Identity and Access Management (IAM)

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a global service that securely controls access to AWS services and resources across all regions. It enables you to create individual users and roles with specific permissions, allowing you to manage who can access your resources and what actions they can perform. IAM should be one of the first stops after setting up a new AWS account to establish secure access controls and eliminate the need to use the highly privileged root user for daily operations.

Key components include:

• IAM Users : Individuals or services that interact with AWS resources.
• IAM Groups : Collections of users sharing permissions.
• IAM Roles : Define a set of permissions for making AWS service requests, which can be assumed by entities like users or services.

For secure access to AWS, you should:

• Establish Individual Users: Create IAM users for each individual who needs access to AWS resources. Assign permissions based on the principle of least privilege.
• Use IAM Roles: Utilize roles for applications and services that need to interact with AWS resources, avoiding the embedding of long-term credentials.
• Enhance Accountability: Individual IAM users enable better tracking of actions through AWS CloudTrail, aiding in auditing and compliance efforts.

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Principle of Least Privilege: Always grant the minimal level of access necessary for users to perform their tasks, reducing the potential impact of security breaches.

Permissions and Policies

New IAM users start with no permissions. Permissions are granted through policies, which define what actions are allowed or denied.

• Identity-Based Policies : Attached to users, groups, or roles, specifying what that identity can do.
• Resource-Based Policies : Attached directly to resources, specifying who can access them and what actions they can perform.

Understanding how to read and interpret policy documents is…