AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy

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Summary

Provides read-only access to scan all supported resource types for relevant data when using DescribeImageReferences.

Permissions imported from the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide; other sections pending editorial review.

Identity

ARN: arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy
Default version: v3
Created: 2025-08-26
Last edited: 2026-02-12
Services: ec2, imagebuilder, ssm

Control-plane actions (9)

By access level: 7 List, 2 Read.

Control-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
EC2	4 of 834	4 List; 3 restricted, 3 conditional	ec2:DescribeImageReferences, ec2:DescribeInstances, ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplateVersions, ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplates
EC2 Image Builder	3 of 77	2 List, 1 Read; 3 restricted, 3 conditional	imagebuilder:GetContainerRecipe, imagebuilder:ListContainerRecipes, imagebuilder:ListImageRecipes
Systems Manager	2 of 164	1 List, 1 Read; 2 restricted, 2 conditional	ssm:DescribeParameters, ssm:GetParameters

EC2: 4 actions

ec2:DescribeImageReferences (List)
ec2:DescribeInstances (List)
ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplateVersions (List)
ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplates (List)

EC2 Image Builder: 3 actions

imagebuilder:GetContainerRecipe (Read)
imagebuilder:ListContainerRecipes (List)
imagebuilder:ListImageRecipes (List)

Systems Manager: 2 actions

ssm:DescribeParameters (List)
ssm:GetParameters (Read)

Data-plane actions (0)

By access level: none.

This policy grants no actions in this plane.

Excluded and conditional actions

No patterns are excluded by NotAction or Deny statements.

Resource scope and attachment

Resource scope across granted actions: all-resources.

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

Why this tier

Grants only List and Read actions.

Guidance

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ec2:DescribeImageReferences",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplates",
        "ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplateVersions",
        "ssm:DescribeParameters",
        "ssm:GetParameters",
        "imagebuilder:ListImageRecipes",
        "imagebuilder:ListContainerRecipes",
        "imagebuilder:GetContainerRecipe"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "ForAnyValue:StringEquals": {
          "aws:CalledVia": [
            "ec2-images.amazonaws.com"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v3, edited by AWS on 2026-02-12. Version history is recorded from 2026-11-11. Earlier versions are in the IAM console under Policy versions.

Attach snippets

AWS CLI

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name ROLE_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy

CloudFormation

Resources:
  ExampleRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument: {}  # replace with your trust policy
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy

Terraform

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "amazonec2imagereferencesaccesspolicy" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.example.name
  policy_arn = "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy"
}

CDK (TypeScript)

role.addManagedPolicy(
  iam.ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName("AmazonEC2ImageReferencesAccessPolicy"),
);

Sources

Pending editorial review. No editorial sources are listed yet.