---
# System prepended metadata

title: Identity and Access Management (IAM)

---

# Identity and Access Management (IAM)

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources.  As with any permissions system, there are two parts authentication (authn, who are you) and authorization (authz, what can you do).

# User

Authn is the user key and secret and authz is the policy attached to the User in IAM.  Users only have a **Permissions Policy**, not a **Trust Policy**

# Roles

There are many authn mechanisms.  The authn mechanism used for a Role is determined by the **Trusted Entities** for that Role as determined by the **Trust Policy**.  Additional **Conditions** on attributes provided by the Trusted Entity can be applied in the **Permissions Policy** for the Role to further limit who can use the role.

Many AWS services require that you use roles to allow the service to access resources in other services on your behalf. A role that a service assumes to perform actions on your behalf is called a **Service Role**. When a role serves a specialized purpose for a service, it is categorized as a **service role for EC2 instances** (for example), or a service-linked role.


## Roles Types

### Service role

A role that a service assumes to perform actions in your account on your behalf. When you set up some AWS service environments, you must define a role for the service to assume. This service role must include all the permissions required for the service to access the AWS resources that it needs. Service roles vary from service to service, but many allow you to choose your permissions, as long as you meet the documented requirements for that service. Service roles provide access only within your account and cannot be used to grant access to services in other accounts. You can create, modify, and delete a service role from within IAM.

Example Trust Relationship from the `eksClusterRole`
```
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "eks.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    }
  ]
}
```

### Service Role for an EC2 Instance (i.e. Instance Role)

A special type of service role that an application running on an Amazon EC2 instance can assume to perform actions in your account. This role is assigned to the EC2 instance when it is launched. Applications running on that instance can retrieve temporary security credentials and perform actions that the role allows. For details about using a service role for an EC2 instance, see Using an IAM role to grant permissions to applications running on Amazon EC2 instances.

Example Trust Relationship
```
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "ec2.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    }
  ]
}
```


### Service-linked Role

A unique type of service role that is linked directly to an AWS service. Service-linked roles are predefined by the service and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other AWS services on your behalf. The linked service also defines how you create, modify, and delete a service-linked role. A service might automatically create or delete the role. It might allow you to create, modify, or delete the role as part of a wizard or process in the service. Or it might require that you use IAM to create or delete the role. Regardless of the method, **service-linked roles make setting up a service easier because you don't have to manually add the necessary permissions.** 

# EKS

# Service-linked Roles

# AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKS



## Role Policies

# AmazonEKSClusterPolicy 
This policy provides Kubernetes the permissions it requires to manage resources on your behalf. Kubernetes requires Ec2:CreateTags permissions to place identifying information on EC2 resources including but not limited to Instances, Security Groups, and Elastic Network Interfaces. 
```
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups",
                "autoscaling:UpdateAutoScalingGroup",
                "ec2:AttachVolume",
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:CreateRoute",
                "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:CreateVolume",
                "ec2:DeleteRoute",
                "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:DeleteVolume",
                "ec2:DescribeInstances",
                "ec2:DescribeRouteTables",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
                "ec2:DescribeVolumesModifications",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:DescribeDhcpOptions",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
                "ec2:DetachVolume",
                "ec2:ModifyInstanceAttribute",
                "ec2:ModifyVolume",
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "elasticloadbalancing:AddTags",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ApplySecurityGroupsToLoadBalancer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:AttachLoadBalancerToSubnets",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ConfigureHealthCheck",
                "elasticloadbalancing:CreateListener",
                "elasticloadbalancing:CreateLoadBalancer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:CreateLoadBalancerListeners",
                "elasticloadbalancing:CreateLoadBalancerPolicy",
                "elasticloadbalancing:CreateTargetGroup",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeleteListener",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeleteLoadBalancer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeleteLoadBalancerListeners",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeleteTargetGroup",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeregisterInstancesFromLoadBalancer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DeregisterTargets",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeListeners",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancerAttributes",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancerPolicies",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetGroupAttributes",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetGroups",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth",
                "elasticloadbalancing:DetachLoadBalancerFromSubnets",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ModifyListener",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ModifyLoadBalancerAttributes",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ModifyTargetGroup",
                "elasticloadbalancing:ModifyTargetGroupAttributes",
                "elasticloadbalancing:RegisterInstancesWithLoadBalancer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:RegisterTargets",
                "elasticloadbalancing:SetLoadBalancerPoliciesForBackendServer",
                "elasticloadbalancing:SetLoadBalancerPoliciesOfListener",
                "kms:DescribeKey"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringLike": {
                    "iam:AWSServiceName": "elasticloadbalancing.amazonaws.com"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}
```

# AmazonEKSServicePolicy 
This policy allows Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes to create and manage the necessary resources to operate EKS Clusters. 
```
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:CreateNetworkInterfacePermission",
                "ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:DescribeInstances",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
                "ec2:DetachNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:ModifyNetworkInterfaceAttribute",
                "iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies",
                "eks:UpdateClusterVersion"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:DeleteTags"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:vpc/*",
                "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:subnet/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "route53:AssociateVPCWithHostedZone",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "logs:CreateLogGroup",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "logs:CreateLogStream",
                "logs:DescribeLogStreams"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/eks/*:*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "logs:PutLogEvents",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/eks/*:*:*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringLike": {
                    "iam:AWSServiceName": "eks.amazonaws.com"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}
```

# AmazonEKSServiceRolePolicy 
A Service-Linked Role required for Amazon EKS to call AWS services on your behalf. 
```
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:DetachNetworkInterface",
                "ec2:ModifyNetworkInterfaceAttribute",
                "ec2:DescribeInstances",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:CreateNetworkInterfacePermission",
                "iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies",
                "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*",
            "Condition": {
                "ForAnyValue:StringLike": {
                    "ec2:ResourceTag/Name": "eks-cluster-sg*"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:DeleteTags"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:vpc/*",
                "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:subnet/*"
            ],
            "Condition": {
                "ForAnyValue:StringLike": {
                    "aws:TagKeys": [
                        "kubernetes.io/cluster/*"
                    ]
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:DeleteTags"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*"
            ],
            "Condition": {
                "ForAnyValue:StringLike": {
                    "aws:TagKeys": [
                        "kubernetes.io/cluster/*"
                    ],
                    "aws:RequestTag/Name": "eks-cluster-sg*"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "route53:AssociateVPCWithHostedZone",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:route53:::hostedzone/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "logs:CreateLogGroup",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/eks/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "logs:CreateLogStream",
                "logs:DescribeLogStreams"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/eks/*:*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "logs:PutLogEvents",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/eks/*:*:*"
        }
    ]
}
```

# Sources

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/using-service-linked-roles.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/enable-iam-roles-for-service-accounts.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/service_IAM_role.html#create-service-role

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_aws-services-that-work-with-iam.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_terms-and-concepts.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/getting-started-console.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/getting-started-eksctl.html


