aws iam summary
A chunk of summary information related to Identity and Access Management modules in the AWS Developer Associate exam.
Exam tips
- Users/groups/roles exist and are managed through the IAM service
- Policy documents can be reviewed in JSON form
- Roles can be assigned to users/apps/services to give specific AWS resource access
- IAM is global (not regional) and applies to the entirety of every region
- root accounts in AWS have complete admin access and shouldn't be used for day-to-day access
- New users have no permissions when first created
- New users receive an access key ID and secret access key when accounts are newly created
- These are not used for console access and are different than a password
- The access keys are used for access via APIs, CLIs, and programmatic access
- CSVs of these keys are available for download at time of creation, but only once
- MFA should always be set up on the root account
- Password rotation can be established for all users to ensure proper password hygiene
Example IAM policy document: