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IAM and RBAC

Updated May 26, 2022 ·

Overview​

Kubernetes integrates seamlessly with IAM for authentication and RBAC for authorization:

  • IAM handles authentication.
  • Kubernetes RBAC manages authorization.

IAM entities can be directly assigned RBAC permissions to access Kubernetes clusters.

Worker Nodes​

Worker nodes join the cluster with an IAM role mapped to RBAC groups, allowing them to connect:

  • system:bootstrappers for initial setup.
  • system:nodes for ongoing operations.

To edit the configuration, modify the aws-auth ConfigMap:

kubectl edit -n kube-system configmap/aws-auth

IAM Users​

Examples of IAM roles and permissions:

  • Cluster admin: Full administrative privileges.
  • Read-only user: Restricted to specific namespaces.

For more information, please see Using RBAC Authorization..