What is one characteristic of an IAM role?

An IAM (Identity and Access Management) role's defining characteristic is that it can be created in your account with specific permissions. This flexibility allows you to define a role with tailored access rights for different use cases, ensuring that the principle of least privilege is followed.

This means that you can specify exactly what actions the role can perform and on which resources, enabling tight control over access to your environment. Roles are fundamental components for managing access in cloud environments like AWS because they allow resources to request temporary access without needing to manage long-term credentials.

This feature is especially useful for applications running on AWS services, which can assume roles to gain the required permissions dynamically. Therefore, the ability to tailor and create roles with specific permissions effectively supports the goals of security and compliance in cloud environments.