IAM Authentication Methods.

• You can use key-pair access keys and its used for programmatic access especially CLI (You can't add MFA to this).

  • A combination of access key ID and secret key access.
  • this is used to make programmatic calls to aws when using the api. For example boto. Its also used to access AWS using CLI.
  • you can create,modify,view or rotate access keys.
  • When created IAM returns the access key ID and secret access key.
  • The secret access key is returned only at the creation time and if lost new key must be created.
  • Make sure access keys and secret access keys are stored securely.
  • Users can be given access to change their own keys through IAM policy(Not from console).
  • You can disable user's access key which prevents it from being used for API calls.

• Simple username and password method to access the management console.

  • The password that user uses to sign in into aws web console

• Some AWS services uses signing certificate.

  • SSL/TLS certificates that can be used to authenticate with some AWS services.
  • AWS recommends that you use ACM(AWS Certificate Manager) to provision manage and deploy your server certificates.
  • You can also use IAM only when you need to support HTTPS connections in a region that is not supported by ACM.