AWS IAM Roles – Everything You Need to Know & Examples

IAM roles are a type of identity and access management (IAM) entity that enables applications running on Amazon EC2 instances or other AWS services to obtain temporary security credentials. These roles can be assumed by authorized entities, such as users, applications, or services, allowing them to perform actions with specific permissions on resources in an AWS account without needing long-term access keys. IAM roles are useful for several scenarios, including: 1. Granting cross-account access: IAM roles can be used to delegate permissions across different AWS accounts, enabling users or services from one account to assume a role in another account and access resources with the permissions granted by that role. 2. Identity federation: IAM roles support identity federation, allowing users to log in using their existing credentials from external identity providers (such as Amazon, Facebook, Google) and obtain temporary security credentials for accessing AWS services. 3. Managing permissions for applications running on EC2 instances or other AWS services: By attaching an IAM role to an EC2 instance or service, the application can assume that role and obtain temporary security credentials with specific permissions, eliminating the need to embed long-term access keys in the code or configuration files. 4. IAM roles anywhere: This feature allows on-premises or workloads outside AWS (such as servers, containers, and applications) to access resources on AWS by obtaining temporary security credentials. The principal must have X.509 certificates issued by a certificate authority for this to work. IAM roles are more secure than using long-term access keys because they automatically expire after a specified period (default is one hour), reducing the risk of unauthorized access if the credentials are compromised. Additionally, IAM roles can be easily revoked or updated without impacting running applications, providing better control over permissions and security. In summary, IAM roles play a crucial role in AWS's identity and access management system by enabling secure delegation of permissions across different accounts, services, and applications while eliminating the need for long-term access keys.