aws-war-lens 0.1.7

AWS Well-Architected Review — automated assessment and PDF report generator

AWS WAR Lens

Copyright (c) 2025 BluNorth Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. See LICENSE for terms.

Automated AWS Well-Architected Review assessments. Scans your AWS account across all six pillars, produces risk-rated findings, and generates a PDF report — with optional LLM-powered narrative and prioritization.

Features

• 175 programmatic checks across all 6 Well-Architected pillars
• Risk-rated findings — CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW / PASS
• PDF report with executive summary, top priorities, and cross-finding correlations
• Multi-region scanning — --region all scans every opted-in region in parallel
• No infrastructure required — runs locally or in Docker against any AWS account

Pillars

Pillar	Checks
Security	61
Reliability	44
Operational Excellence	34
Performance Efficiency	14
Sustainability	11
Cost Optimization	11

Installation

pip install aws-war-lens

Note: WeasyPrint (used for PDF generation) requires native system libraries on Linux/macOS. See WeasyPrint installation docs if you hit dependency errors.

Usage

# Scan a single region (security pillar by default)
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1

# Scan multiple pillars
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1 --pillars security reliability cost_optimization

# Scan all opted-in regions
aws-war-lens --region all

# Skip LLM analysis (no ANTHROPIC_API_KEY needed)
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1 --no-llm

# Use a named AWS profile
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1 --profile myprofile

# Use explicit credentials
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1 --access-key AKIA... --secret-key xxxx

The PDF report is saved to output/ by default. Use --output <dir> to change it.

Authentication

Credentials are resolved in this order:

1. --access-key / --secret-key / --session-token flags
2. --profile named profile from ~/.aws/credentials
3. AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables
4. Default AWS CLI profile
5. IAM instance profile / ECS task role / Lambda execution role

LLM Analysis

Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment (or a .env file) to enable LLM-powered narrative, executive summary, and cross-finding correlation in the report. Without it, the report renders with raw findings only.

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1

Docker

docker run --rm \
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... \
  -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=... \
  -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=... \
  -e AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=... \
  -v "$(pwd)/output:/app/output" \
  aws-war-lens --region eu-west-1

Available Pillars

Value	Description
security	IAM, S3, GuardDuty, CloudTrail, KMS, VPC, ACM, and more
reliability	Auto Scaling, RDS multi-AZ, backups, Route 53, quotas
performance	Instance families, Graviton, DynamoDB, CloudFront, ElastiCache
cost_optimization	Idle resources, rightsizing, reserved capacity, orphaned snapshots
operational_excellence	CloudWatch alarms, SSM, tagging, CI/CD, ECS configuration
sustainability	Graviton adoption, Fargate, auto-scaling, S3 intelligent tiering

IAM Permissions

Option 1 — Recommended (least privilege): Create a dedicated IAM policy using the JSON provided below and attach it to a new user or role.

AWS Console: IAM → Policies → Create policy → JSON tab → paste the policy below → name it AWSScannerReadOnly

AWS CLI:

aws iam create-policy \
  --policy-name AWSScannerReadOnly \
  --policy-document file://policy.json

Option 2 — Use existing credentials: If the credentials you already have (admin, power user, or an existing role) include at least the permissions listed below, you can use them directly without creating a new policy.

