AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess

Summary

Provides read only access to Amazon Redshift via the AWS Management Console. The Amazon Redshift Management Guide says it grants read-only access to all Amazon Redshift resources for an AWS account.

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

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccessCopy ARN

Default version

v2

Created

2015-02-06

Last edited

2024-02-08

Services

cloudwatch, ec2, redshift, sns

Control-plane actions (136)

By access level: 51 List, 85 Read.

Data-plane actions (4)

By access level: 1 List, 3 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

• AmazonApplicationRecoveryControllerRegionSwitchPlanExecutionPolicy
• AmazonAthenaServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonAuroraDSQLReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonChimeSDKMediaPipelinesServiceLinkedRolePolicy
• AmazonCloudWatchEvidentlyFullAccess
• AmazonCloudWatchRUMReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonCloudWatchRUMServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonDataZoneRedshiftManageAccessRolePolicy

Same domain

• AmazonAPIGatewayPushToCloudWatchLogs
• AmazonBraketFullAccess
• AmazonBraketServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonCloudWatchRUMFullAccess
• AmazonCognitoUnauthenticatedIdentities
• AmazonDevOpsGuruConsoleFullAccess
• AmazonDevOpsGuruFullAccess
• AmazonDevOpsGuruReadOnlyAccess

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess?

The Amazon Redshift Management Guide says to attach it to a user whose own IAM policy is more restrictive than the minimum console permissions, so the Amazon Redshift console still works, and to attach it together with AmazonRedshiftQueryEditor for query editor access. You don't need console permissions for users who call only the AWS CLI or the Amazon Redshift API.

What does AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess grant?

It allows redshift:Describe*, redshift:ListRecommendations and redshift:ViewQueriesInConsole, EC2 describe actions for account attributes, addresses, availability zones, security groups, subnets, VPCs and internet gateways, sns:Get* and sns:List*, and cloudwatch:Describe*, List* and Get*, all on all resources.

What are the security risks of AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess?

The policy has no write actions, but its read actions apply to all resources and include redshift:ViewQueriesInConsole. The IAM User Guide says AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and AWS updates to the policy affect every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess",
      "Action": [
        "redshift:Describe*",
        "redshift:ListRecommendations",
        "redshift:ViewQueriesInConsole",
        "ec2:DescribeAccountAttributes",
        "ec2:DescribeAddresses",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
        "ec2:DescribeInternetGateways",
        "sns:Get*",
        "sns:List*",
        "cloudwatch:Describe*",
        "cloudwatch:List*",
        "cloudwatch:Get*"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v2, edited by AWS on 2024-02-08. 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/AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonRedshiftReadOnlyAccess

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

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

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

Sources

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

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