S3 Access Control: Policies, IAM, and Block Public Access

~12 min read

Three layers that combine to decide whether a given S3 request is allowed.

S3 Access Control: Policies, IAM, and Block Public Access is a Pro topic

Sign in, then upgrade to Pro or Power to unlock this topic and the full AWS curriculum.

Key points

  • Bucket policy: resource-based, attached to the bucket, can grant cross-account or public access
  • IAM policy: identity-based, attached to a user/role, controls what that identity can do
  • Both evaluated together; explicit Deny in either wins
  • Block Public Access is a safety-net override requiring deliberate action to disable