AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess

Summary

Provides read only access to Amazon EFS via the AWS Management Console. The Amazon EFS User Guide says principals can describe EFS attributes and view related CloudWatch, EC2 and AWS KMS information in the console.

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

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccessCopy ARN

Default version

v9

Created

2015-05-27

Last edited

2024-11-07

Services

cloudwatch, ec2, elasticfilesystem, kms

Control-plane actions (21)

By access level: 12 List, 9 Read.

Data-plane actions (1)

By access level: 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

• AmazonDMSRedshiftS3Role
• AmazonEC2RoleforAWSCodeDeploy
• AmazonEC2RoleforAWSCodeDeployLimited
• AmazonEFSCSIDriverPolicy
• AmazonElasticFileSystemClientFullAccess
• AmazonElasticFileSystemClientReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonElasticFileSystemClientReadWriteAccess
• AmazonElasticFileSystemFullAccess

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess?

The Amazon EFS User Guide says you can attach it to your IAM identities, and that it grants read only access to Amazon EFS through the console. Attach it where viewing EFS resources is the intended scope.

What does AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess grant?

It allows elasticfilesystem Describe actions, elasticfilesystem:ListTagsForResource and elasticfilesystem:ReplicationRead, CloudWatch metric and alarm reads, EC2 describe actions and kms:ListAliases on all resources.

What are the security risks of AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess?

The policy grants no write actions, but it applies to all resources and covers CloudWatch, EC2 and AWS KMS reads as well as Amazon EFS. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and you must consider the security risk of granting principals more permissions than they need. AWS updates to the policy affect every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "ElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:DescribeAlarmsForMetric",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaceAttribute",
        "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
        "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcAttribute",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeAccountPreferences",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeBackupPolicy",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeFileSystems",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeFileSystemPolicy",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeLifecycleConfiguration",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeMountTargets",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeMountTargetSecurityGroups",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeTags",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeAccessPoints",
        "elasticfilesystem:DescribeReplicationConfigurations",
        "elasticfilesystem:ListTagsForResource",
        "elasticfilesystem:ReplicationRead",
        "kms:ListAliases"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v9, edited by AWS on 2024-11-07. 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/AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess

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

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

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

Sources

• AmazonElasticFileSystemReadOnlyAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for Amazon EFS (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, useCases, assignmentGuidance, 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, faqs)

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