CLF-C02 - Security and Compliance - Section 2.5

Identify AWS Identity and Access Management capabilities, defining users, groups, roles and managed and custom policies in line with the principle of least privilege.

Define IAM users, groups, roles, and policies, and apply the principle of least privilege to grant only the permissions needed to perform a task. Distinguish managed policies from inline policies and understand when to use roles - particularly for granting permissions to AWS services and cross-account access - over long-lived user credentials.

AWS Identity and Access ManagementIAM policiesLeast privilegeIAM roles

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleSecurity and Compliancemedium

A cloud administrator is reviewing how AWS Identity and Access Management building blocks fit together before onboarding a new team. Which two statements about IAM users, groups, roles and policies are correct? (Select TWO.)

  • AAn IAM group is a collection of IAM users that lets the administrator attach one policy and have it apply to every user in the group. Correct
  • BAn IAM role provides temporary credentials that a trusted identity or AWS service can assume, rather than belonging to one person. Correct
  • CAn IAM policy is a monthly billing document that itemises the running cost of each IAM user and role in the account.
  • DAn IAM group can be nested inside another IAM group so permissions cascade down through several group layers.
  • EAn IAM user is the AWS account owner identity that always retains unrestricted access to every service in the account.
Distinguish IAM users, groups, roles and policies so permissions are managed through groups and temporary access is delivered by roles. Groups bundle users so one attached policy governs all members, and roles supply temporary credentials to trusted identities or AWS services. Policies are JSON permission documents, groups cannot be nested, and the unrestricted account identity is the root user rather than an IAM user.

Why A is correct: Groups exist to manage permissions for many users at once, so attaching a policy to the group applies it to all members, which is accurate.

Why B is correct: Roles are designed to be assumed and deliver short-lived credentials to services or users without long-term keys, which correctly describes their purpose.

Why C is wrong: It is easy to confuse the word policy with cost, but an IAM policy is a JSON permissions document, not a record of charges.

Why D is wrong: Nesting sounds plausible from other systems, but IAM groups cannot contain other groups, so this capability does not exist.

Why E is wrong: This describes the root user, not an IAM user; an ordinary IAM user only has the permissions explicitly granted to it.

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