What is the Difference Between IAM and STS?

In today’s digital age, security is a top priority for organizations, and it is crucial to safeguard confidential data and sensitive information from unauthorized access. One of the ways to achieve this is through Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Security Token Service (STS). IAM and STS are two essential services that Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides to manage access to AWS resources. However, many people get confused between the two. In this article, we will explore the differences between IAM and STS and how they work.

1. Introduction

Amazon Web Services is a cloud platform that provides a range of services and solutions to businesses and individuals worldwide. AWS offers various services to help customers secure their applications and data, such as IAM and STS. IAM and STS are two different services that work together to provide secure access to AWS resources. IAM is used to manage user identities and their permissions, while STS is used to generate temporary security credentials that can be used to access AWS resources.

2. What is IAM?

IAM is a service offered by AWS that helps you manage access to your AWS resources. It enables you to control who can access AWS resources and what actions they can perform. IAM allows you to manage user identities and their permissions centrally. You can create users, groups, and roles in IAM, and assign them permissions to access AWS resources.

2.1 IAM Features

IAM has the following features:

• User Management: You can create, modify, and delete IAM users, and manage their security credentials such as access keys and passwords.
• Group Management: You can create groups of IAM users and assign permissions to groups.
• Role Management: You can create IAM roles and assign them permissions to access AWS resources.
• Policy Management: You can create IAM policies that define the permissions for IAM users, groups, and roles.

2.2 IAM Use Cases

IAM is used in the following use cases:

• Identity Management: IAM is used to manage user identities and their permissions.
• Access Control: IAM is used to control who can access AWS resources and what actions they can perform.
• Security: IAM is used to secure access to AWS resources.

3. What is STS?

STS is a web service offered by AWS that provides temporary security credentials for users to access AWS resources. STS enables you to grant temporary access to your AWS resources to trusted users without sharing your long-term security credentials.

3.1 STS Features

STS has the following features:

• Temporary Security Credentials: STS provides temporary security credentials that can be used to access AWS resources.
• Multi-factor Authentication: STS supports multi-factor authentication for added security.
• Identity Federation: STS supports identity federation with other identity providers, such as Microsoft Active Directory, Facebook, and Google.

3.2 STS Use Cases

STS is used in the following use cases:

• Temporary Access: STS is used to grant temporary access to AWS resources to trusted users.
• Federation: STS is used to federate identities with other identity providers.
• Security: STS is used to secure access to AWS