This component provisions the vanta-auditor IAM role in each AWS account, enabling the
Vanta GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) platform to continuously scan AWS resource
configurations. Vanta uses this read-only access to map evidence to compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA,
PCI DSS, GDPR, etc.).
Important: This component only provisions the IAM role and policies on the AWS side. Configuration, administration, and operation of the Vanta platform itself is managed externally.
This component is responsible for:
- Cross-Account IAM Role: Creates a
vanta-auditorIAM role that Vanta's scanner role can assume - Read-Only Access: Attaches the AWS managed
SecurityAuditpolicy for broad read-only security access - Supplemental Permissions: Creates and attaches a
VantaAdditionalPermissionscustom policy with IAM Identity Center read access and explicit deny on sensitive data (RDS logs, DataPipeline data) - Management Account Support: Optionally attaches
VantaManagementAccountPermissionsfor organization-level reads (only in the root account) - External ID Protection: Uses an external ID in the trust policy to prevent confused deputy attacks
- Account Verification: Optional safety check that validates Terraform is running in the correct AWS account
- Read-Only: Vanta cannot modify any AWS resources β all permissions are read-only or describe/list
- Metadata Only: Scans resource configurations and metadata, not application data
- Automatic Evidence Collection: Vanta continuously maps AWS configurations to compliance controls
- Multi-Framework Support: SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, and custom frameworks
- Audit Trail: All Vanta API calls are logged in CloudTrail as
AssumeRolefrom Vanta's scanner roles
The component deploys a simple per-account IAM role with no cross-account dependencies:
AWS Organization
Vanta Platform (scanner roles from multiple Vanta AWS accounts)
β
β sts:AssumeRole (with ExternalId)
β
ββββΊ management account ββ vanta-auditor role + SecurityAudit
β + VantaAdditionalPermissions
β + VantaManagementAccountPermissions
β
ββββΊ security account ββ vanta-auditor role + SecurityAudit
β + VantaAdditionalPermissions
β
ββββΊ audit account ββ vanta-auditor role + SecurityAudit
β + VantaAdditionalPermissions
β
ββββΊ network account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ dns account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ automation account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ artifacts account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ dev account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ staging account ββ (same as above)
ββββΊ prod account ββ (same as above)
- Per-Account Role: Each account needs its own IAM role because Vanta scans resources per-account
- No Delegated Administrator: Unlike GuardDuty/Security Hub, Vanta does not use AWS Organizations delegation
- No Cross-Account Dependencies: Each account's role is independent β all accounts can be deployed in parallel
- Management Account Extra Policy: Only the root account needs organization-level read access for account enumeration
When connecting AWS in the Vanta dashboard, there are two options:
Individual Account β Connect one AWS account at a time. You paste each account's role ARN into the Vanta dashboard manually. If new accounts are added to the organization later, they must be connected manually in Vanta.
Organization (recommended) β Connect once using the management account. Vanta automatically discovers all accounts in the AWS Organization and scans them. New accounts added in the future are picked up automatically.
| Aspect | Individual Account | Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One account at a time | All accounts in the AWS Organization |
| Auto-discovery | No β each account connected manually | Yes β new accounts auto-detected |
| IAM Role/Policies | Identical | Identical |
| Management Account | No special requirements | Needs VantaManagementAccountPermissions for enumeration |
Nothing. Both methods require the same vanta-auditor IAM role in every account (the management account always
includes the extra VantaManagementAccountPermissions policy regardless of connection type). The only difference is
how the Vanta platform discovers accounts:
- Individual: You tell Vanta about each account by pasting the role ARN
- Organization: Vanta calls
organizations:ListAccountsfrom the management account role to enumerate all accounts, then assumes thevanta-auditorrole in each one
| Aspect | Vanta Integration | AWS GuardDuty | AWS Config |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | GRC evidence collection | Threat detection | Configuration compliance |
| Deployment Approach | Per-account IAM role | Delegated administrator (3 steps) | Per-account with aggregation |
| Central Account | N/A (Vanta is external SaaS) | Security (delegated administrator) | Security (aggregator) |
| Organization-Wide | No (per account) | Yes | Yes (conformance packs from root) |
| Access Type | Read-only (cross-account) | Service-managed | Service-managed |
- ARN:
arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/SecurityAudit - Purpose: Broad read-only access to security-relevant configurations across all AWS services
- Maintained by: AWS β automatically updated when new services are added
- Scope: Describe, Get, List actions across IAM, EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, ECS, EKS, and many more
Supplements SecurityAudit with Identity Center permissions and denies access to sensitive data:
| Statement | Effect | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| VantaIdentityCenterPermissions | Allow | IAM Identity Center scanning |
| VantaDenyDataAccess | Deny | Block access to sensitive data |
Organization-level read access for the management account:
| Statement | Effect | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| VantaManagementAccountPermissions | Allow | Enumerate org structure |
- Read-Only Access: All permissions are read-only β Vanta cannot create, modify, or delete any AWS resources
- Explicit Deny: Sensitive data actions are explicitly denied, even if
SecurityAuditwould allow them - External ID: The trust policy requires a matching external ID, preventing confused deputy attacks
- Scoped Principal: The trust policy allows only Vanta's
scannerroles from specific AWS accounts, not entire accounts - CloudTrail Audit: Every API call from Vanta is logged in CloudTrail
- Minimal Permissions: The management account policy only grants organization read access, not administrative permissions
Tip
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Works with Github Actions, Atlantis, or Spacelift.
