Identity-based policy examples for Amazon CloudWatch
By default, users and roles don't have permission to create or modify CloudWatch resources. They also can't perform tasks by using the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), or AWS API. To grant users permission to perform actions on the resources that they need, an IAM administrator can create IAM policies. The administrator can then add the IAM policies to roles, and users can assume the roles.
To learn how to create an IAM identity-based policy by using these example JSON policy documents, see Creating IAM policies in the IAM User Guide.
For details about actions and resource types defined by CloudWatch, including the format of the ARNs for each of the resource types, see Actions, resources, and condition keys for Amazon CloudWatch in the Service Authorization Reference.
Policy best practices
Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete CloudWatch resources in your account. These actions can incur costs for your AWS account. When you create or edit identity-based policies, follow these guidelines and recommendations:
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Get started with AWS managed policies and move toward least-privilege permissions – To get started granting permissions to your users and workloads, use the AWS managed policies that grant permissions for many common use cases. They are available in your AWS account. We recommend that you reduce permissions further by defining AWS customer managed policies that are specific to your use cases. For more information, see AWS managed policies or AWS managed policies for job functions in the IAM User Guide.
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Apply least-privilege permissions – When you set permissions with IAM policies, grant only the permissions required to perform a task. You do this by defining the actions that can be taken on specific resources under specific conditions, also known as least-privilege permissions. For more information about using IAM to apply permissions, see Policies and permissions in IAM in the IAM User Guide.
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Use conditions in IAM policies to further restrict access – You can add a condition to your policies to limit access to actions and resources. For example, you can write a policy condition to specify that all requests must be sent using SSL. You can also use conditions to grant access to service actions if they are used through a specific AWS service, such as AWS CloudFormation. For more information, see IAM JSON policy elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.
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Use IAM Access Analyzer to validate your IAM policies to ensure secure and functional permissions – IAM Access Analyzer validates new and existing policies so that the policies adhere to the IAM policy language (JSON) and IAM best practices. IAM Access Analyzer provides more than 100 policy checks and actionable recommendations to help you author secure and functional policies. For more information, see IAM Access Analyzer policy validation in the IAM User Guide.
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Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) – If you have a scenario that requires IAM users or a root user in your AWS account, turn on MFA for additional security. To require MFA when API operations are called, add MFA conditions to your policies. For more information, see Configuring MFA-protected API access in the IAM User Guide.
For more information about best practices in IAM, see Security best practices in IAM in the IAM User Guide.
Using the CloudWatch console
To access the Amazon CloudWatch console, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the CloudWatch resources in your AWS account. If you create an identity-based policy that is more restrictive than the minimum required permissions, the console won't function as intended for entities (users or roles) with that policy.
You don't need to allow minimum console permissions for users that are making calls only to the AWS CLI or the AWS API. Instead, allow access to only the actions that match the API operation that they're trying to perform.
To ensure that users and roles can still use the CloudWatch console, also attach the
CloudWatch
or ConsoleAccess
AWS managed policy to
the entities. For more information, see Adding permissions to a user in the
IAM User Guide.ReadOnly
Permissions needed for CloudWatch console
The full set of permissions required to work with the CloudWatch console are listed below. These permissions provide full write and read access to the CloudWatch console.
application-autoscaling:DescribeScalingPolicies
autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups
autoscaling:DescribePolicies
cloudtrail:DescribeTrails
cloudwatch:DeleteAlarms
cloudwatch:DescribeAlarmHistory
cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms
cloudwatch:GetMetricData
cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics
cloudwatch:ListMetrics
cloudwatch:PutMetricAlarm
cloudwatch:PutMetricData
ec2:DescribeInstances
ec2:DescribeTags
ec2:DescribeVolumes
es:DescribeElasticsearchDomain
es:ListDomainNames
events:DeleteRule
events:DescribeRule
events:DisableRule
events:EnableRule
events:ListRules
events:PutRule
iam:AttachRolePolicy
iam:CreateRole
iam:GetPolicy
iam:GetPolicyVersion
iam:GetRole
iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies
iam:ListRoles
kinesis:DescribeStream
kinesis:ListStreams
lambda:AddPermission
lambda:CreateFunction
lambda:GetFunctionConfiguration
lambda:ListAliases
lambda:ListFunctions
lambda:ListVersionsByFunction
lambda:RemovePermission
logs:CancelExportTask
logs:CreateExportTask
logs:CreateLogGroup
logs:CreateLogStream
logs:DeleteLogGroup
logs:DeleteLogStream
logs:DeleteMetricFilter
logs:DeleteRetentionPolicy
logs:DeleteSubscriptionFilter
logs:DescribeExportTasks
logs:DescribeLogGroups
logs:DescribeLogStreams
logs:DescribeMetricFilters
logs:DescribeQueries
logs:DescribeSubscriptionFilters
logs:FilterLogEvents
logs:GetLogGroupFields
logs:GetLogRecord
logs:GetLogEvents
logs:GetQueryResults
logs:PutMetricFilter
logs:PutRetentionPolicy
logs:PutSubscriptionFilter
logs:StartQuery
logs:StopQuery
logs:TestMetricFilter
s3:CreateBucket
s3:ListBucket
sns:CreateTopic
sns:GetTopicAttributes
sns:ListSubscriptions
sns:ListTopics
sns:SetTopicAttributes
sns:Subscribe
sns:Unsubscribe
sqs:GetQueueAttributes
sqs:GetQueueUrl
sqs:ListQueues
sqs:SetQueueAttributes
swf:CreateAction
swf:DescribeAction
swf:ListActionTemplates
swf:RegisterAction
swf:RegisterDomain
swf:UpdateAction
Additionally, to view the X-Ray Trace Map, you need AWSXrayReadOnlyAccess