Using service-linked roles for Detective

Amazon Detective uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service-linked roles. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to Detective. Service-linked roles are predefined by Detective and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other AWS services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up Detective easier because you do not have to manually add the necessary permissions. Detective defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only Detective can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, and that permissions policy cannot be attached to any other IAM entity.

You can delete a service-linked role only after first deleting their related resources. This protects your Detective resources because you cannot inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see AWS services that work with IAM and look for the services that have Yes in the Service-Linked Role column. Choose a Yes with a link to view the service-linked role documentation for that service.

Service-linked role permissions for Detective

Detective uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForDetective – Allows Detective to access AWS Organizations information on your behalf.

The AWSServiceRoleForDetective service-linked role trusts the following services to assume the role:

• detective.amazonaws.com

The AWSServiceRoleForDetective service-linked role uses the managed policy AmazonDetectiveServiceLinkedRolePolicy.

You must configure permissions to allow an IAM entity (such as a user, group, or role) to create, edit, or delete a service-linked role. For more information, see Service-linked role permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Creating a service-linked role for Detective

You do not need to manually create a service-linked role. When you designate the Detective administrator account for an organization in the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API, Detective creates the service-linked role for you.

If you delete this service-linked role, and then need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account. When you designate the Detective administrator account for an organization, Detective creates the service-linked role for you again.

Editing a service-linked role for Detective

Detective does not allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForDetective service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you cannot change the name of the role because various entities might reference the role. However, you can edit the description of the role using IAM. For more information, see Editing a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Deleting a service-linked role for Detective

If you no longer need to use a feature or service that requires a service-linked role, we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don’t have an unused entity that is not actively monitored or maintained. However, you must clean up the resources for your service-linked role before you can manually delete it.

Note

If the Detective service is using the role when you try to delete the resources, then the deletion might fail. If that happens, wait for a few minutes and then try the operation again.

To delete Detective resources used by the AWSServiceRoleForDetective

1. Remove the Detective administrator account. See Designating the Detective administrator account for an organization.

2. Repeat the process in each Region where you designated the Detective administrator account.

To manually delete the service-linked role using IAM

Use the IAM console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API to delete the AWSServiceRoleForDetective service-linked role. For more information, see Deleting a Service-Linked Role in the IAM User Guide.

Supported Regions for Detective service-linked roles

Detective supports using service-linked roles in all of the Regions where the service is available. For more information, see AWS Regions and Endpoints.