Managing and securing root IAM user accounts

IAM user accounts are the basic units of accountability when a principal authenticates itself directly through AWS IAM, thus ensuring that those accounts are hardened is foundational to the security of the entire AWS account. However, before we begin on general account management and security, we need to address some peculiarities and best practices of a unique account type.

Differences between root user account and IAM user accounts

We've heard that repetition is key to learning. In both Chapter 1, An Introduction to IAM and AWS IAM Concepts, and Chapter 2, An Introduction to the AWS CLI, we created IAM users using both the AWS Management Console and the AWS CLI. The IAM users that were created were no less capable of doing anything inside of the AWS account by dint of them being members of the Full Administrators group. However, this still was an example of an AWS IAM security best practice. The AWS root account should not be...