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AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management)

AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) is the service that lets you securely manage access to AWS resources. With IAM you control who can access which resources and what actions they are allowed to perform.

Core Concepts​

  • Users: Identities that represent people or applications.
  • Groups: Collections of users that share permissions.
  • Roles: Identities that can be assumed temporarily by users, applications, or services.
  • Policies: JSON documents that define permissions (allow or deny actions on resources).

Best Practices​

  • Follow the principle of least privilege: grant only the permissions that are strictly necessary.
  • Prefer roles over long-lived access keys.
  • Use IAM groups to manage permissions for multiple users.
  • Regularly review and rotate credentials.