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Cloud Computing · Foundational

IAM User

AWS identity representing a person or application with long-term credentials such as a password or access keys.

Definition

An IAM user has permanent credentials and permissions granted directly or through groups. AWS now recommends using IAM Identity Center or federation with roles for human users and IAM roles for workloads, reserving IAM users for limited cases where long-term credentials are unavoidable.

Example

A legacy on-premises backup tool uses an IAM user's access key restricted by policy to a single bucket.

Exam tip

Prefer roles and temporary credentials over IAM user access keys; rotate any keys that must exist.

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