AWS Security Specialty Exam Walkthrough 05 IAM Overview, Policy Creation and Management, Roles and

AWS Security Specialty Exam Walkthrough 05: IAM Overview, Policy Creation and Management, Roles and Cross-account Access, Security Token Service (STS), EC2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDS), S3 Security, Amazon Cognito, IAM Identity Center - May 30
VIEW RECORDING: https://fathom.video/share/rxrh3Qmjt6VyPSbyAFDK3E5yLLgvJ9Dn
Meeting Purpose

Cover core IAM and S3 security concepts, policies, and best practices for AWS certification exam preparation.

Key Takeaways

- IAM is central to AWS security, controlling access via users, groups, roles and policies
- S3 security involves bucket policies, ACLs, encryption, and cross-account access controls
- Identity Center enables centralized access management across multiple AWS accounts
- Least privilege, MFA, encryption, and regular auditing are critical security best practices

Topics

IAM Overview and Core Concepts

- IAM manages identities and permissions for AWS resources
- Key components: Users (individual accounts), Groups (collections of users), Roles (for services/cross-account access), Policies (permission documents)
- Best practice: Use roles over individual user accounts in production
- IAM accessed via AWS console search or under Security, Identity & Compliance services

IAM Policy Creation and Management

- Policies can be AWS-managed or customer-created
- Visual editor or JSON used to define permissions
- Policy simulator helps test and validate policies
- Example policy created to allow S3 GetObject action on specific bucket
- Syntax errors common pitfall - watch for red dots indicating issues

IAM Roles and Cross-Account Access

- Roles allow temporary access without permanent credentials
- Cross-account roles enable access between AWS accounts
- External ID provides additional security for third-party access
- AssumeRole important for allowing EC2 instances to access other AWS services

Security Token Service (STS)

- Provides temporary credentials for trusted users
- Configured in Account Settings to enable/disable endpoints
- Use session tokens for improved performance and security
- Cross-account access enabled by creating roles and using AssumeRole

EC2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDS)

- Provides information about EC2 instances
- IMDSv2 recommended for improved security
- Configurable options: enabled/disabled, version, hop limit
- Can enforce IMDSv2 via IAM policies organization-wide

S3 Security Features

- Bucket policies control access at bucket and object level
- Access Control Lists (ACLs) provide legacy access controls
- Block Public Access settings prevent unintended public exposure
- Encryption options: SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C
- VPC endpoints enable private S3 access within VPC
- Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) for web application access

Amazon Cognito

- Manages user pools for web/mobile app authentication
- Supports federated identities (e.g. Facebook, Google)
- Integrates with API Gateway for API authorization
- Custom rules can be created based on user attributes

IAM Identity Center

- Centralized access management for multiple AWS accounts
- Supports AWS SSO, Active Directory, and SAML 2.0 identity providers
- Enables creation of permission sets for granular access control
- Can integrate with enterprise applications for SSO

Next Steps

- Review and apply least privilege principle to all IAM entities
- Enable MFA for all IAM users, especially those with elevated permissions
- Regularly audit IAM users, roles, and policies using AWS Config and CloudTrail
- Implement S3 bucket policies and encryption for all sensitive data
- Configure CloudWatch alarms for suspicious IAM and S3 activities
- Practice using the AWS Policy Simulator for complex permission scenarios

Видео AWS Security Specialty Exam Walkthrough 05 IAM Overview, Policy Creation and Management, Roles and канала Jules of Tech