Which AWS service is designed specifically for storing and retrieving secrets within AWS Lambda functions?

AWS Systems Manager, and more specifically its Secrets Manager service, is designed explicitly for storing and retrieving secrets, such as API keys, passwords, and other sensitive information. When working with AWS Lambda functions, it is crucial to manage secrets securely to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

Using AWS Systems Manager Secrets Manager enables developers to retrieve these secrets dynamically at runtime, which is essential for maintaining application security while keeping the secret values out of the codebase. This approach reduces the risk of hardcoding sensitive information in the Lambda function code, ensuring better security practices.

In contrast, the other services mentioned do not focus on the storage and retrieval of secrets specifically for AWS Lambda. AWS IAM is primarily about managing permissions and access control for AWS resources, AWS CloudFormation is used for infrastructure as code to automate the deployment of AWS resources, and AWS Glue is a data integration service that is designed for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) operations, none of which directly address the task of managing secrets within Lambda functions.