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IAM Policy Map

AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess

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Summary

Provides read only access to all streams via the AWS Management 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/AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess
Default version
v1
Created
Last edited
Services
kinesis

Control-plane actions (13)

By access level: 4 List, 9 Read.

Control-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
Kinesis13 of 424 List, 9 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalkinesis:Describe*, kinesis:Get*, kinesis:List*
Kinesis: 13 actions
  • kinesis:DescribeAccountSettings (Read)
  • kinesis:DescribeChannel (Read)
  • kinesis:DescribeLimits (Read)
  • kinesis:DescribeStream (Read)
  • kinesis:DescribeStreamConsumer (Read)
  • kinesis:DescribeStreamSummary (Read)
  • kinesis:GetResourcePolicy (Read)
  • kinesis:ListChannels (List)
  • kinesis:ListShards (List)
  • kinesis:ListStreamConsumers (List)
  • kinesis:ListStreams (List)
  • kinesis:ListTagsForResource (Read)
  • kinesis:ListTagsForStream (Read)

Data-plane actions (2)

By access level: 2 Read.

Data-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
Kinesis2 of 52 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalkinesis:Get*
Kinesis: 2 actions
  • kinesis:GetRecords (Read)
  • kinesis:GetShardIterator (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

Practical scope

One statement allows kinesis:Get*, kinesis:List* and kinesis:Describe* on Resource "*". The kinesis:Get* wildcard includes kinesis:GetRecords and kinesis:GetShardIterator, which read records from a stream. There are no put, create, update or delete actions.

Use cases

  • Let users or roles view Amazon Kinesis streams and read their records, without changing the streams.

Best practices

  • AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions. The IAM User Guide suggests using IAM Access Analyzer to see which permissions principals actually use, then writing a custom policy or generating one with only the required permissions.

Security considerations

  • The policy grants no write actions, but kinesis:Get* includes kinesis:GetRecords and kinesis:GetShardIterator, so principals can read the records in every stream, not only list and describe streams.
  • You cannot change the permissions in an AWS managed policy. If AWS updates the policy, the update affects every user, group and role it is attached to.

Assignment guidance

You can attach this policy to your users, groups and roles. The reference page also links to guidance on creating a permission set using AWS managed policies in IAM Identity Center. It fits where read-only access to Amazon Kinesis streams, including their records, is intended.

Related policies

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess?
The reference page says you can attach AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess to your users, groups and roles, and describes it as read only access to all streams via the console. Attach it where viewing streams and reading records is the intended scope.
What does AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess grant?
It allows kinesis:Get*, kinesis:List* and kinesis:Describe* on all resources, which includes kinesis:GetRecords and kinesis:GetShardIterator. It has no put, create, update or delete actions.
What are the security risks of AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess?
It grants no write actions, but "read only" here includes reading the records in every stream. 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": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kinesis:Get*",
        "kinesis:List*",
        "kinesis:Describe*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2015-02-06. 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/AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonKinesisReadOnlyAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources