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IAM Policy Map

AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess

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Summary

Provides read-only access to Auto Scaling. The Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide says it is for IAM identities that make calls only through the AWS CLI or SDKs.

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

Identity

ARN
arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess
Default version
v1
Created
Last edited
Services
autoscaling

Control-plane actions (22)

By access level: 21 List, 1 Read.

Control-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
EC2 Auto Scaling22 of 6821 List, 1 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalautoscaling:Describe*
EC2 Auto Scaling: 22 actions
  • autoscaling:DescribeAccountLimits (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeAccountSettings (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeAdjustmentTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingInstances (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingNotificationTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeInstanceRefreshes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeLaunchConfigurations (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeLifecycleHookTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeLifecycleHooks (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeLoadBalancerTargetGroups (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeLoadBalancers (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeMetricCollectionTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeNotificationConfigurations (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribePolicies (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeScalingActivities (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeScalingProcessTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeScheduledActions (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeTags (Read)
  • autoscaling:DescribeTerminationPolicyTypes (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeTrafficSources (List)
  • autoscaling:DescribeWarmPool (List)

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 only List and Read actions.

Guidance

Practical scope

The policy has one Allow statement: autoscaling:Describe* on Resource "*".

Use cases

  • Give IAM identities read-only access to Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for calls made through the AWS CLI or SDKs.

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.
  • AWS managed policies might not grant least-privilege permissions for your specific use cases because they are available to all AWS customers. The Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide recommends reducing permissions further with customer managed policies specific to your use cases.

Security considerations

  • The policy allows only autoscaling:Describe* on all resources. The User Guide describes it as read-only access for CLI or SDK calls.
  • 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 Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide says you can attach its managed policies to IAM users or roles. The reference page also links to guidance on creating a permission set using AWS managed policies in IAM Identity Center. For read-only console access the User Guide points to AutoScalingConsoleReadOnlyAccess.

Related policies

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess?
The Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide says it grants read-only access to Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for IAM identities that make calls only through the AWS CLI or SDKs. For read-only console access it points to AutoScalingConsoleReadOnlyAccess.
What does AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess grant?
It allows autoscaling:Describe* on all resources and nothing else.
What are the security risks of AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess?
The policy allows only autoscaling:Describe* actions. AWS managed policies might not grant least-privilege permissions for your use case, and 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": "autoscaling:Describe*",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2017-01-12. 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/AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AutoScalingReadOnlyAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources