EKS IAM and Security

Calendar February 22, 2026
Kubernetes
Intermediate
Eks-Iam-Integration, Irsa-Configuration, Eks-Security-Hardening
Eks, Aws, Iam, Irsa, Pod-Identity, Security, Kms
Aws-Cli, Kubectl, Eksctl, Terraform

EKS IAM and Security#

EKS bridges two identity systems: AWS IAM and Kubernetes RBAC. Understanding how they connect is essential for both granting pods access to AWS services and controlling who can access the cluster.

IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA)#

IRSA lets Kubernetes pods assume IAM roles without using node-level credentials. Each pod gets exactly the AWS permissions it needs, not the broad permissions attached to the node role.