# AWS Identity and Access Management
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an AWS service that helps an administrator securely control access to AWS resources. IAM administrators control who can be authenticated (signed in) and authorized (have permissions) to use Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow resources. IAM is an AWS service you can use with no additional charge.
This topic provides a basic overview of how Amazon MWAA uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). To learn about managing access to Amazon MWAA, refer to [Managing access to an Amazon MWAA environment](manage-access.md).
**Topics**
+ [Audience](#security_iam_audience)
+ [Authenticating With Identities](#security_iam_authentication)
+ [Managing Access Using Policies](#security_iam_access-manage)
+ [Allowing users to access their own permissions](#security_iam_id-based-policy-examples-view-own-permissions)
+ [Troubleshooting Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow identity and access](security_iam_troubleshoot.md)
+ [How Amazon MWAA works with IAM](security_iam_service-with-iam.md)
## Audience
How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs based on your role:
+ **Service user** - request permissions from your administrator if you cannot access features (see [Troubleshooting Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow identity and access](security_iam_troubleshoot.md))
+ **Service administrator** - determine user access and submit permission requests (see [How Amazon MWAA works with IAM](security_iam_service-with-iam.md))
+ **IAM administrator** - write policies to manage access (see [Amazon MWAA identity-based policy examples](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md))
## Authenticating With Identities
Authentication is how you sign in to AWS using your identity credentials. You must be authenticated as the AWS account root user, an IAM user, or by assuming an IAM role.
You can sign in as a federated identity using credentials from an identity source like AWS IAM Identity Center (IAM Identity Center), single sign-on authentication, or Google/Facebook credentials. For more information about signing in, see [How to sign in to your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/signin/latest/userguide/how-to-sign-in.html) in the *AWS Sign-In User Guide*.
For programmatic access, AWS provides an SDK and CLI to cryptographically sign requests. For more information, see [AWS Signature Version 4 for API requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### AWS account root user
When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity called the AWS account *root user* that has complete access to all AWS services and resources. We strongly recommend that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks. For tasks that require root user credentials, see [Tasks that require root user credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_root-user.html#root-user-tasks) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### IAM Users and Groups
An *[IAM user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users.html)* is an identity with specific permissions for a single person or application. We recommend using temporary credentials instead of IAM users with long-term credentials. For more information, see [Require human users to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS using temporary credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#bp-users-federation-idp) in the *IAM User Guide*.
An [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html) specifies a collection of IAM users and makes permissions easier to manage for large sets of users. For more information, see [Use cases for IAM users](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/gs-identities-iam-users.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### IAM Roles
An *[IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html)* is an identity with specific permissions that provides temporary credentials. You can assume a role by [switching from a user to an IAM role (console)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_use_switch-role-console.html) or by calling an AWS CLI or AWS API operation. For more information, see [Methods to assume a role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_manage-assume.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
IAM roles are useful for federated user access, temporary IAM user permissions, cross-account access, cross-service access, and applications running on Amazon EC2. For more information, see [Cross account resource access in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-cross-account-resource-access.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
## Managing Access Using Policies
You control access in AWS by creating policies and attaching them to AWS identities or resources. A policy defines permissions when associated with an identity or resource. AWS evaluates these policies when a principal makes a request. Most policies are stored in AWS as JSON documents. For more information about JSON policy documents, see [Overview of JSON policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#access_policies-json) in the *IAM User Guide*.
Using policies, administrators specify who has access to what by defining which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources**, and under what **conditions**.
By default, users and roles have no permissions. An IAM administrator creates IAM policies and adds them to roles, which users can then assume. IAM policies define permissions regardless of the method used to perform the operation.