Watch demo of using Atmos with Terraform

Example of running
atmos to manage infrastructure from our Quick Start tutorial.
Stack Level: Global
The following are example snippets for how to use this component.
components:
terraform:
aws-vanta/defaults:
metadata:
type: abstract
component: "aws-vanta"
vars:
enabled: true
iam_role_name: "vanta-auditor"
external_id: "<external-id-from-vanta-dashboard>"
management_account_permissions_enabled: falseimport:
- catalog/aws-vanta/defaults
components:
terraform:
aws-vanta:
metadata:
component: "aws-vanta"
inherits:
- "aws-vanta/defaults"import:
- catalog/aws-vanta/defaults
components:
terraform:
aws-vanta:
metadata:
component: "aws-vanta"
inherits:
- "aws-vanta/defaults"
vars:
management_account_permissions_enabled: trueBefore deploying this component:
- Vanta Account: Ensure your Vanta account is active and the AWS integration is initiated in the Vanta dashboard.
- Vanta External ID: Obtain the external ID from the Vanta dashboard and configure it in
defaults.yaml.
Unlike other security services, Vanta has no inter-service dependencies. All accounts can be provisioned simultaneously.
# Management account:
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-root
# Core tenant:
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-security
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-audit
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-auto
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-artifacts
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-dns
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s core-gbl-network
# Platform tenant:
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s plat-gbl-sandbox
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s plat-gbl-dev
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s plat-gbl-staging
atmos terraform apply aws-vanta -s plat-gbl-prodAfter all IAM roles are deployed:
- Provide Management Account Role ARN to Vanta: Copy the
vanta_auditor_role_arnoutput from the management account deployment and enter it in the Vanta dashboard - Configure Regions in Vanta: Select all regions where you have resources in the Vanta AWS integration settings
- Wait for Initial Scan: Vanta takes up to 2 hours to complete the initial resource scan
- Verify Connection: Check the Vanta dashboard for successful integration status across all accounts
Problem: Vanta dashboard shows "Unable to connect" or "Access denied" for an account.
Solution:
- Verify the external ID in
defaults.yamlmatches the value in the Vanta dashboard - Check the trust policy allows Vanta's scanner roles:
aws iam get-role --role-name vanta-auditor --query 'Role.AssumeRolePolicyDocument' - Verify both policies are attached:
aws iam list-attached-role-policies --role-name vanta-auditor
Problem: Vanta reports incomplete scans or missing evidence for certain services.
Solution:
- Check if
VantaAdditionalPermissionspolicy is attached - Verify
SecurityAuditmanaged policy is current (AWS updates it automatically) - For the management account, verify
VantaManagementAccountPermissionsis attached - Check Vanta's help docs for any newly required permissions
Problem: Vanta regenerated the external ID and existing roles no longer work.
Solution:
- Update
external_idinstacks/catalog/aws-vanta/defaults.yaml - Redeploy all accounts
Important
In Cloud Posse's examples, we avoid pinning modules to specific versions to prevent discrepancies between the documentation and the latest released versions. However, for your own projects, we strongly advise pinning each module to the exact version you're using. This practice ensures the stability of your infrastructure. Additionally, we recommend implementing a systematic approach for updating versions to avoid unexpected changes.
