Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a core component of AWS, enabling security by granting authenticated entities granular permissions to AWS services and resources. A principal can be an IAM user, an AWS service, or even an anonymous internet user.
A principal in AWS IAM is an entity that can perform actions on AWS resources. There are various types of principals, but we’ll focus on two primary ones: The IAM user principal and the AWS service principal. The IAM user principal represents the person or application that uses the IAM user to interact with AWS.