### Identity-Based Policies
Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you attach to an identity (user, group, or role). These policies control what actions identities can perform, on which resources, and under what conditions. To learn how to create an identity-based policy, see [Define custom IAM permissions with customer managed policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_create.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
Identity-based policies can be *inline policies* (embedded directly into a single identity) or *managed policies* (standalone policies attached to multiple identities). To learn how to choose between managed and inline policies, see [Choose between managed policies and inline policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-choosing-managed-or-inline.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### Resource-Based Policies
Resource-based policies are JSON policy documents that you attach to a resource. Examples include IAM *role trust policies* and Amazon S3 *bucket policies*. In services that support resource-based policies, service administrators can use them to control access to a specific resource. You must [specify a principal](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_principal.html) in a resource-based policy.
Resource-based policies are inline policies that are located in that service. You can't use AWS managed policies from IAM in a resource-based policy.
### Access Control Lists (ACLs)
Access control lists (ACLs) control which principals (account members, users, or roles) have permissions to access a resource. ACLs are similar to resource-based policies, although they do not use the JSON policy document format.
Amazon S3, AWS WAF, and Amazon VPC are examples of services that support ACLs. To learn more about ACLs, see [Access control list (ACL) overview](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/acl-overview.html) in the *Amazon Simple Storage Service Developer Guide*.
### Other Policy Types
AWS supports additional policy types that can set the maximum permissions granted by more common policy types:
+ **Permissions boundaries** – Set the maximum permissions that an identity-based policy can grant to an IAM entity. For more information, see [Permissions boundaries for IAM entities](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_boundaries.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ **Service control policies (SCPs)** – Specify the maximum permissions for an organization or organizational unit in AWS Organizations. For more information, see [Service control policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html) in the *AWS Organizations User Guide*.
+ **Resource control policies (RCPs)** – Set the maximum available permissions for resources in your accounts. For more information, see [Resource control policies (RCPs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_rcps.html) in the *AWS Organizations User Guide*.
+ **Session policies** – Advanced policies passed as a parameter when creating a temporary session for a role or federated user. For more information, see [Session policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#policies_session) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### Multiple Policy Types
When multiple types of policies apply to a request, the resulting permissions are more complicated to understand. To learn how AWS determines whether to allow a request when multiple policy types are involved, see [Policy evaluation logic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_evaluation-logic.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
## Allowing users to access their own permissions
This example shows how you might create a policy that allows IAM users to view the inline and managed policies that are attached to their user identity. This policy includes permissions to complete this action on the console or programmatically using the AWS CLI or AWS API.
```
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "ViewOwnUserInfo",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"iam:GetUserPolicy",
"iam:ListGroupsForUser",
"iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies",
"iam:ListUserPolicies",
"iam:GetUser"
],
"Resource": ["arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"]
},
{
"Sid": "NavigateInConsole",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"iam:GetGroupPolicy",
"iam:GetPolicyVersion",
"iam:GetPolicy",
"iam:ListAttachedGroupPolicies",
"iam:ListGroupPolicies",
"iam:ListPolicyVersions",
"iam:ListPolicies",
"iam:ListUsers"
],
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
```
# Troubleshooting Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow identity and access
Use the following information to help you diagnose and fix common issues that you can encounter when working with Amazon MWAA and IAM.
## I am not authorized to perform an action in Amazon MWAA
If the AWS Management Console tells you that you're not authorized to perform an action, then you must contact your administrator for assistance. Your administrator is the person that provided you with your user name and password.
## I am not authorized to perform iam:PassRole
If you receive an error that you're not authorized to perform the `iam:PassRole` action, your policies must be updated to allow you to pass a role to Amazon MWAA.
Some AWS services allow you to pass an existing role to that service instead of creating a new service role or service-linked role. To do this, you must have permissions to pass the role to the service.
The following example error occurs when an IAM user named `marymajor` tries to use the console to perform an action in Amazon MWAA. However, the action requires the service to have permissions that are granted by a service role. Mary does not have permissions to pass the role to the service.
```
User: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/marymajor is not authorized to perform: iam:PassRole
```
In this case, Mary's policies must be updated to allow her to perform the `iam:PassRole` action.
If you need help, contact your AWS administrator. Your administrator is the person who provided you with your sign-in credentials.