| Name | Version |
|---|---|
| terraform | >= 1.0.0 |
| aws | >= 5.0.0 |
| Name | Version |
|---|---|
| aws | >= 5.0.0 |
| terraform | n/a |
| Name | Source | Version |
|---|---|---|
| account_map | cloudposse/stack-config/yaml//modules/remote-state | 2.0.0 |
| this | cloudposse/label/null | 0.25.0 |
| Name | Type |
|---|---|
| aws_iam_policy.vanta_additional_permissions | resource |
| aws_iam_policy.vanta_management_account_permissions | resource |
| aws_iam_role.vanta_auditor | resource |
| aws_iam_role_policy_attachment.security_audit | resource |
| aws_iam_role_policy_attachment.vanta_additional_permissions | resource |
| aws_iam_role_policy_attachment.vanta_management_account_permissions | resource |
| terraform_data.account_verification | resource |
| aws_caller_identity.current | data source |
| aws_iam_policy_document.assume_role | data source |
| aws_iam_policy_document.vanta_additional_permissions | data source |
| aws_iam_policy_document.vanta_management_account_permissions | data source |
| aws_partition.current | data source |
| Name | Description | Type | Default | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| account_map | Static account map configuration. Only used when account_map_enabled is false.Map keys use tenant-stage format (e.g., core-security, core-audit, plat-prod). |
object({ |
{ |
no |
| account_map_component_name | The name of the account-map component | string |
"account-map" |
no |
| account_map_enabled | Enable the account map component. When true, the component fetches account mappings from theaccount-map component via remote state. When false (default), the component uses the static account_map variable instead. |
bool |
false |
no |
| account_map_tenant | The tenant where the account_map component required by remote-state is deployed |
string |
"core" |
no |
| account_verification_enabled | Enable account verification. When true (default), the component verifies that Terraform is executing in the correct AWS account by comparing the current account ID against the expected account from the account_map based on the component's tenant-stage context. |
bool |
true |
no |
| additional_tag_map | Additional key-value pairs to add to each map in tags_as_list_of_maps. Not added to tags or id.This is for some rare cases where resources want additional configuration of tags and therefore take a list of maps with tag key, value, and additional configuration. |
map(string) |
{} |
no |
| attributes | ID element. Additional attributes (e.g. workers or cluster) to add to id,in the order they appear in the list. New attributes are appended to the end of the list. The elements of the list are joined by the delimiterand treated as a single ID element. |
list(string) |
[] |
no |
| context | Single object for setting entire context at once. See description of individual variables for details. Leave string and numeric variables as null to use default value.Individual variable settings (non-null) override settings in context object, except for attributes, tags, and additional_tag_map, which are merged. |
any |
{ |
no |
| delimiter | Delimiter to be used between ID elements. Defaults to - (hyphen). Set to "" to use no delimiter at all. |
string |
null |
no |
| descriptor_formats | Describe additional descriptors to be output in the descriptors output map.Map of maps. Keys are names of descriptors. Values are maps of the form {<br/> format = string<br/> labels = list(string)<br/>}(Type is any so the map values can later be enhanced to provide additional options.)format is a Terraform format string to be passed to the format() function.labels is a list of labels, in order, to pass to format() function.Label values will be normalized before being passed to format() so they will beidentical to how they appear in id.Default is {} (descriptors output will be empty). |
any |
{} |
no |
| enabled | Set to false to prevent the module from creating any resources | bool |
null |
no |
| environment | ID element. Usually used for region e.g. 'uw2', 'us-west-2', OR role 'prod', 'staging', 'dev', 'UAT' | string |
null |
no |
| external_id | External ID from the Vanta UI used in the IAM role trust policy to prevent confused deputy attacks. Obtain this value from the Vanta dashboard or from your Vanta consultant. |
string |
n/a | yes |
| global_environment | Global environment name | string |
"gbl" |
no |
| iam_role_name | Name of the IAM role created for Vanta | string |
"vanta-auditor" |
no |
| id_length_limit | Limit id to this many characters (minimum 6).Set to 0 for unlimited length.Set to null for keep the existing setting, which defaults to 0.Does not affect id_full. |
number |
null |
no |
| label_key_case | Controls the letter case of the tags keys (label names) for tags generated by this module.Does not affect keys of tags passed in via the tags input.Possible values: lower, title, upper.Default value: title. |
string |
null |
no |
| label_order | The order in which the labels (ID elements) appear in the id.Defaults to ["namespace", "environment", "stage", "name", "attributes"]. You can omit any of the 6 labels ("tenant" is the 6th), but at least one must be present. |
list(string) |
null |
no |
