Identity and Access management

IAM = Identity and Access management #

IAM is AWS Global service.

Groups only contain users, NOT other groups.

Users don’t have to belong to a group and user can belong to multiple groups.

Users or Groups can have assigned JSON documents called policies. Those policies define permissions for the users / groups.

In AWS you apply the least privilege principle: don’t give user more permission than they need.

Creating user in AWS CLI #

IAM console > Users

Create user #

Create group “admin” #

IAM policies structure #

IAM policies structure includes:

• Version: policy version
• ID (Optional): identifier
• Statement: one or more statements (required)
  • SID: identifier (optional)
  • Effect: Allow or Deny
  • Principal: account / user / role to which policy is applied to
  • Action: list of allowed or denied actions
  • Resource: list of resources to which the action is applied to
  • Condition: conditions for when the policy is applied (optional)

MFA #

Accessing AWS #

• AWS Management Console - protected by password + MFA
• AWS Command Line (CLI) - protected by access keys
• AWS Software Development Kit (SDK) - for code - protected by access keys

Access Keys can be generated through AWS Console. Users manage their own access keys. #

Access Key ID = username
Secret Access Key = password

Creating Access Key #

IAM > Users > Username > Security Credentials > Access Keys > Create Access Key > Command Line Interface (CLI)

Configuring AWS CLI with the new access key #

# Configure AWS CLI
aws configure

# Test
aws iam list-users

IAM roles for Services #

• Some AWS services will need to perform actions on your behalf
• Those AWS services will need permissions to be assigned with IAM Roles

Common Roles for Services:

• EC2 Instance Roles
• Lambda Function Roles
• Roles for CloudFormation

Create AWS Service Role #

IAM > Roles > Create role > AWS service

Add permissions:

IAM Security Tools #

IAM Credentials Report (account-level) #

• Report that lists all users and status of their credentials

IAM > Credentials Report

IAM Access Advisor (user-level) #

• Access Advisor shows the service permissions granted to a user and when those services were last accessed

IAM > Users > Username > Last Accessed

IAM Access Advisor (Last Accessed) can be used to determine what user is accessing and to adjust his / her role in line with the “Least Privilege Principle”.

IAM Best Practices #

• Don’t use root account
• One physical user = One AWS user
• Assign users to groups and assign permissions (policies) to groups
• Create strong password policy
• Use and enforce MFA
• Create and use Roles for giving permissions to AWS services
• Use Access Keys for Programmatic access (CLI / SDK)
• Audit permissions using IAM Credentials Report and IAM Access Advisor
• Never share IAM users & Access Keys

Shared Responsibility Model for IAM #

» Sources « #

• AWS Global Infrastructure: AWS Global Infrastructure
• Shared Responsibility Model: Shared Responsibility Model - Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Full YouTube Rahul’s AWS Course: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7iMyoQPMtAN4xl6oWzafqJebfay7K8KP

• Security and compliance
• What is IAM?
• What is AWS IAM Identity Center?
• IAM identities
• AWS security documentation

» References « #

• Account Management and Billing

» Table of contents (CLF-C02) « #

» Disclaimer « #