## I want to allow people outside of my AWS account to access my Amazon MWAA resources
You can create a role that users in other accounts or people outside of your organization can use to access your resources. You can specify who is trusted to assume the role. For services that support resource-based policies or access control lists (ACLs), you can use those policies to grant people access to your resources.
To learn more, consult the following:
+ To learn whether Amazon MWAA supports these features, see [How Amazon MWAA works with IAM](security_iam_service-with-iam.md).
+ To learn how to provide access to your resources across AWS accounts that you own, see [Providing access to an IAM user in another AWS account that you own](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_common-scenarios_aws-accounts.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ To learn how to provide access to your resources to third-party AWS accounts, see [Providing access to AWS accounts owned by third parties](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_common-scenarios_third-party.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ To learn how to provide access through identity federation, see [Providing access to externally authenticated users (identity federation)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_common-scenarios_federated-users.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ To learn the difference between using roles and resource-based policies for cross-account access, see [Cross account resource access in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-cross-account-resource-access.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
# How Amazon MWAA works with IAM
Amazon MWAA uses IAM identity-based policies to grant permissions to Amazon MWAA actions and resources. For recommended examples of custom IAM policies you can use to control access to your Amazon MWAA resources, refer to [Accessing an Amazon MWAA environment](access-policies.md).
To get a high-level access of how Amazon MWAA and other AWS services work with IAM, refer to [AWS Services That Work with IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_aws-services-that-work-with-iam.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
## Amazon MWAA identity-based policies
With IAM identity-based policies, you can specify allowed or denied actions and resources, as well as the conditions under which actions are allowed or denied. Amazon MWAA supports specific actions, resources, and condition keys.
The following steps present how you can create a new JSON policy using the IAM console. This policy provides read-only access to your Amazon MWAA resources.
**To use the JSON policy editor to create a policy**
1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/).
1. In the navigation pane on the left, choose **Policies**.
If this is your first time choosing **Policies**, the **Welcome to Managed Policies** page appears. Choose **Get Started**.
1. At the top of the page, choose **Create policy**.
1. In the **Policy editor** section, choose the **JSON** option.
1. Enter the following JSON policy document:
```
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"airflow:ListEnvironments",
"airflow:GetEnvironment",
"airflow:ListTagsForResource"
],
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
```
1. Choose **Next**.
**Note**
You can switch between the **Visual** and **JSON** editor options anytime. However, if you make changes or choose **Next** in the **Visual** editor, IAM might restructure your policy to optimize it for the visual editor. For more information, see [Policy restructuring](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/troubleshoot_policies.html#troubleshoot_viseditor-restructure) in the *IAM User Guide*.
1. On the **Review and create** page, enter a **Policy name** and a **Description** (optional) for the policy that you are creating. Review **Permissions defined in this policy** to see the permissions that are granted by your policy.
1. Choose **Create policy** to save your new policy.
To learn about all of the elements that you use in a JSON policy, refer to [IAM JSON Policy Elements Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
### Actions
Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources**, and under what **conditions**.
The `Action` element of a JSON policy describes the actions that you can use to allow or deny access in a policy. Include actions in a policy to grant permissions to perform the associated operation.
Policy statements must include either an `Action` element or a `NotAction` element. The `Action` element lists the actions allowed by the policy. The `NotAction` element lists the actions that are not allowed.
The actions defined for Amazon MWAA reflect tasks that you can perform using Amazon MWAA. Policy actions in Detective have the following prefix: `airflow:`.
You can also use wildcards (\$1) to specify multiple actions. Instead of listing these actions separately, you can grant access to all actions that end with the word, for example, `environment`.
To get a list of Amazon MWAA actions, refer to [Actions Defined by Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/list_mwaa.html#mwaa-actions-as-permissions) in the *IAM User Guide*.
# Amazon MWAA identity-based policy examples
To access the Amazon MWAA policies, refer to [Managing access to an Amazon MWAA environment](manage-access.md).
