# IBM - Basic Information
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## Hierarchy
IBM Cloud resource model ([from the docs](https://www.ibm.com/blog/announcement/introducing-ibm-cloud-enterprises/)):
Recommended way to divide projects:
## IAM
### Users
Users have an **email** assigned to them. They can access the **IBM console** and also **generate API keys** to use their permissions programatically.\
**Permissions** can be granted **directly** to the user with an access policy or via an **access group**.
### Trusted Profiles
These are **like the Roles of AWS** or service accounts from GCP. It's possible to **assign them to VM** instances and access their **credentials via metadata**, or even **allow Identity Providers** to use them in order to authenticate users from external platforms.\
**Permissions** can be granted **directly** to the trusted profile with an access policy or via an **access group**.
### Service IDs
This is another option to allow applications to **interact with IBM cloud** and perform actions. In this case, instead of assign it to a VM or Identity Provider an **API Key can be used** to interact with IBM in a **programatic** way.\
**Permissions** can be granted **directly** to the service id with an access policy or via an **access group**.
### Identity Providers
External **Identity Providers** can be configured to **access IBM cloud** resources from external platforms by accessing **trusting Trusted Profiles**.
### Access Groups
In the same access group **several users, trusted profiles & service ids** can be present. Each principal in the access group will **inherit the access group permissions**.\
**Permissions** can be granted **directly** to the trusted profile with an access policy.\
An **access group cannot be a member** of another access group.
### Roles
A role is a **set of granular permissions**. **A role** is dedicated to **a service**, meaning that it will only contain permissions of that service.\
**Each service** of IAM will already have some **possible roles** to choose from to **grant a principal access to that service**: **Viewer, Operator, Editor, Administrator** (although there could be more).
Role permissions are given via access policies to principals, so if you need to give for example a **combination of permissions** of a service of **Viewer** and **Administrator**, instead of giving those 2 (and overprivilege a principal), you can **create a new role** for the service and give that new role the **granular permissions you need**.
### Access Policies
Access policies allows to **attach 1 or more roles of 1 service to 1 principal**.\
When creating the policy you need to choose:
* The **service** where permissions will be granted
* **Affected resources**
* Service & Platform **access** that will be granted
* These indicate the **permissions** that will be given to the principal to perform actions. If any **custom role** is created in the service you will also be able to choose it here.
* **Conditions** (if any) to grant the permissions
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To grant access to several services to a user, you can generate several access policies
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## References
* [https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/announcements/introducing-ibm-cloud-enterprises](https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/announcements/introducing-ibm-cloud-enterprises)
* [https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-iamoverview](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-iamoverview)
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Learn & practice AWS Hacking:[**HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE)**](https://training.hacktricks.xyz/courses/arte)\
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Support HackTricks
* Check the [**subscription plans**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
* **Join the** 💬 [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** us on **Twitter** 🐦 [**@hacktricks\_live**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
* **Share hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**HackTricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [**HackTricks Cloud**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud) github repos.
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