ACloud Guru Certified Cloud Practitioner Practice Exam

What IAM option is necessary for authentication when accessing AWS resources via command-line interface?

1. IAM Policy

2. Access Keys

3. IAM Role

4. IAM Group

The correct answer is: Access Keys

Access keys are essential for authentication when accessing AWS resources via the command-line interface (CLI). They consist of two parts: an Access Key ID and a Secret Access Key. These keys are used to sign programmatic requests to the AWS service APIs, allowing users to securely interact with AWS resources without needing to log in through the AWS Management Console. When using the CLI, the access keys are typically configured through the AWS CLI configuration file or through environment variables. This configuration allows the CLI to authenticate the user’s requests to AWS services seamlessly. The combination of the access key ID and the secret access key verifies the identity of the user or application making the request, granting them the permissions defined by their IAM policies. In contrast, IAM Policies define permissions for specific IAM entities but do not perform authentication. IAM Roles are used to delegate access and assign permissions to AWS services or users temporarily, while IAM Groups are collections of IAM users meant for managing permissions conveniently but do not apply directly to authentication methods for CLI access. Therefore, access keys are the necessary components for authentication in this context.