When should I attach AmazonZocaloFullAccess?

The reference page says you can attach it to your users, groups and roles, and the description says it provides full access to Amazon Zocalo. Attach it where that scope, including full AWS Directory Service access, is intended.

What does AmazonZocaloFullAccess grant?

It allows zocalo:* and ds:* on Resource "*", plus fifteen listed EC2 actions for network interfaces, security groups, subnets and VPCs, including ec2:CreateVpc and ec2:CreateSubnet.

What are the security risks of AmazonZocaloFullAccess?

ds:* allows every AWS Directory Service action on all resources, and the EC2 actions let a principal create VPCs and subnets and change security group rules. 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.

AmazonZocaloFullAccess

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Summary

Provides full access to Amazon Zocalo. The policy also allows all AWS Directory Service actions and a set of Amazon EC2 networking actions.

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

Identity

ARN: arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonZocaloFullAccess
Default version: v1
Created: 2015-02-06
Last edited: 2015-02-06
Services: ds, ec2

Control-plane actions (106)

By access level: 8 List, 1 Permissions management, 25 Read, 3 Tagging, 69 Write.

Control-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
Directory Service	All 91 actions (see the Directory Service page)	4 List, 1 Permissions management, 25 Read, 2 Tagging, 59 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	ds:*
EC2	15 of 834	4 List, 1 Tagging, 10 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress, ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress, ec2:CreateNetworkInterface, ec2:CreateSecurityGroup, ec2:CreateSubnet, ec2:CreateTags, ec2:CreateVpc, ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface, ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup, ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones, ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces, ec2:DescribeSubnets and 3 more

EC2: 15 actions

ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress (Write)
ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress (Write)
ec2:CreateNetworkInterface (Write)
ec2:CreateSecurityGroup (Write)
ec2:CreateSubnet (Write)
ec2:CreateTags (Tagging)
ec2:CreateVpc (Write)
ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface (Write)
ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup (Write)
ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones (List)
ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces (List)
ec2:DescribeSubnets (List)
ec2:DescribeVpcs (List)
ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress (Write)
ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress (Write)

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 at least 80% of the write and permissions-management actions of: ds (60 of 60).

Guidance

Practical scope

The policy is a single statement on Resource "*". It allows zocalo:* and ds:*, plus these EC2 actions: ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress, ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress, ec2:CreateNetworkInterface, ec2:CreateSecurityGroup, ec2:CreateSubnet, ec2:CreateTags, ec2:CreateVpc, ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones, ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces, ec2:DescribeSubnets, ec2:DescribeVpcs, ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface, ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup, ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress and ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress.

Use cases

Give users, groups or roles full access to Amazon Zocalo.

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

zocalo:* and ds:* allow every Amazon Zocalo and AWS Directory Service action on all resources. The ds:* grant is not limited to directories used by Amazon Zocalo.
The EC2 actions include creating a VPC and subnets (ec2:CreateVpc, ec2:CreateSubnet), creating and deleting security groups and network interfaces, and adding and removing security group rules.
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 full access to Amazon Zocalo is intended.

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AmazonZocaloFullAccess?: The reference page says you can attach it to your users, groups and roles, and the description says it provides full access to Amazon Zocalo. Attach it where that scope, including full AWS Directory Service access, is intended.
What does AmazonZocaloFullAccess grant?: It allows zocalo:* and ds:* on Resource "*", plus fifteen listed EC2 actions for network interfaces, security groups, subnets and VPCs, including ec2:CreateVpc and ec2:CreateSubnet.
What are the security risks of AmazonZocaloFullAccess?: ds:* allows every AWS Directory Service action on all resources, and the EC2 actions let a principal create VPCs and subnets and change security group rules. 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": [
        "zocalo:*",
        "ds:*",
        "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
        "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
        "ec2:CreateNetworkInterface",
        "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
        "ec2:CreateSubnet",
        "ec2:CreateTags",
        "ec2:CreateVpc",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
        "ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface",
        "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
        "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
        "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress"
      ],
      "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/AmazonZocaloFullAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonZocaloFullAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonZocaloFullAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources

AmazonZocaloFullAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs, useCases)
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)