Identity and Access Management

• IAM enables secure access control to AWS services and resources.

• IAM is global—not tied to a specific AWS Region.

• IAM users represent individual identities with long-term credentials.

• IAM groups allow managing permissions for multiple users at once.

• IAM roles are used for temporary access, commonly assumed by AWS services or users.

• IAM policies define permissions using JSON documents.

• Policies can be attached to users, groups, or roles.

• Supports inline and managed policies (AWS-managed or customer-managed).

• IAM roles can be assumed across AWS accounts using trust policies.

• Supports temporary credentials via AWS STS (Security Token Service).

• Enforces least privilege principle for security best practices.

• IAM supports MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) for enhanced security.

• Access Analyzer helps detect unintended public or cross-account access.

• IAM permissions boundaries define the maximum permissions a role or user can have.

• AWS Organizations can enforce SCPs (Service Control Policies) to restrict IAM entities across accounts.