Skip to content

AWS Organization Member Account Password Reset?

0

Hi. The support and services team locked one of our Organization member Accounts. The email looked to be an automated boilerplate 'suspicious activity' message. They are asking us to reset the root password and set up MFA for the root user of an Organization member Account (not the management account). This is not possible since we do not have root user credentials on the org member accounts. This has been going on for over a week and all they keep telling us every time we try to talk to them is "You need to reset the root password", then we say we can't, then repeat.

We've had an AWS Solutions Architect craft a message to them as well, but that hasn't changed their response. One response actually suggested we get a "valid and binding court order or equivalent legal demand".

We've pointed out the documentation as well, but they still keep saying the same thing. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/root-user-best-practices.html#ru-bp-organizations " Secure root user credentials for member accounts If you use AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts, there are two strategies that you can take to secure root user access in your AWS Organizations.

Centralize root access and remove root user credentials from member accounts. Remove the root user credentials, access keys, signing certificates, and deactivate and delete multi-factor authentication (MFA). When this strategy is used, member accounts can't sign in to their root user or perform password recovery for their root user. For more information, see Centrally manage root access for member accounts. "

Any suggestions on how to get our account back? Luckily this is only a staging account, but I'm worried that they could eventually lock our production accounts as well. Do we just move back to old style separate accounts and forget about Organizations? Remove all the accounts from the Organization? I tried to go through the motions of enabling root credential on the member Account, but got blocked at some point. I'm thinking of just deleting it and recreating everything through Terraform, but that seems like a last resort.


10 days later, still not movement. We're still stuck in the endless cycle of, you're doing everything right and using AWS Organization member account best practices by not enabling root access, then being asked to reset our member account root password, then saying we can't do that because it doesn't exist, then repeat...

5 Answers
0

Hello,

Sorry to hear the frustration. I've passed along your concerns internally to our Support team for review.

I'd encourage you to continue to refer to your case for further communication from our team:

go.aws/support-center

— Doug S.

AWS
MODERATOR

answered a year ago

  • Hi Doug. Thank you for you reply. Not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but the latest response seems to be more positive, at least acknowledging that we're following Organizations best practices. I'll keep an eye on the case.

  • Hi Doug. Not sure why my question got downvoted. I thought it was very clear. Anyway, there hasn't been a further response on the support case unfortunately. Still waiting for this to be resolved. It's been two seeks now.

0

Hi there.

After some digging we were able to locate some additional resources to help you out.

The first thing is to follow these steps to recover your password.

Once you have gone through that process you can then enable centralized root access.

- Randi S.

AWS
EXPERT

answered a year ago

  • Hi Randi. I don't want to recover a password. There are no passwords on our organization member accounts. We're being asked to reset a password that doesn't exist. Essentially we're being asked to make our accounts less secure.

0

Glad to hear this! I trust our support team will be able to further assist you through your case.

— Kraig E.

AWS
EXPERT

answered a year ago

  • There hasn't been a further response on the support case unfortunately.

0

Hi there,

I'm so sorry to hear that there hasn't been further correspondence on your support case.

I've reached out internally on your behalf to raise your concerns.

In the meantime, continue working directly through your open support case & continue to follow any guidance provided.

— Aimee K.

AWS
EXPERT

answered a year ago

0

I went through the same process, and after a year, they still haven't figured out that you don't need to reset a password that doesn't exist (unless the password does exist internally, and you lie by saying the root password isn't present).

answered a month ago

You are not logged in. Log in to post an answer.

A good answer clearly answers the question and provides constructive feedback and encourages professional growth in the question asker.