AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess

Summary

Provides read-only access to Amazon DocumentDB with MongoDB compatibility. The reference page notes that this policy also grants access to Amazon RDS and Amazon Neptune resources. The Amazon DocumentDB Developer Guide says principals with it cannot make updates, delete existing resources or create new DocumentDB resources.

Permissions imported from the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide; other sections reviewed against the listed AWS sources.

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccessCopy ARN

Default version

v1

Created

2019-01-09

Last edited

2019-01-09

Services

cloudwatch, ec2, kms, logs, rds

Control-plane actions (33)

By access level: 30 List, 3 Read.

Data-plane actions (2)

By access level: 1 List, 1 Read.

Excluded and conditional actions

No patterns are excluded by NotAction or Deny statements.

Resource scope and attachment

Resource scope across granted actions: mixed.

Can be attached: Yes, to users, groups and roles.

Why this tier

• Grants only List and Read actions.

Guidance

Related policies

Same service

• AdministratorAccess-AWSElasticBeanstalk
• AgentRegistryFullAccess
• AIDevOpsReleaseManagementVPCPolicy
• AmazonAppFlowFullAccess
• AmazonAppStreamServiceAccess
• AmazonAuroraDSQLConsoleFullAccess
• AmazonAuroraDSQLFullAccess
• AmazonBioDiscoveryServiceLinkedRolePolicy

Same domain

• AmazonAuroraDSQLReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonDocDBConsoleFullAccess
• AmazonDocDBElasticFullAccess
• AmazonDocDBElasticReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonDocDBFullAccess
• AmazonDynamoDBReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonElastiCacheFullAccess
• AmazonElastiCacheReadOnlyAccess

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess?

The Amazon DocumentDB Developer Guide says it allows users to view information in Amazon DocumentDB. Attach it where viewing clusters and configurations, without changing them, is the intended scope.

What does AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess grant?

On all resources it allows rds Describe actions, rds:DownloadDBLogFilePortion and rds:ListTagsForResource, two CloudWatch metric read actions, seven EC2 Describe actions and four KMS list actions. It allows logs:DescribeLogStreams and logs:GetLogEvents only on log streams under /aws/rds/ and /aws/docdb/.

What are the security risks of AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess?

The policy grants no write actions, but the reference description says it also grants access to Amazon RDS and Amazon Neptune resources, and it allows reading database log content. An AWS update to the policy affects every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Action": [
        "rds:DescribeAccountAttributes",
        "rds:DescribeCertificates",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterParameterGroups",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterParameters",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterSnapshotAttributes",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterSnapshots",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
        "rds:DescribeDBEngineVersions",
        "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
        "rds:DescribeDBLogFiles",
        "rds:DescribeDBParameterGroups",
        "rds:DescribeDBParameters",
        "rds:DescribeDBSubnetGroups",
        "rds:DescribeEventCategories",
        "rds:DescribeEventSubscriptions",
        "rds:DescribeEvents",
        "rds:DescribeOrderableDBInstanceOptions",
        "rds:DescribePendingMaintenanceActions",
        "rds:DownloadDBLogFilePortion",
        "rds:ListTagsForResource"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeAccountAttributes",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeInternetGateways",
        "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcAttribute",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Action": [
        "kms:ListKeys",
        "kms:ListRetirableGrants",
        "kms:ListAliases",
        "kms:ListKeyPolicies"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Action": [
        "logs:DescribeLogStreams",
        "logs:GetLogEvents"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/rds/*:log-stream:*",
        "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/docdb/*:log-stream:*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2019-01-09. Version history is recorded from 2026-11-11. Earlier versions are in the IAM console under Policy versions.

Attach snippets

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name ROLE_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess

Resources:
  ExampleRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument: {}  # replace with your trust policy
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "amazondocdbreadonlyaccess" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.example.name
  policy_arn = "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess"
}

role.addManagedPolicy(
  iam.ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName("AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess"),
);

Sources

• AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for Amazon DocumentDB (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, useCases, faqs)
• Managed policies and inline policies (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports securityConsiderations, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for job functions (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports bestPractices)

• Official AWS reference for AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess
• AWS service guide
• Report a data issue