Identity-based policy examples for AWS Config

By default, users and roles don't have permission to create or modify AWS Config 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 AWS Config, including the format of the ARNs for each of the resource types, see Actions, resources, and condition keys for AWS Config in the Service Authorization Reference.

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete AWS Config 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:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Sign up for an AWS account

If you do not have an AWS account, complete the following steps to create one.

To sign up for an AWS account

1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

2. Follow the online instructions.

   Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

   When you sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is created. The root user has access to all AWS services and resources in the account. As a security best practice, assign administrative access to a user, and use only the root user to perform tasks that require root user access.

AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete. At any time, you can view your current account activity and manage your account by going to https://aws.amazon.com/ and choosing My Account.

Create a user with administrative access

After you sign up for an AWS account, secure your AWS account root user, enable AWS IAM Identity Center, and create an administrative user so that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks.

Secure your AWS account root user

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the account owner by choosing Root user and entering your AWS account email address. On the next page, enter your password.

   For help signing in by using root user, see Signing in as the root user in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

2. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for your root user.

   For instructions, see Enable a virtual MFA device for your AWS account root user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Create a user with administrative access

1. Enable IAM Identity Center.

   For instructions, see Enabling AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. In IAM Identity Center, grant administrative access to a user.

   For a tutorial about using the IAM Identity Center directory as your identity source, see Configure user access with the default IAM Identity Center directory in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Sign in as the user with administrative access

• To sign in with your IAM Identity Center user, use the sign-in URL that was sent to your email address when you created the IAM Identity Center user.

  For help signing in using an IAM Identity Center user, see Signing in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

Assign access to additional users

1. In IAM Identity Center, create a permission set that follows the best practice of applying least-privilege permissions.

   For instructions, see Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

2. Assign users to a group, and then assign single sign-on access to the group.

   For instructions, see Add groups in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

Using the AWS Config console

To access the AWS Config console, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the AWS Config 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 AWS Config console, also attach the AWS Config AWSConfigUserAccess AWS managed policy to the entities. For more information, see Adding permissions to a user in the IAM User Guide.

You must give users permissions to interact with AWS Config. For users who need full access to AWS Config, use the Full access to AWS Config managed policy.

To provide access, add permissions to your users, groups, or roles:

• Users and groups in AWS IAM Identity Center:

  Create a permission set. Follow the instructions in Create a permission set in the AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide.

• Users managed in IAM through an identity provider:

  Create a role for identity federation. Follow the instructions in Creating a role for a third-party identity provider (federation) in the IAM User Guide.

• IAM users:

  • Create a role that your user can assume. Follow the instructions in Creating a role for an IAM user in the IAM User Guide.

  • (Not recommended) Attach a policy directly to a user or add a user to a user group. Follow the instructions in Adding permissions to a user (console) in the IAM User Guide.

Allow users to view their own permissions

This example shows how you might create a policy that allows IAM users to view the inline and managed policies that are attached to their user identity. This policy includes permissions to complete this action on the console or programmatically using the AWS CLI or AWS API.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ViewOwnUserInfo",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                "iam:ListGroupsForUser",
                "iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies",
                "iam:ListUserPolicies",
                "iam:GetUser"
            ],
            "Resource": ["arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "NavigateInConsole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:GetGroupPolicy",
                "iam:GetPolicyVersion",
                "iam:GetPolicy",
                "iam:ListAttachedGroupPolicies",
                "iam:ListGroupPolicies",
                "iam:ListPolicyVersions",
                "iam:ListPolicies",
                "iam:ListUsers"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Read-only access to AWS Config

The following example shows an AWS managed policy, AWSConfigUserAccess that grants read-only access to AWS Config.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "config:Get*",
        "config:Describe*",
        "config:Deliver*",
        "config:List*",
        "config:Select*",
        "tag:GetResources",
        "tag:GetTagKeys",
        "cloudtrail:DescribeTrails",
        "cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus",
        "cloudtrail:LookupEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

In the policy statements, the Effect element specifies whether the actions are allowed or denied. The Action element lists the specific actions that the user is allowed to perform. The Resource element lists the AWS resources the user is allowed to perform those actions on. For policies that control access to AWS Config actions, the Resource element is always set to *, a wildcard that means "all resources."

The values in the Action element correspond to the APIs that the services support. The actions are preceded by config: to indicate that they refer to AWS Config actions. You can use the * wildcard character in the Action element, such as in the following examples:

• "Action": ["config:*ConfigurationRecorder"]

  This allows all AWS Config actions that end with "ConfigurationRecorder" (StartConfigurationRecorder, StopConfigurationRecorder).

• "Action": ["config:*"]

  This allows all AWS Config actions, but not actions for other AWS services.

• "Action": ["*"]

  This allows all AWS actions. This permission is suitable for a user who acts as an AWS administrator for your account.

