Exam Tips

This article provides essential recommendations to help you prepare for your AWS exam effectively. Follow these best practices to secure your AWS account and manage permissions confidently.

Key Recommendations

1. Avoid Root Account Usage
   Refrain from using the AWS root account for regular operations. Exposing the root account credentials greatly increases the risk of unauthorized access. Instead, secure and monitor this account thoroughly.

2. Implement the Principle of Least Privilege
   Grant users and roles only the essential permissions they need. When configuring AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), create individual IAM users for every person or application that requires access:

   • Assign permissions directly to users, groups, or roles based on necessity.
   • Use roles to provide temporary security credentials, especially when delegation is required.

3. Utilize Roles and Trust Policies
   Roles are ideal for allowing temporary access to AWS resources. They involve:

   • Configuring trust policies to define which entities can assume a role.
   • Using the PassRole permission when a service needs to assign a role to another AWS service, ensuring controlled role delegation.

4. Manage External Application Access
   For applications outside AWS that require access to AWS services:

   • Create an IAM user with dedicated credentials.
   • Use the AssumeRole method via the API when temporary credentials are required.
   • If MFA is enabled, leverage the GetSessionToken method to obtain secure temporary credentials.

5. Facilitate Cross-Account Access
   In scenarios where a user from one AWS account (Account A) needs to access services in another account (Account B):
   • Establish a role in Account B with the required access permissions.
   • Allow the user in Account A to assume this role securely to access the necessary services.

Following these strategies will not only help you prepare for your AWS exam but also ensure that your AWS environment adheres to industry best practices for security and access management.