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AWS IAM Identity Access Management

April 5, 2026

IAM Deep Dive

Granular access control across all AWS services.

IAM Architecture

Principal Types:
Users - Individual humans/service accounts
Groups - User collections
Roles - Temporary credentials (services/users)
Federated Users - SSO/SAML integration

Policy Evaluation Logic:
Explicit Deny > Allow > Default Deny

Policy Types:
Identity (IAM) vs Resource (S3/EC2)
Managed vs Inline
Permissions Boundaries
Service Control Policies (AWS Orgs)

Best Practices

  • Enable MFA everywhere
  • Least privilege (start broad, tighten)
  • Separate admin/operational accounts
  • Password policy enforcement
  • IAM Access Analyzer (unused permissions)
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