cn-partition-arn-routing

name

cn-partition-arn-routing

description

Diagnose and explain AWS partition ARN mismatches in China region accounts. Use this skill whenever an investigation in `cn-north-1` or `cn-northwest-1` involves ARNs starting with `arn:aws:` instead of `arn:aws-cn:`, or whenever symptoms include AccessDenied, AuthFailure, MalformedPolicyDocument, NoSuchEntity, or "principal cannot be assumed" errors against IAM roles, SNS topics, KMS keys, S3 buckets, or any other ARN-bearing resource. Triggers also include the user mentioning "partition", "aws-cn vs aws", "cross-partition", "中国区 ARN 不对", "global partition ARN in China account", "trust policy 写错了", or pasting any ARN that looks like `arn:aws:iam::*` while the account context is China. Importantly, use this skill BEFORE concluding that an IAM trust policy or resource policy is "missing permissions" — the more common root cause in China region accounts is a partition string mismatch that the agent and generic LLM debuggers consistently get wrong.

Cross-Partition ARN Diagnosis for AWS China Regions

TL;DR for the agent

When you see an AccessDenied / AuthFailure / cannot assume role error in a China region account, the most common root cause is not "missing permissions" — it is a partition mismatch in the ARN. Check this before suggesting any policy edits.

The error symptom looks like a permissions problem. The cause is a name that doesn't resolve. They are not the same fix. Recommending the wrong one wastes the user's time and may make the configuration worse.

What partitions are

AWS is split into isolated partitions. ARNs encode the partition in their second segment:

Partition	Where	ARN prefix
Global	All commercial regions outside China	arn:aws:
China	cn-north-1 (Beijing), cn-northwest-1 (Ningxia)	arn:aws-cn:
GovCloud	us-gov-east-1, us-gov-west-1	arn:aws-us-gov:

China region resources only accept arn:aws-cn: ARNs. A trust policy, resource policy, IAM policy, or SNS topic policy in a China account that references arn:aws: is referencing a resource in the global partition, which the China partition cannot see — so the principal/resource appears to "not exist" even when an identically-named one exists in the same China account.

Detection rules

Apply these checks before concluding anything else.

Rule 1 — account context is China, ARN is global

If the investigation involves resources in cn-north-1 or cn-northwest-1 (or accounts whose own ARNs start with arn:aws-cn:), and you see any embedded ARN that starts with arn:aws: (not arn:aws-cn:): this is the bug, regardless of any other plausible-looking issue.

Examples that look like this:

"Principal": { "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/some-role" }
                       ^^^^^^^^^^ — wrong partition, account is China

"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket-cn"
             ^^^^^^^^^^ — wrong partition for a China-region bucket

Rule 2 — symptom-to-cause mapping

Symptom	Plausible-but-wrong cause	Likely correct cause
AccessDenied: User X is not authorized	"Add s:Action to policy"	Wrong-partition principal in trust policy
MalformedPolicyDocument: Invalid principal	"Principal field formatting"	Wrong-partition ARN
Cannot assume role	"Add sts:AssumeRole to caller"	Wrong-partition role ARN
NoSuchEntity on a role you can see in the console	"Eventual consistency"	Caller is using aws: ARN but role lives in aws-cn
KMS AccessDenied in cn region	"Key policy missing grant"	Key policy references global partition principal

Rule 3 — never trust string match alone, check both ends

If the investigation pulls an IAM role's trust policy, also pull the role's own ARN and confirm both are aws-cn. A role whose ARN is arn:aws-cn:iam::*:role/foo cannot be assumed by a principal expressed as arn:aws:iam::*:user/bar — even if user/bar exists in the same account under arn:aws-cn:iam::*:user/bar, it is a different identity from the partition's perspective.

What to output when you find this

Structure the RCA exactly as follows. The user has been bitten by agents suggesting the wrong fix, so be explicit.

Root cause: cross-partition ARN mismatch.

Account context: <region>, partition aws-cn
Offending ARN:   <the bad ARN>
Where it appears: <trust policy of role X / resource policy of bucket Y / etc.>
Why this fails:  ARNs in China region accounts must use the aws-cn
                 partition prefix. The reference to aws: is treated as
                 a global-partition resource that does not exist from
                 this account's perspective. Adding permissions does
                 not fix this — the principal is unreachable, not
                 unauthorized.

Fix: change the ARN partition segment from `aws` to `aws-cn`.

  Before:  arn:aws:iam::*:role/some-role
  After:   arn:aws-cn:iam::*:role/some-role

Then offer the corrected policy as a diff or full document, and ask the user to confirm before applying.

Anti-patterns to avoid

The wrong responses an agent often produces here:

1. "Add sts:AssumeRole to the trust policy" — the trust policy may already be correct in shape; the principal ARN is what's wrong.

2. "Try detaching and reattaching the policy" — flapping the attachment doesn't change the ARN string.

3. "This is an IAM eventual-consistency issue, retry" — if the ARN partition is wrong, retrying never resolves it.

4. "Use a wildcard principal like * to test" — masks the bug and creates a security hole.

5. "Reference the role by name only (role/foo)" — IAM trust policies require fully-qualified ARNs in most fields.

When this skill does not apply

• If the account is in a global region (e.g. us-east-1) and the ARN is arn:aws:, that's correct. Look elsewhere.
• If both ARNs are already arn:aws-cn: and the error persists, the problem is genuinely a permissions or attachment issue — fall through to your normal IAM RCA approach.
• If the error is ExpiredToken / InvalidClientTokenId, that's a credentials issue (see china-region-multi-account-routing skill), not a partition issue.

Tested cases

• Lambda assumes role with arn:aws: trust policy in cn-north-1 → fails with AccessDenied. Changing to arn:aws-cn: resolves.
• Cross-account S3 bucket policy in cn-northwest-1 references arn:aws: principal → bucket reads fail with AccessDenied. Changing to arn:aws-cn: resolves.
• KMS key policy in cn account uses arn:aws: for principal → encrypt calls fail. Changing partition resolves.