| label_value_case | Controls the letter case of ID elements (labels) as included in id,set as tag values, and output by this module individually. Does not affect values of tags passed in via the tags input.Possible values: lower, title, upper and none (no transformation).Set this to title and set delimiter to "" to yield Pascal Case IDs.Default value: lower. |
string |
null |
no |
| labels_as_tags | Set of labels (ID elements) to include as tags in the tags output.Default is to include all labels. Tags with empty values will not be included in the tags output.Set to [] to suppress all generated tags.Notes: The value of the name tag, if included, will be the id, not the name.Unlike other null-label inputs, the initial setting of labels_as_tags cannot bechanged in later chained modules. Attempts to change it will be silently ignored. |
set(string) |
[ |
no |
| management_account_permissions_enabled | Enable management account permissions. When true, attaches VantaManagementAccountPermissions policy to the role for organization-level read access. Only enable for the management (root) account. |
bool |
false |
no |
| name | ID element. Usually the component or solution name, e.g. 'app' or 'jenkins'. This is the only ID element not also included as a tag.The "name" tag is set to the full id string. There is no tag with the value of the name input. |
string |
null |
no |
| namespace | ID element. Usually an abbreviation of your organization name, e.g. 'eg' or 'cp', to help ensure generated IDs are globally unique | string |
null |
no |
| privileged | true if the default provider already has access to the backend | bool |
false |
no |
| regex_replace_chars | Terraform regular expression (regex) string. Characters matching the regex will be removed from the ID elements. If not set, "/[^a-zA-Z0-9-]/" is used to remove all characters other than hyphens, letters and digits. |
string |
null |
no |
| region | AWS Region | string |
n/a | yes |
| root_account_stage | The stage name for the Organization root (management) account. This is used to lookup account IDs from account names using the account-map component. |
string |
"root" |
no |
| stage | ID element. Usually used to indicate role, e.g. 'prod', 'staging', 'source', 'build', 'test', 'deploy', 'release' | string |
null |
no |
| tags | Additional tags (e.g. {'BusinessUnit': 'XYZ'}).Neither the tag keys nor the tag values will be modified by this module. |
map(string) |
{} |
no |
| tenant | ID element _(Rarely used, not included by default)_. A customer identifier, indicating who this instance of a resource is for | string |
null |
no |
| vanta_account_ids | List of Vanta's AWS account IDs used in the IAM role trust policy for cross-account access. Vanta operates from multiple AWS accounts across regions. All three must be trusted for full multi-region support. See: https://help.vanta.com/en/articles/11345698-porting-aws-integrations-across-regions |
list(string) |
[ |
no |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| vanta_additional_permissions_policy_arn | ARN of the VantaAdditionalPermissions IAM policy |
| vanta_auditor_role_arn | ARN of the Vanta auditor IAM role |
| vanta_auditor_role_name | Name of the Vanta auditor IAM role |
| vanta_management_account_permissions_policy_arn | ARN of the VantaManagementAccountPermissions IAM policy (management account only) |
Check out these related projects.
- Cloud Posse Terraform Modules - Our collection of reusable Terraform modules used by our reference architectures.
- Atmos - Atmos is like docker-compose but for your infrastructure
For additional context, refer to some of these links.
- Connecting Vanta to an AWS Organization - Official Vanta documentation for connecting an AWS Organization
- Connecting AWS with CloudFormation - Vanta documentation for connecting AWS with CloudFormation
- VantaAdditionalPermissions Policy Details - Vanta documentation for modifying the VantaAdditionalPermission policy
- AWS SecurityAudit Policy - AWS managed policy reference for SecurityAudit
- cloudposse-terraform-components - Cloud Posse's upstream component
Tip
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Ensure that your team succeeds by using Cloud Posse's proven process and turnkey blueprints. Plus, we stick around until you succeed.
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NOTE: Be sure to merge the latest changes from "upstream" before making a pull request!
We use Atmos to streamline how Terraform tests are run. It centralizes configuration and wraps common test workflows with easy-to-use commands.
All tests are located in the test/ folder.
Under the hood, tests are powered by Terratest together with our internal Test Helpers library, providing robust infrastructure validation.
Setup dependencies:
- Install Atmos (installation guide)
- Install Go 1.24+ or newer
- Install Terraform or OpenTofu
To run tests:
- Run all tests:
atmos test run - Clean up test artifacts:
atmos test clean - Explore additional test options:
atmos test --help
The configuration for test commands is centrally managed. To review what's being imported, see the atmos.yaml file.
Learn more about our automated testing in our documentation or implementing custom commands with atmos.
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