Getting information about your organization's policies - AWS Organizations
Listing all policiesListing attached policiesListing all attachmentsGetting details about a policy

Getting information about your organization's policies

This section describes various ways to get details about the policies in your organization. These procedures apply to all policy types. You must enable a policy type on the organization root before you can attach policies of that type to any entities in that organization root.

Listing all policies

Minimum permissions

To list the policies within your organization, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListPolicies

You can view the policies in your organization in the AWS Management Console or by using an AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) command or an AWS SDK operation.

AWS Management Console

To list all of the policies in your organization

  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type that you want to list.

    If the specified policy type is enabled, the console displays a list of all of the policies of that type that are currently available in the organization.

  3. Return to the Policies page and repeat for each policy type.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To list all of the policies in your organization

You can use one of the following commands to list policies in an organization:

  • AWS CLI: list-policies

    The following example shows how to get a list of all of the service control policies in your organization. You must specify the type of policy you want see. Repeat the command for each policy type you want to include. 

    $ aws organizations list-policies \
    --filter SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY
{
    "Policies": [
        {
            "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Name": "FullAWSAccess",
            "Description": "Allows access to every operation",
            "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY",
            "AwsManaged": true
        }
    ]
}

  • AWS SDKs: ListPolicies

Listing the policies attached to a root, OU, or account

Minimum permissions

To list the policies that are attached to a root, organizational unit (OU), or account within your organization, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the specified target (or "*")

AWS Management Console

To list all policies that are attached directly to a specified root, OU, or account

  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the AWS accounts page, choose the name of the root, OU, or account whose policies you want to view. You might have to expand OUs (choose the ) to find the OU that you want.

  3. On the Root, OU, or account page, choose the Policies tab.

    The Policies tab displays all of the policies attached to that root, OU, or account, grouped by policy type.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To list all policies that are attached directly to a specified root, OU, or account

You can use one of the following commands to list policies that are attached to an entity:

  • AWS CLI: list-policies-for-target

    The following example lists all of the service control policies attached to the specified OU. You must specify both the ID of the root, OU, or account, and the type of policy that you want to list. 

    $ aws organizations list-policies-for-target \
    --target-id ou-a1b2-f6g7h222 \
    --filter SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY
{
    "Policies": [
        {
            "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Name": "FullAWSAccess",
            "Description": "Allows access to every operation",
            "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY",
            "AwsManaged": true
        }
    ]
}

  • AWS SDKs: ListPoliciesForTarget

Listing all roots, OUs, and accounts that a policy is attached to

Minimum permissions

To list the entities that a policy is attached to, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the ARN of the specified policy (or "*")

AWS Management Console

To list all roots, OUs, and accounts that have a specified policy attached

  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type, and then choose the name of the policy whose attachments you want to examine.

  3. Choose the Targets tab, to display a table of every root, OU, and account that the chosen policy is attached to.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To list all roots, OUs, and accounts that have a specified policy attached

You can use one of the following commands to list entities that have a policy:

  • AWS CLI: list-targets-for-policy

    The following example shows all of the attachments to root, OUs, and accounts for the specified policy. 

    $ aws organizations list-targets-for-policy \
    --policy-id p-FullAWSAccess
{
    "Targets": [
        {
            "TargetId": "ou-a1b2-f6g7h111",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:ou/o-aa111bb222/ou-a1b2-f6g7h111",
            "Name": "testou2",
            "Type": "ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT"
        },
        {
            "TargetId": "ou-a1b2-f6g7h222",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:ou/o-aa111bb222/ou-a1b2-f6g7h222",
            "Name": "testou1",
            "Type": "ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT"
        },
        {
            "TargetId": "123456789012",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:account/o-aa111bb222/123456789012",
            "Name": "My Management Account (bisdavid)",
            "Type": "ACCOUNT"
        },
        {
            "TargetId": "r-a1b2",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:root/o-aa111bb222/r-a1b2",
            "Name": "Root",
            "Type": "ROOT"
        }
    ]
}

  • AWS SDKs: ListTargetsForPolicy

Getting details about a policy

Minimum permissions

To display the details of a policy, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:DescribePolicy with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the ARN of the specified policy (or "*")

AWS Management Console

To get details about a policy

  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type of the policy that you want to examine, and then choose the name of the policy.

    The policy page displays the available information about the policy, including its ARN, description, and attached targets.

    • The Content tab shows the current contents of the policy in JSON format.

    • The Targets tab shows a list of the roots, OUs, and accounts to which the policy is attached.

    • The Tags tab shows the tags attached to the policy. Note: the Tags tab is not available for AWS managed policies.

    To edit the policy, choose Edit policy. Because each policy type has different editing requirements, see the instructions for creating and updating policies of your specified policy type.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs

To get details about a policy

You can use one of the following commands to get details about a policy:

  • AWS CLI: describe-policy

    The following example displays the details for the specified policy. 

    $ aws organizations describe-policy \
    --policy-id p-FullAWSAccess
{
    "Policy": {
        "PolicySummary": {
            "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess",
            "Name": "FullAWSAccess",
            "Description": "Allows access to every operation",
            "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY",
            "AwsManaged": true
        },
        "Content": "{\n  \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n  \"Statement\": [\n    {\n      \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n      \"Action\": \"*\",\n      \"Resource\": \"*\"\n    }\n  ]\n}"
    }
}

  • AWS SDKs: DescribePolicy