Using service-linked roles for Amazon KMS

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

A service-linked role makes setting up Amazon KMS easier because you don’t have to manually add the necessary permissions. Amazon KMS defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only Amazon KMS 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 the related resources. This protects your Amazon KMS resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see Amazon 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.

To view details about updates to the service-linked roles discussed in this topic, see Amazon KMS updates to Amazon managed policies.