Policy best practices Use the Amazon VPC console Create a VPC with a public subnet Modify and delete VPC resources Manage security groups Manage security group rules Launch instances into a specific subnet Launch instances into a specific VPC Block public access to VPCs and subnets Additional Amazon VPC policy examples

Amazon VPC policy examples

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

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
Use the Amazon VPC console
Create a VPC with a public subnet
Modify and delete VPC resources
Manage security groups
Manage security group rules
Launch instances into a specific subnet
Launch instances into a specific VPC
Block public access to VPCs and subnets
Additional Amazon VPC policy examples

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Amazon VPC 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:

Get started with Amazon managed policies and move toward least-privilege permissions – To get started granting permissions to your users and workloads, use the Amazon managed policies that grant permissions for many common use cases. They are available in your Amazon Web Services account. We recommend that you reduce permissions further by defining Amazon customer managed policies that are specific to your use cases. For more information, see Amazon managed policies or Amazon 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 Amazon Web Services service, such as Amazon 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 Validate policies with IAM Access Analyzer 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 Amazon Web Services 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 Secure API access with MFA in the IAM User Guide.

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

Use the Amazon VPC console

To access the Amazon VPC console, you must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions must allow you to list and view details about the Amazon VPC resources in your Amazon 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 (IAM roles) with that policy.

The following policy grants a role permission to list resources in the VPC console, but not to create, update, or delete them.


{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:DescribeAccountAttributes",
                "ec2:DescribeAddresses",
                "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
                "ec2:DescribeClassicLinkInstances",
                "ec2:DescribeClientVpnEndpoints",
                "ec2:DescribeCustomerGateways",
                "ec2:DescribeDhcpOptions",
                "ec2:DescribeEgressOnlyInternetGateways",
                "ec2:DescribeFlowLogs",
                "ec2:DescribeInternetGateways",
                "ec2:DescribeManagedPrefixLists",
                "ec2:DescribeMovingAddresses",
                "ec2:DescribeNatGateways",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkAcls",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaceAttribute",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfacePermissions",
                "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
                "ec2:DescribePrefixLists",
                "ec2:DescribeRouteTables",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroupReferences",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroupRules",
                "ec2:DescribeStaleSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeTags",
                "ec2:DescribeTrafficMirrorFilters",
                "ec2:DescribeTrafficMirrorSessions",
                "ec2:DescribeTrafficMirrorTargets",
                "ec2:DescribeTransitGateways",
                "ec2:DescribeTransitGatewayVpcAttachments",
                "ec2:DescribeTransitGatewayRouteTables",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcAttribute",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcClassicLink",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcClassicLinkDnsSupport",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpoints",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpointConnectionNotifications",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpointConnections",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpointServiceConfigurations",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpointServicePermissions",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcEndpointServices",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcPeeringConnections",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:DescribeVpnConnections",
                "ec2:DescribeVpnGateways",
                "ec2:GetManagedPrefixListAssociations",
                "ec2:GetManagedPrefixListEntries"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

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

Create a VPC with a public subnet

The following example enables roles to create VPCs, subnets, route tables, and internet gateways. Roles can also attach an internet gateway to a VPC and create routes in route tables. The ec2:ModifyVpcAttribute action enables roles to enable DNS hostnames for the VPC, so that each instance launched into a VPC receives a DNS hostname.


{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [{
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:CreateVpc", 
        "ec2:CreateSubnet", 
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:CreateRouteTable", 
        "ec2:CreateRoute", 
        "ec2:CreateInternetGateway", 
        "ec2:AttachInternetGateway", 
        "ec2:AssociateRouteTable", 
        "ec2:ModifyVpcAttribute"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
   ]
}

The preceding policy also enables roles to create a VPC in the Amazon VPC console.

Modify and delete VPC resources

You might want to control the VPC resources that roles can modify or delete. For example, the following policy allows roles to work with and delete route tables that have the tag Purpose=Test. The policy also specifies that roles can only delete internet gateways that have the tag Purpose=Test. Roles cannot work with route tables or internet gateways that do not have this tag.


{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ec2:DeleteInternetGateway",
            "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:*:*:internet-gateway/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "ec2:ResourceTag/Purpose": "Test"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:DeleteRouteTable",
                "ec2:CreateRoute",
                "ec2:ReplaceRoute",
                "ec2:DeleteRoute"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:*:*:route-table/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "ec2:ResourceTag/Purpose": "Test"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Manage security groups

The following policy allows roles to manage security groups. The first statement allows roles to delete any security group with the tag Stack=test and to manage the inbound and outbound rules for any security group with the tag Stack=test. The second statement requires roles to tag any security groups that they create with the tag Stack=Test. The third statement allows roles to create tags when creating a security group. The fourth statement allows roles to view any security group and security group rule. The fifth statement allows roles to create a security group in a VPC.

