IAM Basics

How AWS IAM authenticates and authorizes every SDK request - principals, policies, and the signed-request evaluation that decides allow or deny.

Hands-on starters for authenticating AWS SDK calls with IAM - scoped users, roles, temporary credentials, and reading the identity your code runs as.

IAM users and long-lived access keys explained - how to create and rotate them, and why roles with temporary credentials are the safer default for SDK auth.

How instance profiles, ECS task roles, Lambda execution roles, and IRSA give SDK code temporary credentials automatically - no access keys required.

Diagnose AccessDenied before production using SimulatePrincipalPolicy, CloudTrail, and IAM Access Analyzer to see exactly which action, resource, or condition failed.

A checklist of IAM best practices for AWS SDK authentication - roles over users, least privilege, key rotation, condition guards, and continuous auditing.