What is the difference between an IAM Policy and an IAM Permission Boundary?

An IAM Policy grants permissions to a principal. A Permission Boundary sets the maximum permissions an IAM entity can have, but does not grant permissions on its own.

Which IAM policy evaluation result takes precedence over all others?

An explicit Deny always takes precedence over any Allow in IAM policy evaluation.

What is the purpose of an IAM Instance Profile?

An Instance Profile is a container for an IAM Role that is used to pass the role to an EC2 instance, allowing the instance to make API calls using the role's permissions.

What type of IAM policy is attached directly to an AWS resource (e.g., an S3 bucket) rather than to an IAM identity?

A resource-based policy is attached directly to a resource and specifies who (principal) can perform actions on that resource.

What is the security best practice regarding the AWS root account?

Lock away root account credentials, enable MFA on the root account, and do not use the root account for everyday tasks—create IAM users with least-privilege permissions instead.

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AWS IAM & Security – Solutions Architect Associate

Master AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and core security services for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam. These 25 flashcards cover IAM policies, roles, MFA, STS, AWS Organizations, KMS, and more—exactly as tested on the SAA-C03 exam.

25 cards Intermediate IAM Fundamentals IAM Roles & Federation AWS Organizations & SCPs Data Protection & Encryption Threat Detection & Monitoring Access Control & Network Security

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