AWS IAM Roles

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles are used to provide temporary permissions that a user or AWS service needs to access AWS resources. IAM roles help increase security and simplify access management by reducing the need to share long-term access keys. Here's what you need to know about AWS IAM Roles:

Steps/Explanation

1. Create IAM roles: As an AWS administrator, you can create IAM roles, specifying what AWS resources the role can access and what operation it can perform on those resources.

2. Define policies: IAM roles use policies to define what actions or operations are allowed. Policies can be defined at a granular level, giving exact control over how the IAM role is used.

3. Assign IAM roles: IAM roles can be assigned to AWS services or users. An AWS service can assume an IAM role to access resources, and a user can use the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI to temporary assume an IAM role.

4. Update policies: IAM roles can evolve with your application. You can update the role policies to restrict or expand access as needed.

Examples and Use Cases

• Example: You are an AWS administrator and need to grant a developer permission to access Amazon S3 objects like log files. Create an IAM role with S3 permission and define a policy that allows the developer to read only specific folders within the S3 bucket.

• Use case: You're running a DevOps pipeline on AWS, and you need to access AWS resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and DynamoDB. You can use IAM roles to grant your pipeline permission to access AWS resources, without sharing long-term access keys.

Important Points

• IAM roles provide temporary permissions to access AWS resources.
• They simplify access management and increase security by reducing the need to share long-term access keys.
• IAM roles can be assigned to AWS services or users.
• Policies define what actions an IAM role can perform on AWS resources.
• IAM roles can be updated to restrict or expand access.

Summary

AWS IAM roles provide temporary permissions to access AWS resources, reducing the need to share access keys and increasing security. AWS administrators can create IAM roles, define policies, and assign them to users or AWS services. IAM roles can help simplify DevOps pipelines by allowing temporary access to required AWS resources.