IAM actually functions in complex cloud environments where policies are managed by different teams and scattered across deployment pipelines.