The read-only policy doesn't grant user permission for the actions such as StartConfigurationRecorder, StopConfigurationRecorder, and DeleteConfigurationRecorder. Users with this policy are not allowed to start configuration recorder, stop configuration recorder, or delete configuration recorder. For the list of AWS Config actions, see the AWS Config API Reference.

Full access to AWS Config

The following example shows a policy that grants full access to AWS Config. It grants users the permission to perform all AWS Config actions. It also lets users manage files in Amazon S3 buckets and manage Amazon SNS topics in the account that the user is associated with.

Important

This policy grants broad permissions. Before granting full access, consider starting with a minimum set of permissions and granting additional permissions as necessary. Doing so is better practice than starting with permissions that are too lenient and then trying to tighten them later.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "sns:AddPermission",
                "sns:CreateTopic",
                "sns:DeleteTopic",
                "sns:GetTopicAttributes",
                "sns:ListPlatformApplications",
                "sns:ListTopics",
                "sns:SetTopicAttributes"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"   
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:CreateBucket",
                "s3:GetBucketAcl",
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:GetBucketNotification",
                "s3:GetBucketPolicy",
                "s3:GetBucketRequestPayment",
                "s3:GetBucketVersioning",
                "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:ListBucketMultipartUploads",
                "s3:ListBucketVersions",
                "s3:PutBucketPolicy"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:CreateRole",
                "iam:GetRole",
                "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                "iam:ListRolePolicies",
                "iam:ListRoles",
                "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                "iam:AttachRolePolicy",
                "iam:CreatePolicy",
                "iam:CreatePolicyVersion",
                "iam:DeletePolicyVersion",
                "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:PassRole"
            ],
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "iam:PassedToService": [
                        "config.amazonaws.com",
                        "ssm.amazonaws.com"
                    ]
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "cloudtrail:DescribeTrails",
                "cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus",
                "cloudtrail:LookupEvents"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "config:*",
                "tag:Get*"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ssm:DescribeDocument",
                "ssm:GetDocument",
                "ssm:DescribeAutomationExecutions",
                "ssm:GetAutomationExecution",
                "ssm:ListDocuments",
                "ssm:StartAutomationExecution"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
        
    ]
}

Supported Resource-Level Permissions for AWS Config Rule API Actions

Resource-level permissions refers to the ability to specify which resources users are allowed to perform actions on. AWS Config supports resource-level permissions for certain AWS Config rule API actions. This means that for certain AWS Config rule actions, you can control the conditions under which when users are allowed to use those actions. These conditions can be actions that must be fulfilled, or specific resources that users are allowed to use.

The following table describes the AWS Config rule API actions that currently support resource-level permissions. It also describes the supported resources and their ARNs for each action. When specifying an ARN, you can use the * wildcard in your paths; for example, when you cannot or do not want to specify exact resource IDs.

Important

If an AWS Config rule API action is not listed in this table, then it does not support resource-level permissions. If an AWS Config rule action does not support resource-level permissions, you can grant users permissions to use the action, but you have to specify a * for the resource element of your policy statement.

API Action	Resources
DeleteConfigRule	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
DeleteEvaluationResults	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
DescribeComplianceByConfigRule	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
DescribeConfigRuleEvaluationStatus	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
GetComplianceDetailsByConfigRule	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
PutConfigRule	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
StartConfigRulesEvaluation	Config Rule arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID
PutRemediationConfigurations	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id
DescribeRemediationConfigurations	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id
DeleteRemediationConfiguration	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id
PutRemediationExceptions	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id
DescribeRemediationExceptions	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id
DeleteRemediationExceptions	Remediation Configuration arn:aws:config:region:accountId:remediation-configuration/config rule name/remediation configuration id

For example, you want to allow read access and deny write access to specific rules to specific users.

In the first policy, you allow the AWS Config rule read actions such as DescribeConfigRuleEvaluationStatus on the specified rules.

{
        "Version": "2012-10-17",
        "Statement": [
            {
                "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
                "Effect": "Allow",
                "Action": [
                    "config:StartConfigRulesEvaluation",
                    "config:DescribeComplianceByConfigRule",
                    "config:DescribeConfigRuleEvaluationStatus",
                    "config:GetComplianceDetailsByConfigRule"
                ],
                "Resource": [
                    "arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID",
                    "arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID"
                ]
            }
        ]
    }

In the second policy, you deny the AWS Config rule write actions on the specific rule.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "config:PutConfigRule",
                "config:DeleteConfigRule",
                "config:DeleteEvaluationResults"
               ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:config:region:accountID:config-rule/config-rule-ID"
           }
      ]
   }

With resource-level permissions, you can allow read access and deny write access to perform specific actions on AWS Config rule API actions.

