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:

For secure access to AWS, you should:

Permissions and Policies

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

Understanding how to read and interpret policy documents is essential. Be familiar with:

Roles and Federations

Roles and Federations are concepts in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) that facilitate secure and flexible access to AWS resources.

Roles

A role is a mechanism in IAM that defines a set of permissions and allows entities—such as users, applications, or AWS services—to assume those permissions temporarily. Roles are especially useful when access needs to be granted dynamically without sharing long-term credentials.

For example:

Roles are often used for temporary access, ensuring security and flexibility. They work by creating trust relationships that allow specific entities or users to assume the role when needed. This is why AWS roles are vital for scenarios where permissions must be granted but credentials shouldn't be permanently tied to an entity.

Federations

Federations refer to the concept of federated identity—a method of integrating external identity systems, such as corporate directories or third-party identity providers, with AWS. This allows users to access AWS resources using their existing credentials instead of creating separate AWS-specific accounts.

For example:

Federations make it easier to manage access for large organizations by relying on identity providers to handle authentication while AWS handles authorization through IAM roles.

Best Practices for Credentials

When it comes to IAM credentials, here are a few best practices you should consider:

Key Considerations

Designing Security Across Multiple Accounts

If you need to manage multiple AWS accounts then you will need to take more steps to manage your security posture across all AWS accounts. In this case, you should use the following AWS services:

Understanding these services is crucial for maintaining visibility, enforcing security standards, and automating compliance across an organization.

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