Secrets, IAM, and RBAC Mental Model

Mental Model

Identity says who or what is acting. Authorization says what that identity can do. Secrets are sensitive values used by identities and systems. RBAC is one way to make permissions understandable.

Least Privilege

Start with the smallest useful permission set, then expand only when a real workflow requires it.

Service Accounts

Service accounts should map to workloads or responsibility boundaries, not to convenience. A background worker and a public API often need different permissions.

Secrets

• Keep secrets out of source code.
• Rotate secrets when ownership or exposure changes.
• Prefer managed secret stores.
• Avoid logging config blobs.
• Document who owns each secret and what breaks if it expires.

Access Review Questions

• Who can deploy?
• Who can read production data?
• Who can change secrets?
• Which services can call external providers?
• Which permissions are temporary?