---

Copy IAM policy JSON

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "STSAuthentication",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["sts:GetCallerIdentity"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "EC2ReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeRegions", "ec2:DescribeInstances", "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
        "ec2:DescribeVolumes", "ec2:DescribeSnapshots", "ec2:DescribeImages",
        "ec2:DescribeAddresses", "ec2:GetEbsEncryptionByDefault", "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets", "ec2:DescribeNetworkAcls", "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpoints",
        "ec2:DescribeFlowLogs", "ec2:DescribeNatGateways", "ec2:DescribePlacementGroups"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "IAMReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "iam:GetAccountSummary", "iam:GetAccountPasswordPolicy", "iam:GetCredentialReport",
        "iam:GenerateCredentialReport", "iam:GetRole", "iam:ListUsers",
        "iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies", "iam:ListUserPolicies", "iam:ListRoles",
        "iam:ListPolicies", "iam:GetPolicyVersion"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "S3ReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:ListAllMyBuckets", "s3:GetAccountPublicAccessBlock", "s3:GetPublicAccessBlock",
        "s3:GetBucketAcl", "s3:GetBucketPolicy", "s3:GetEncryptionConfiguration",
        "s3:GetBucketVersioning", "s3:GetBucketLogging", "s3:GetLifecycleConfiguration",
        "s3:GetReplicationConfiguration", "s3:GetBucketObjectLockConfiguration",
        "s3:GetBucketTagging", "s3:GetBucketAccelerateConfiguration",
        "s3:ListBucketIntelligentTieringConfigurations", "s3:ListBucket"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "RDSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "rds:DescribeDBInstances", "rds:DescribeDBSnapshots", "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
        "rds:DescribeReservedDBInstances", "rds:DescribeDBProxies"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ECSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ecs:ListClusters", "ecs:DescribeClusters", "ecs:ListServices",
        "ecs:DescribeServices", "ecs:ListTaskDefinitionFamilies", "ecs:DescribeTaskDefinition"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "LambdaReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "lambda:ListFunctions", "lambda:GetAccountSettings", "lambda:GetFunctionConcurrency",
        "lambda:GetFunctionEventInvokeConfig", "lambda:ListTags"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SecretsManagerReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["secretsmanager:ListSecrets", "secretsmanager:DescribeSecret"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "KMSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:ListKeys", "kms:DescribeKey", "kms:GetKeyRotationStatus", "kms:GetKeyPolicy"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "GuardDutyReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["guardduty:ListDetectors", "guardduty:GetDetector", "guardduty:ListFindings"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SecurityHubReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["securityhub:DescribeHub", "securityhub:ListStandardsSubscriptions"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ConfigReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "config:DescribeConfigurationRecorders", "config:DescribeConfigurationRecorderStatus",
        "config:DescribeConfigRules"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "InspectorReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["inspector2:BatchGetAccountStatus"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "MacieReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["macie2:GetMacieSession"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AccessAnalyzerReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["access-analyzer:ListAnalyzers"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudTrailReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudtrail:DescribeTrails", "cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus", "cloudtrail:GetEventSelectors"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudFrontReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["cloudfront:ListDistributions", "cloudfront:GetDistribution"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ACMReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["acm:ListCertificates", "acm:DescribeCertificate"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ELBReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers", "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancerAttributes",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetGroups", "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetGroupAttributes",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AutoScalingReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups", "autoscaling:DescribePolicies",
        "autoscaling:DescribeScheduledActions"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ApplicationAutoScalingReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "application-autoscaling:DescribeScalableTargets",
        "application-autoscaling:DescribeScalingPolicies"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ElastiCacheReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["elasticache:DescribeReplicationGroups"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "DynamoDBReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:ListTables", "dynamodb:DescribeTable", "dynamodb:DescribeContinuousBackups"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "EFSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["elasticfilesystem:DescribeFileSystems", "elasticfilesystem:DescribeBackupPolicy"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SQSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["sqs:ListQueues", "sqs:GetQueueAttributes"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "Route53ReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "route53:ListHealthChecks", "route53:ListHostedZones", "route53:ListResourceRecordSets"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "BackupReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["backup:ListBackupPlans"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ServiceQuotasReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["servicequotas:GetServiceQuota"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ECRReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ecr:DescribeRepositories", "ecr:ListImages", "ecr:GetLifecyclePolicy"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms", "cloudwatch:ListDashboards"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchLogsReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["logs:DescribeLogGroups"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SSMReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ssm:DescribeInstanceInformation", "ssm:DescribeMaintenanceWindows",
        "ssm:ListAssociations", "ssm:DescribeParameters"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SNSReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["sns:ListTopics", "sns:GetTopicAttributes"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "EventBridgeReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["events:ListRules"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudFormationReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["cloudformation:DescribeStacks"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SyntheticsReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["synthetics:DescribeCanaries"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CostExplorerReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ce:ListCostAllocationTags"],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SavingsPlansReadOnly",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["savingsplans:DescribeSavingsPlans"],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Checks that lack permission are reported as Scanner Coverage Gaps in the PDF — they never fail silently.