Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Amazon Systems Manager identity-based policy examples

By default, Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) entities (users and roles) don't have permission to create or modify Amazon Systems Manager resources. They also can't perform tasks using the Systems Manager console, Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI), or Amazon API. An 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 users or groups that require those permissions.

The following is an example of a permissions policy that allows a user to delete documents with names that begin with MyDocument- in the (us-west-2) Amazon Web Services Region.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement" : [
    {
      "Effect" : "Allow",
      "Action" : [
        "ssm:DeleteDocument"
      ],
      "Resource" : [
        "arn:aws-cn:ssm:us-west-2:111122223333:document/MyDocument-*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

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

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Systems Manager resources in your account. These actions can incur costs for your Amazon Web Services account. When you create or edit identity-based policies, follow these guidelines and recommendations:

For more information about best practices in IAM, see Security best practices in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

Using the Systems Manager console

To access the Systems Manager console, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the Systems Manager resources and other resources in your Amazon Web Services account.

To fully use Systems Manager in the Systems Manager console, you must have permissions from the following services:

You can grant the required permissions with the following policy statement.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ssm:*",
                "ec2:describeInstances",
                "iam:ListRoles"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:PassRole",
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "iam:PassedToService": "ssm.amazonaws.com.cn"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

If you create an identity-based policy that is more restrictive than the minimum required permissions, the console won't function as intended for IAM entities (users or roles) with that policy.

You don't need to allow minimum console permissions for users that are making calls only to the Amazon CLI or the Amazon API. Instead, allow access to only the actions that match the API operation that you're trying to perform.

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 Amazon CLI or Amazon API.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ViewOwnUserInfo",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                "iam:ListGroupsForUser",
                "iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies",
                "iam:ListUserPolicies",
                "iam:GetUser"
            ],
            "Resource": ["arn:aws-cn: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": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Customer managed policy examples

You can create standalone policies that you administer in your own Amazon Web Services account. We refer to these as customer managed policies. You can attach these policies to multiple principal entities in your Amazon Web Services account. When you attach a policy to a principal entity, you give the entity the permissions that are defined in the policy. For more information, see Customer managed policy examples in the IAM User Guide.

The following examples of user policies grant permissions for various Systems Manager actions. Use them to limit the Systems Manager access for your IAM entities (users and roles). These policies work when performing actions in the Systems Manager API, Amazon SDKs, or the Amazon CLI. For users who use the console, you need to grant additional permissions specific to the console. For more information, see Using the Systems Manager console.

Examples

Example 1: Allow a user to perform Systems Manager operations in a single Region

The following example grants permissions to perform Systems Manager operations only in the Region (us-west-2).

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement" : [
    {
      "Effect" : "Allow",
      "Action" : [
        "ssm:*"
      ],
      "Resource" : [
        "arn:aws-cn:ssm:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Example 2: Allow a user to list documents for a single Region

The following example grants permissions to list all document names that begin with Update in the Region (us-west-2).

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement" : [
    {
      "Effect" : "Allow",
      "Action" : [
        "ssm:ListDocuments"
      ],
      "Resource" : [
        "arn:aws-cn:ssm:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:document/Update*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Example 3: Allow a user to use a specific SSM document to run commands on specific nodes

The following example IAM policy allows a user to do the following in the Region (us-west-2):

If you want to give a user permission to use this document to send commands on any node for which the user has access, you could specify an entry similar to the following in the Resource section and remove the other node entries. The following example uses the Region (us-west-2).

"arn:aws-cn:ec2:us-west-2:*:instance/*"

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Action": [
                "ssm:ListDocuments",
                "ssm:ListDocumentVersions",
                "ssm:DescribeDocument",
                "ssm:GetDocument",
                "ssm:DescribeInstanceInformation",
                "ssm:DescribeDocumentParameters",
                "ssm:DescribeInstanceProperties"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Action": "ssm:SendCommand",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws-cn:ec2:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:instance/i-02573cafcfEXAMPLE",
                "arn:aws-cn:ec2:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:instance/i-0471e04240EXAMPLE",
                "arn:aws-cn:ec2:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:instance/i-07782c72faEXAMPLE",
                
                "arn:aws-cn:ssm:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:document/Systems-Manager-document-name"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Action": [
                "ssm:CancelCommand",
                "ssm:ListCommands",
                "ssm:ListCommandInvocations"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Action": "ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Action": "ssm:StartAutomationExecution",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws-cn:ssm:us-west-2:aws-account-ID:automation-definition/*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Action": "ssm:DescribeAutomationExecutions",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Action": [
                "ssm:StopAutomationExecution",
                "ssm:GetAutomationExecution"
            ],
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Viewing Systems Manager documents based on tags

You can use conditions in your identity-based policy to control access to Systems Manager resources based on tags. This example shows how you might create a policy that allows viewing an SSM document. However, permission is granted only if the document tag Owner has the value of that user's user name. This policy also grants the permissions necessary to complete this action on the console.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ListDocumentsInConsole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ssm:ListDocuments",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Sid": "ViewDocumentIfOwner",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ssm:GetDocument",
            "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ssm:*:*:document/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {"ssm:ResourceTag/Owner": "${aws:username}"}
            }
        }
    ]
}

You can attach this policy to the users in your account. If a user named richard-roe attempts to view an Systems Manager document, the document must be tagged Owner=richard-roe or owner=richard-roe. Otherwise they're denied access. The condition tag key Owner matches both Owner and owner because condition key names aren't case-sensitive. For more information, see IAM JSON policy elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.