AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess

Summary

Provides read only access to Amazon EC2 via the AWS Management Console. The policy allows ec2:Describe* and ec2:GetSecurityGroupsForVpc, plus read actions for Elastic Load Balancing, CloudWatch and Auto Scaling, on all 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/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccessCopy ARN

Default version

v5

Created

2015-02-06

Last edited

2026-02-12

Services

autoscaling, cloudwatch, ec2, elasticloadbalancing

Control-plane actions (243)

By access level: 218 List, 25 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: all-resources.

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
• AIDevOpsReleaseManagementVPCPolicy
• AmazonAppStreamServiceAccess
• AmazonBioDiscoveryServiceLinkedRolePolicy
• AmazonDataZoneEnvironmentRolePermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneProjectDeploymentPermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneProjectRolePermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneSageMakerProvisioningRolePolicy

Same domain

• AmazonBraketJobsExecutionPolicy
• AmazonDMSVPCManagementRole
• AmazonDRSVPCManagement
• AmazonEBSCSIDriverEKSClusterScopedPolicy
• AmazonEBSCSIDriverPolicy
• AmazonEBSCSIDriverPolicyV2
• AmazonEC2ContainerServiceRole
• AmazonEC2FullAccess

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess?

The Amazon EC2 User Guide says you can attach it to your IAM identities and that it grants permissions that allow read-only access to Amazon EC2. Attach it where viewing EC2 resources is the intended scope. For narrower access, write a customer managed policy with only the permissions your team needs.

What does AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess grant?

It allows ec2:Describe*, ec2:GetSecurityGroupsForVpc, elasticloadbalancing:Describe*, cloudwatch:ListMetrics, cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics, cloudwatch:Describe* and autoscaling:Describe* on all resources. It contains no create, modify, delete or run actions.

What are the security risks of AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess?

The policy grants no write actions, but it applies to all resources and covers Elastic Load Balancing, CloudWatch and Auto Scaling as well as EC2. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and you must consider the security risk of granting principals more permissions than they need. Services add permissions to AWS managed policies over time, and each update affects all identities the policy is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:Describe*",
        "ec2:GetSecurityGroupsForVpc"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "elasticloadbalancing:Describe*",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:Describe*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "autoscaling:Describe*",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v5, 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 iam attach-role-policy --role-name ROLE_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess

Resources:
  ExampleRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument: {}  # replace with your trust policy
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "amazonec2readonlyaccess" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.example.name
  policy_arn = "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess"
}

role.addManagedPolicy(
  iam.ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName("AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess"),
);

Sources

• AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports summary, practicalScope, useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for Amazon EC2 (Amazon EC2 User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for job functions (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports bestPractices, assignmentGuidance, faqs)

• Official AWS reference for AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess
• AWS service guide
• Report a data issue