IAM Identities
An IAM identity represents a human user or programmatic workload that can be authenticated and then authorized to perform actions in AWS. An identity can be associated with one or more policies, which determine what actions an identity is authorized to perform, on which AWS resources, and under what conditions. Identities include, users, groups, and roles.
Note
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Follow the Security best practices in IAM when working with Identities.
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Follow the root user best practices for your AWS account.
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If you're having trouble signing in see Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
IAM root user
When you first create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity that has complete access to all AWS services and resources in the account. This identity is called the AWS account root user. For more information, see AWS account root user.
IAM users
An IAM user is an identity within your AWS account that has specific permissions for a single person or application. For more information, see IAM users.
IAM user groups
An IAM user group is an identity that specifies a collection of IAM users. For more information, see User groups.
IAM roles
An IAM role is an identity within your AWS account that has specific permissions. It's similar to an IAM user, but isn't associated with a specific person. For more information, see IAM roles.