By default, IAM users and roles don't have permission to create or modify Amazon MWAA resources. They also can't perform tasks using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS API.
An IAM administrator must create IAM policies that grant users and roles permission to perform specific API operations on the specified resources they need. The administrator then attaches those policies to the IAM users or groups that require those permissions.
**Important**
We recommend using IAM roles and temporary credentials to provide access to your Amazon MWAA resources. Avoiding attaching permission poicies directly to your IAM users.
To learn how to create an IAM identity-based policy using these example JSON policy documents, refer to [Creating Policies on the JSON Tab](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_create.html#access_policies_create-json-editor) in the *IAM User Guide*.
**Topics**
+ [Policy best practices](#security_iam_service-with-iam-policy-best-practices)
+ [Using the Amazon MWAA console](#security_iam_id-based-policy-examples-console)
+ [Allowing users to access their own permissions](#security_iam_id-based-policy-examples-view-own-permissions)
## Policy best practices
Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Amazon MWAA resources in your account. These actions can incur costs for your AWS account. When you create or edit identity-based policies, follow these guidelines and recommendations:
+ **Get started with AWS managed policies and move toward least-privilege permissions** – To get started granting permissions to your users and workloads, use the *AWS managed policies* that grant permissions for many common use cases. They are available in your AWS account. We recommend that you reduce permissions further by defining AWS customer managed policies that are specific to your use cases. For more information, see [AWS managed policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_managed-vs-inline.html#aws-managed-policies) or [AWS managed policies for job functions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_job-functions.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ **Apply least-privilege permissions** – When you set permissions with IAM policies, grant only the permissions required to perform a task. You do this by defining the actions that can be taken on specific resources under specific conditions, also known as *least-privilege permissions*. For more information about using IAM to apply permissions, see [ Policies and permissions in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ **Use conditions in IAM policies to further restrict access** – You can add a condition to your policies to limit access to actions and resources. For example, you can write a policy condition to specify that all requests must be sent using SSL. You can also use conditions to grant access to service actions if they are used through a specific AWS service, such as CloudFormation. For more information, see [ IAM JSON policy elements: Condition](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_condition.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ **Use IAM Access Analyzer to validate your IAM policies to ensure secure and functional permissions** – IAM Access Analyzer validates new and existing policies so that the policies adhere to the IAM policy language (JSON) and IAM best practices. IAM Access Analyzer provides more than 100 policy checks and actionable recommendations to help you author secure and functional policies. For more information, see [Validate policies with IAM Access Analyzer](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access-analyzer-policy-validation.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
+ **Require multi-factor authentication (MFA)** – If you have a scenario that requires IAM users or a root user in your AWS account, turn on MFA for additional security. To require MFA when API operations are called, add MFA conditions to your policies. For more information, see [ Secure API access with MFA](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_mfa_configure-api-require.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
For more information about best practices in IAM, see [Security best practices in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.
## Using the Amazon MWAA console
To use the Amazon MWAA console, the user or role must have access to the relevant actions, which match corresponding actions in the API.
To access the Amazon MWAA policies, refer to [Managing access to an Amazon MWAA environment](manage-access.md).
## Allowing users to access their own permissions
This example shows how you might create a policy that allows IAM users to view the inline and managed policies that are attached to their user identity. This policy includes permissions to complete this action on the console or programmatically using the AWS CLI or AWS API.
```
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "ViewOwnUserInfo",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"iam:GetUserPolicy",
"iam:ListGroupsForUser",
"iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies",
"iam:ListUserPolicies",
"iam:GetUser"
],
"Resource": ["arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"]
},
{
"Sid": "NavigateInConsole",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"iam:GetGroupPolicy",
"iam:GetPolicyVersion",
"iam:GetPolicy",
"iam:ListAttachedGroupPolicies",
"iam:ListGroupPolicies",
"iam:ListPolicyVersions",
"iam:ListPolicies",
"iam:ListUsers"
],
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
```