Identity and Access Management for Amazon OpenSearch Serverless - Amazon OpenSearch Service
Identity-based policiesPolicy actionsPolicy resourcesPolicy condition keysABACTemporary credentialsService-linked rolesIdentity-based policy examples

Identity and Access Management for Amazon OpenSearch Serverless

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an AWS service that helps an administrator securely control access to AWS resources. IAM administrators control who can be authenticated (signed in) and authorized (have permissions) to use OpenSearch Serverless resources. IAM is an AWS service that you can use with no additional charge.

Identity-based policies for OpenSearch Serverless

Supports identity-based policies: Yes

Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you can attach to an identity, such as an IAM user, group of users, or role. These policies control what actions users and roles can perform, on which resources, and under what conditions. To learn how to create an identity-based policy, see Creating IAM policies in the IAM User Guide.

With IAM identity-based policies, you can specify allowed or denied actions and resources as well as the conditions under which actions are allowed or denied. You can't specify the principal in an identity-based policy because it applies to the user or role to which it is attached. To learn about all of the elements that you can use in a JSON policy, see IAM JSON policy elements reference in the IAM User Guide.

Identity-based policy examples for OpenSearch Serverless

To view examples of OpenSearch Serverless identity-based policies, see Identity-based policy examples for OpenSearch Serverless.

Policy actions for OpenSearch Serverless

Supports policy actions: Yes

The Action element of a JSON policy describes the actions that you can use to allow or deny access in a policy. Policy actions usually have the same name as the associated AWS API operation. There are some exceptions, such as permission-only actions that don't have a matching API operation. There are also some operations that require multiple actions in a policy. These additional actions are called dependent actions.

Include actions in a policy to grant permissions to perform the associated operation.

Policy actions in OpenSearch Serverless use the following prefix before the action:

aoss

To specify multiple actions in a single statement, separate them with commas.

"Action": [
      "aoss:action1",
      "aoss:action2"
         ]

You can specify multiple actions using wildcard characters (*). For example, to specify all actions that begin with the word Describe, include the following action:

"Action": "aoss:List*"

To view examples of OpenSearch Serverless identity-based policies, see Identity-based policy examples for OpenSearch Serverless.

Policy resources for OpenSearch Serverless

Supports policy resources: Yes

Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which principal can perform actions on what resources, and under what conditions.

The Resource JSON policy element specifies the object or objects to which the action applies. Statements must include either a Resource or a NotResource element. As a best practice, specify a resource using its Amazon Resource Name (ARN). You can do this for actions that support a specific resource type, known as resource-level permissions.

For actions that don't support resource-level permissions, such as listing operations, use a wildcard (*) to indicate that the statement applies to all resources.

"Resource": "*"

Policy condition keys for Amazon OpenSearch Serverless

Supports service-specific policy condition keys: Yes

Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which principal can perform actions on what resources, and under what conditions.

The Condition element (or Condition block) lets you specify conditions in which a statement is in effect. The Condition element is optional. You can create conditional expressions that use condition operators, such as equals or less than, to match the condition in the policy with values in the request.

If you specify multiple Condition elements in a statement, or multiple keys in a single Condition element, AWS evaluates them using a logical AND operation. If you specify multiple values for a single condition key, AWS evaluates the condition using a logical OR operation. All of the conditions must be met before the statement's permissions are granted.

You can also use placeholder variables when you specify conditions. For example, you can grant an IAM user permission to access a resource only if it is tagged with their IAM user name. For more information, see IAM policy elements: variables and tags in the IAM User Guide.

AWS supports global condition keys and service-specific condition keys. To see all AWS global condition keys, see AWS global condition context keys in the IAM User Guide.

In addition to attribute-based access control (ABAC), OpenSearch Serverless supports the following condition keys:

  • aoss:collection

  • aoss:CollectionId

  • aoss:index

You can use these condition keys even when providing permissions for access policies and security policies. For example:

[
   {
      "Effect":"Allow",
      "Action":[
         "aoss:CreateAccessPolicy",
         "aoss:CreateSecurityPolicy"
      ],
      "Resource":"*",
      "Condition":{
         "StringLike":{
            "aoss:collection":"log"
         }
      }
   }
]

In this example, the condition applies to policies that contain rules that match a collection name or pattern. The conditions have the following behavior:

  • StringEquals - Applies to policies with rules that contain the exact resource string "log" (i.e. collection/log).

  • StringLike - Applies to policies with rules that contain a resource string that includes the string "log" (i.e. collection/log but also collection/logs-application or collection/applogs123).

Note

Collection condition keys don't apply at the index level. For example, in the policy above, the condition wouldn't apply to an access or security policy containing the resource string index/logs-application/*.

To see a list of OpenSearch Serverless condition keys, see Condition keys for Amazon OpenSearch Serverless in the Service Authorization Reference. To learn with which actions and resources you can use a condition key, see Actions defined by Amazon OpenSearch Serverless.

ABAC with OpenSearch Serverless

Supports ABAC (tags in policies): Yes

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is an authorization strategy that defines permissions based on attributes. In AWS, these attributes are called tags. You can attach tags to IAM entities (users or roles) and to many AWS resources. Tagging entities and resources is the first step of ABAC. Then you design ABAC policies to allow operations when the principal's tag matches the tag on the resource that they are trying to access.

ABAC is helpful in environments that are growing rapidly and helps with situations where policy management becomes cumbersome.