Note

This policy cannot be used by the Amazon CloudFormation service to create a security group with required tags. If you remove the condition on the ec2:CreateSecurityGroup action that requires the tag, the policy will work.


{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsEgress",
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
                "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:ModifySecurityGroupRules",
                "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsIngress"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "ec2:ResourceTag/Stack": "test"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "aws:RequestTag/Stack": "test"
                },
                "ForAnyValue:StringEquals": {
                    "aws:TagKeys": "Stack"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ec2:CreateTags",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "ec2:CreateAction": "CreateSecurityGroup"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroupRules",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:vpc/*"
        }
    ]
}

To allow roles to change the security group that's associated with an instance, add the ec2:ModifyInstanceAttribute action to your policy.

To allow roles to change security groups for a network interface, add the ec2:ModifyNetworkInterfaceAttribute action to your policy.

Manage security group rules

The following policy grants roles permission to view all security groups and security group rules, add and remove inbound and outbound rules for the security groups for a specific VPC, and modify rule descriptions for the specified VPC. The first statement uses the ec2:Vpc condition key to scope permissions to a specific VPC.

The second statement grants roles permission to describe all security groups, security group rules, and tags. This enables roles to view security group rules in order to modify them.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[{
    "Effect":"Allow",
    "Action": [
       "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
       "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
       "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsIngress",
       "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
       "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
       "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsEgress",
       "ec2:ModifySecurityGroupRules"
    ],
     "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account-id:security-group/*",
      "Condition": {
        "ArnEquals": {
          "ec2:Vpc": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account-id:vpc/vpc-id"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
          "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
          "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroupRules",
          "ec2:DescribeTags"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
          "ec2:ModifySecurityGroupRules"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:region:account-id:security-group-rule/*"
    }
  ]
}

Launch instances into a specific subnet

The following policy grants roles permission to launch instances into a specific subnet and to use a specific security group in the request. The policy does this by specifying the ARN for the subnet and the ARN for the security group. If roles attempt to launch an instance into a different subnet or using a different security group, the request will fail (unless another policy or statement grants roles permission to do so).

The policy also grants permission to use the network interface resource. When launching into a subnet, the RunInstances request creates a primary network interface by default, so the role needs permission to create this resource when launching the instance.


{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [{
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region::image/ami-*",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:instance/*",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:subnet/subnet-id",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:network-interface/*",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:volume/*",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:key-pair/*",
        "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:security-group/sg-id"
      ]
    }
   ]
}

Launch instances into a specific VPC

The following policy grants roles permission to launch instances into any subnet within a specific VPC. The policy does this by applying a condition key (ec2:Vpc) to the subnet resource.

The policy also grants roles permission to launch instances using only AMIs that have the tag "department=dev".


{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
   "Statement": [{
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
      "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account-id:subnet/*",
        "Condition": {
         "ArnEquals": {
            "ec2:Vpc": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account-id:vpc/vpc-id"
         }
      }
   },
   {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
      "Resource": "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region::image/ami-*",
      "Condition": {
         "StringEquals": {
            "ec2:ResourceTag/department": "dev"
            }
      }
   },
   {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ec2:RunInstances",
      "Resource": [ 
         "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:instance/*",
         "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:volume/*",
         "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:network-interface/*",
         "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:key-pair/*",
         "arn:aws-cn:ec2:region:account:security-group/*"
         ]
      }
   ]
}

Block public access to VPCs and subnets

The following policy examples grant roles permission to work with the VPC Block Public Access (BPA) feature to block public access to resources in VPCs and subnets.

Example 1 - Allow read-only access to VPC BPA account-wide settings and VPC BPA exclusions.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "VPCBPAReadOnlyAccess",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeVpcBlockPublicAccessOptions",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusions"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Example 2 - Allow full read and write access to VPC BPA account-wide settings and VPC BPA exclusions.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "VPCBPAFullAccess",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeVpcBlockPublicAccessOptions",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusions",
        "ec2:ModifyVpcBlockPublicAccessOptions",
        "ec2:CreateVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusion",
        "ec2:ModifyVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusion",
        "ec2:DeleteVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusion"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Example 3 - Allow access to all EC2 APIs except modifying VPC BPA settings and creating exclusions.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "EC2FullAccess"
      "Action": [
        "ec2:*",
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "VPCBPAPartialAccess",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:ModifyVpcBlockPublicAccessOptions",
        "ec2:CreateVpcBlockPublicAccessExclusion"
      ],
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Additional Amazon VPC policy examples

You can find additional example IAM policies related to Amazon VPC in the following documentation:

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