Supported Resource-Level Permissions for Multi-Account Multi-Region Data Aggregation

You can use resource-level permissions to control a user's ability to perform specific actions on multi-account multi-region data aggregation. The following AWS Config Aggregator APIs support resource level permissions:

• BatchGetAggregateResourceConfig

• DeleteConfigurationAggregator

• DescribeAggregateComplianceByConfigRules

• DescribeAggregateComplianceByConformancePacks

• DescribeConfigurationAggregatorSourcesStatus

• GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule

• GetAggregateConfigRuleComplianceSummary

• GetAggregateConformancePackComplianceSummary

• GetAggregateDiscoveredResourceCounts

• GetAggregateResourceConfig

• ListAggregateDiscoveredResources

• PutConfigurationAggregator

• SelectAggregateResourceConfig

For example, you can restrict access to resource data from specific users by creating two aggregators AccessibleAggregator and InAccessibleAggregator and attaching an IAM policy that allows access to AccessibleAggregator but denies access to InAccessibleAggregator.

IAM Policy for AccessibleAggregator

In this policy, you allow access to the supported aggregator actions for the AWS Config Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that you specify. In this example, the AWS Config ARN is arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-mocpsqhs.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ConfigAllow",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "config:BatchGetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:DeleteConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConfigRules",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConformancePacks",
                "config:DescribeConfigurationAggregatorSourcesStatus",
                "config:GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule",
                "config:GetAggregateConfigRuleComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateConformancePackComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateDiscoveredResourceCounts",
                "config:GetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:ListAggregateDiscoveredResources",
                "config:PutConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:SelectAggregateResourceConfig"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-mocpsqhs"
        }
    ]
}

IAM Policy for InAccessibleAggregator

In this policy, you deny access to the supported aggregator actions for the AWS Config ARN that you specify. In this example, the AWS Config ARN is arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-pokxzldx.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ConfigDeny",
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "config:BatchGetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:DeleteConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConfigRules",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConformancePacks",
                "config:DescribeConfigurationAggregatorSourcesStatus",
                "config:GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule",
                "config:GetAggregateConfigRuleComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateConformancePackComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateDiscoveredResourceCounts",
                "config:GetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:ListAggregateDiscoveredResources",
                "config:PutConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:SelectAggregateResourceConfig"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-pokxzldx"
        }
    ]
}

If a user of the developer group tries to perform any of these actions on the AWS Config ARN that you specified, that user will get an access denied exception.

Checking User Access Permissions

To show the aggregators that you have created, run the following AWS CLI command:

aws configservice describe-configuration-aggregators

When command has successfully completed, you will be able to see the details for all the aggregators associated with your account. In this example, those are AccessibleAggregator and InAccessibleAggregator:

{
    "ConfigurationAggregators": [
        {
            "ConfigurationAggregatorArn": "arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-mocpsqhs",
            "CreationTime": 1517942461.442,
            "ConfigurationAggregatorName": "AccessibleAggregator",
            "AccountAggregationSources": [
                {
                    "AllAwsRegions": true,
                    "AccountIds": [
                        "AccountID1",
                        "AccountID2",
                        "AccountID3"
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "LastUpdatedTime": 1517942461.455
        },
        {
            "ConfigurationAggregatorArn": "arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-pokxzldx",
            "CreationTime": 1517942461.442,
            "ConfigurationAggregatorName": "InAccessibleAggregator",
            "AccountAggregationSources": [
                {
                    "AllAwsRegions": true,
                    "AccountIds": [
                        "AccountID1",
                        "AccountID2",
                        "AccountID3"
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "LastUpdatedTime": 1517942461.455
        }
    ]
}

Note

For account-aggregation-sources enter a comma-separated list of AWS account IDs for which you want to aggregate data. Wrap the account IDs in square brackets, and be sure to escape quotation marks (for example, "[{\"AccountIds\": [\"AccountID1\",\"AccountID2\",\"AccountID3\"],\"AllAwsRegions\": true}]").

Attach the following IAM policy to deny access to InAccessibleAggregator, or the aggregator to which you want to deny access.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ConfigDeny",
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "config:BatchGetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:DeleteConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConfigRules",
                "config:DescribeAggregateComplianceByConformancePacks",
                "config:DescribeConfigurationAggregatorSourcesStatus",
                "config:GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule",
                "config:GetAggregateConfigRuleComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateConformancePackComplianceSummary",
                "config:GetAggregateDiscoveredResourceCounts",
                "config:GetAggregateResourceConfig",
                "config:ListAggregateDiscoveredResources",
                "config:PutConfigurationAggregator",
                "config:SelectAggregateResourceConfig"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:config:ap-northeast-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-pokxzldx"
        }
    ]
}

Next, you can confirm that the IAM policy works for restricting access to rules for a specific aggregator:

aws configservice get-aggregate-compliance-details-by-config-rule --configuration-aggregator-name InAccessibleAggregator --config-rule-name rule name --account-id AccountID --aws-region AwsRegion

The command should return an access denied exception:

An error occurred (AccessDeniedException) when calling the GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule operation: User: arn:aws:iam::AccountID:user/ is not 
authorized to perform: config:GetAggregateComplianceDetailsByConfigRule on resource: arn:aws:config:AwsRegion-1:AccountID:config-aggregator/config-aggregator-pokxzldx