Amazon Rekognition identity-based policy examples

By default, IAM users and roles don't have permission to create or modify Amazon Rekognition resources. They also can't perform tasks using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS API. An IAM administrator must create IAM policies that grant users and roles permission to perform specific API operations on the specified resources they need. The administrator must then attach those policies to the IAM users or groups that require those permissions.

To learn how to create an IAM identity-based policy using these example JSON policy documents, see Creating Policies on the JSON Tab in the IAM User Guide.

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies are very powerful. They determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Amazon Rekognition 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 using AWS managed policies – To start using Amazon Rekognition quickly, use AWS managed policies to give your employees the permissions they need. These policies are already available in your account and are maintained and updated by AWS. For more information, see Get started using permissions with AWS managed policies in the IAM User Guide.

• Grant least privilege – When you create custom policies, grant only the permissions required to perform a task. Start with a minimum set of permissions and grant additional permissions as necessary. Doing so is more secure than starting with permissions that are too lenient and then trying to tighten them later. For more information, see Grant least privilege in the IAM User Guide.

• Enable MFA for sensitive operations – For extra security, require IAM users to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access sensitive resources or API operations. For more information, see Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) in AWS in the IAM User Guide.

• Use policy conditions for extra security – To the extent that it's practical, define the conditions under which your identity-based policies allow access to a resource. For example, you can write conditions to specify a range of allowable IP addresses that a request must come from. You can also write conditions to allow requests only within a specified date or time range, or to require the use of SSL or MFA. For more information, see IAM JSON policy elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.

Using the Amazon Rekognition console

With the exception of the Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels feature, Amazon Rekognition doesn't require any addition permissions when using the Amazon Rekognition console. For information about Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels, see Step 5: Set Up Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels Console Permissions.

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.

AWS managed (predefined) policies for Amazon Rekognition

AWS addresses many common use cases by providing standalone IAM policies that are created and administered by AWS. These AWS managed policies grant necessary permissions for common use cases so that you can avoid having to investigate what permissions are needed. For more information, see AWS Managed Policies in the IAM User Guide.

The following AWS managed policies, which you can attach to users in your account, are specific to Amazon Rekognition:

• AmazonRekognitionFullAccess – Grants full access to Amazon Rekognition resources including creating and deleting collections.

• AmazonRekognitionReadOnlyAccess – Grants read-only access to Amazon Rekognition resources.

• AmazonRekognitionServiceRole – Allows Amazon Rekognition to call Amazon Kinesis Data Streams and Amazon SNS services on your behalf.

Note

You can review these permissions policies by signing in to the IAM console and searching for specific policies there.

These policies work when you are using AWS SDKs or the AWS CLI.

You can also create your own custom IAM policies to allow permissions for Amazon Rekognition actions and resources. You can attach these custom policies to the IAM users or groups that require those permissions.

Example Amazon Rekognition custom labels policies

You can create identity-based policies for Amazon Rekognition Custom Labels. For more information, see Security.

Example 1: Allow a user read-only access to resources

The following example grants read-only access to Amazon Rekognition resources.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "rekognition:CompareFaces",
                "rekognition:DetectFaces",
                "rekognition:DetectLabels",
                "rekognition:ListCollections",
                "rekognition:ListFaces",
                "rekognition:SearchFaces",
                "rekognition:SearchFacesByImage",
                "rekognition:DetectText", 
                "rekognition:GetCelebrityInfo",
                "rekognition:RecognizeCelebrities",
                "rekognition:DetectModerationLabels",  
                "rekognition:GetLabelDetection",
                "rekognition:GetFaceDetection",
                "rekognition:GetContentModeration",
                "rekognition:GetPersonTracking",
                "rekognition:GetCelebrityRecognition",
                "rekognition:GetFaceSearch",
                "rekognition:GetTextDetection",
                "rekognition:GetSegmentDetection",
                "rekognition:DescribeStreamProcessor",
                "rekognition:ListStreamProcessors",
                "rekognition:DescribeProjects",
                "rekognition:DescribeProjectVersions",
                "rekognition:DetectCustomLabels",
                "rekognition:DetectProtectiveEquipment",
                "rekognition:ListTagsForResource"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Example 2: Allow a user full access to resources

The following example grants full access to Amazon Rekognition resources.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "rekognition:*"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

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": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Amazon Rekognition updates to AWS managed policies

View details about updates to AWS managed policies for Amazon Rekognition since this service began tracking these changes. For automatic alerts about changes to this page, subscribe to the RSS feed on the Amazon Rekognition Document history page.

Change	Description	Date
Tagging update for AmazonRekognitionFullAccess and AmazonRekognitionReadOnlyAccess	Amazon Rekognition added new tagging actions to the AmazonRekognitionFullAccess and AmazonRekognitionReadOnlyAccess policies.	April 2, 2021
Amazon Rekognition started tracking changes	Amazon Rekognition started tracking changes for its AWS managed policies.	April 2, 2021