Understanding IAM Roles: IAM (Identity and Access Management) roles in AWS are designed to delegate access permissions without sharing long-term security credentials. This means applications and services can use temporary security credentials, which enhances security.
Why IAM Roles are Best Practice:
Least Privilege Principle: By using IAM roles, you can ensure that applications only have the minimum permissions they need to function, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
Temporary Credentials: Roles provide temporary security credentials, which reduce the risk if they are compromised compared to long-term access keys.
Automated Rotation: Temporary credentials automatically expire and are rotated, which means you don’t have to manage the rotation manually.
How to Implement IAM Roles:
Create an IAM Role: In the AWS Management Console, navigate to IAM, and create a new role. Choose the type of trusted entity (e.g., EC2, Lambda).
Attach Policies: Attach the necessary policies to the role that define the permissions for accessing the S3 bucket.
Assign Role to Service: Attach the IAM role to your EC2 instances, Lambda functions, or other AWS services that need to access the S3 bucket.
Use AWS SDKs: When accessing S3 from your application, use the AWS SDKs to automatically assume the IAM role and obtain temporary credentials.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
IAM Roles
