IAM Users and Groups

Let’s now learn more about the IAM identities, starting with IAM users and IAM groups.

IAM user

An IAM user is an identity we can use to provide account access to an individual entity. It is used when we want to provide long-term credentials to an entity. Using the IAM user credentials, the principal entity can authenticate itself with AWS and log in to the account. However, by default, the IAM users cannot perform any function besides logging into the account. To authorize the user to perform the required actions, we attach the IAM policy with the IAM user. The policy defines the scope of permissions of the user. So, the IAM user identity handles user authentication, while the attached policy is responsible for authorization.