To control access based on tags, you provide tag information in the condition element of a policy using the aws:ResourceTag/key-name, aws:RequestTag/key-name, or aws:TagKeys condition keys.

If a service supports all three condition keys for every resource type, then the value is Yes for the service. If a service supports all three condition keys for only some resource types, then the value is Partial.

For more information about ABAC, see What is ABAC? in the IAM User Guide. To view a tutorial with steps for setting up ABAC, see Use attribute-based access control (ABAC) in the IAM User Guide.

For more information about tagging OpenSearch Serverless resources, see Tagging Amazon OpenSearch Serverless collections.

Using temporary credentials with OpenSearch Serverless

Supports temporary credentials: Yes

Some AWS services don't work when you sign in using temporary credentials. For additional information, including which AWS services work with temporary credentials, see AWS services that work with IAM in the IAM User Guide.

You are using temporary credentials if you sign in to the AWS Management Console using any method except a user name and password. For example, when you access AWS using your company's single sign-on (SSO) link, that process automatically creates temporary credentials. You also automatically create temporary credentials when you sign in to the console as a user and then switch roles. For more information about switching roles, see Switching to a role (console) in the IAM User Guide.

You can manually create temporary credentials using the AWS CLI or AWS API. You can then use those temporary credentials to access AWS. AWS recommends that you dynamically generate temporary credentials instead of using long-term access keys. For more information, see Temporary security credentials in IAM.

Service-linked roles for OpenSearch Serverless

Supports service-linked roles: Yes

A service-linked role is a type of service role that is linked to an AWS service. The service can assume the role to perform an action on your behalf. Service-linked roles appear in your AWS account and are owned by the service. An IAM administrator can view, but not edit the permissions for service-linked roles.

For details about creating and managing OpenSearch Serverless service-linked roles, see Using service-linked roles to create OpenSearch Serverless collections.

Identity-based policy examples for OpenSearch Serverless

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

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies are very powerful. They determine whether someone can create, access, or delete OpenSearch Serverless 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:

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete OpenSearch Serverless 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.

Using OpenSearch Serverless in the console

To access OpenSearch Serverless within the OpenSearch Service console, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the OpenSearch Serverless 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 (such as IAM 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 you're trying to perform.

The following policy allows a user to access OpenSearch Serverless within the OpenSearch Service console:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Resource": "*",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "aoss:ListCollections",
                "aoss:BatchGetCollection",
                "aoss:ListAccessPolicies",
                "aoss:ListSecurityConfigs",
                "aoss:ListSecurityPolicies",
                "aoss:ListTagsForResource",
                "aoss:ListVpcEndpoints",
                "aoss:GetAccessPolicy",
                "aoss:GetAccountSettings",
                "aoss:GetSecurityConfig",
                "aoss:GetSecurityPolicy"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Administering OpenSearch Serverless collections

This policy is an example of a "collection admin" policy that allows a user to manage and administer Amazon OpenSearch Serverless collections. The user can create, view, and delete collections.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Resource": "arn:aws:aoss:region:123456789012:collection/*",
            "Action": [
                "aoss:CreateCollection",
                "aoss:DeleteCollection",
                "aoss:UpdateCollection"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow"
        },
        {
            "Resource": "*",
            "Action": [
                "aoss:BatchGetCollection",
                "aoss:ListCollections",
                "aoss:CreateAccessPolicy",
                "aoss:CreateSecurityPolicy"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow"
        }
    ]
}

Viewing OpenSearch Serverless collections

This example policy allows a user to view details for all Amazon OpenSearch Serverless collections in their account. The user can't modify the collections or any associated security policies.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Resource": "*",
            "Action": [
                "aoss:ListAccessPolicies",
                "aoss:ListCollections",
                "aoss:ListSecurityPolicies",
                "aoss:ListTagsForResource",
                "aoss:BatchGetCollection"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow"
        }
    ]
}

Using OpenSearch API operations

Data plane API operations consist of the functions you use in OpenSearch Serverless to derive realtime value from the service. Control plane API operations consist of the functions you use to set up the environment.

To access Amazon OpenSearch Serverless data plane APIs and OpenSearch Dashboards from the browser, you need to add two IAM permissions for collection resources. These permissions are aoss:APIAccessAll and aoss:DashboardsAccessAll.

Note

Starting May 10, 2023, OpenSearch Serverless requires these two new IAM permissions for collection resources. The aoss:APIAccessAll permission allows data plane access, and the aoss:DashboardsAccessAll permission allows OpenSearch Dashboards from the browser. Failure to add the two new IAM permissions results in a 403 error.

This example policy allows a user to access data plane APIs for a specified collection in their account, and to access OpenSearch Dashboards for all collections in their account.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
         {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "aoss:APIAccessAll",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:aoss:region:account-id:collection/collection-id"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "aoss:DashboardsAccessAll",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:aoss:region:account-id:dashboards/default"
        }
    ]
}

Both aoss:APIAccessAll and aoss:DashboardsAccessAll give full IAM permission to the collection resources, while the Dashboards permission also provides OpenSearch Dashboards access. Each permission works independently, so an explicit deny on aoss:APIAccessAll doesn't block aoss:DashboardsAccessAll access to the resources, including Dev Tools. The same is true for a deny on aoss:DashboardsAccessAll.

OpenSearch Serverless only supports the source IP address in the condition setting in the principal's IAM policy for data plane calls:

"Condition": {
    "IpAddress": {
         "aws:SourceIp": "52.95.4.14"
    }
}