Adding a service role with permissions to deploy backend resources

Amplify requires permissions to deploy backend resources with your front end. You use a service role to accomplish this. A service role is the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role that provides Amplify Hosting with permissions to deploy, create, and manage backends on your behalf.

When you are creating a new app that requires an IAM service role, you can either allow Amplify Hosting to automatically create a service role for you or you can select an IAM role that you have already created. In this section, you will learn how to create an Amplify service role that has account administrative permissions and explicity allows direct access to resources that Amplify applications require to deploy, create, and manage backends.

Creating an Amplify service role in the IAM console

To create a service role

1. Open the IAM console and choose Roles from the left navigation bar, then choose Create role.

2. On the Select trusted entity page, choose AWS service. For Use case, select Amplify - Backend Deployment, then choose Next.

3. On the Add permissions page, choose Next.

4. On the Name, view, and create page, for Role name enter a meaningful name, such as AmplifyConsoleServiceRole-AmplifyRole.

5. Accept all the defaults and choose Create role.

6. Return to the Amplify console to attach the role to your app.

   • If you are in the process of deploying a new app, do the following:

     1. Refresh the list of service roles.

     2. Select the role you just created. For this example, it should look like AmplifyConsoleServiceRole-AmplifyRole.

     3. Choose Next and follow the steps to complete your app deployment.

   • If you have an existing app, do the following:

     1. In the navigation pane, choose App settings, then choose IAM roles.

     2. On the IAM roles page, in the Service role section, choose Edit.

     3. On the Service role page, select the role you just created from the Service role list.

     4. Choose Save.

7. Amplify now has permissions to deploy backend resources for your app.

Editing a service role's trust policy to prevent confused deputy

The confused deputy problem is a security issue where an entity that doesn't have permission to perform an action can coerce a more-privileged entity to perform the action. For more information, see Cross-service confused deputy prevention.

Currently, the default trust policy for the Amplify-Backend Deployment service role enforces the aws:SourceArn and aws:SourceAccount global context condition keys to prevent against confused deputy. However, if you previously created an Amplify-Backend Deployment role in your account, you can update the role's trust policy to add these conditions to protect against confused deputy.

Use the following example to restrict access to apps in your account. Replace the Region and application ID in the example with your own information.

"Condition": {
      "ArnLike": {
        "aws:SourceArn": "arn:aws:amplify:us-east-1:123456789012:apps/*"
      },
      "StringEquals": {
        "aws:SourceAccount": "123456789012"
      }
    }

For instructions on editing the trust policy for a role using the AWS Management Console, see Modifying a role (console) in the IAM User Guide.