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IAM Policy Map

AWSCloudFormationFullAccess

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Summary

Provides full access to AWS CloudFormation. The AWS CloudFormation User Guide says it grants permissions for full access to CloudFormation actions and resources.

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

Identity

ARN
arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudFormationFullAccess
Default version
v1
Created
Last edited
Services
cloudformation

Control-plane actions (104)

By access level: 23 List, 1 Permissions management, 34 Read, 2 Tagging, 44 Write.

Control-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
CloudFormationAll 104 actions (see the CloudFormation page)23 List, 1 Permissions management, 34 Read, 2 Tagging, 44 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalcloudformation:*

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: cloudformation (45 of 45).

Guidance

Practical scope

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

Use cases

  • Give users, groups or roles full access to CloudFormation actions and resources.

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 AWS CloudFormation User Guide recommends reducing permissions further with customer managed policies specific to your use cases.

Security considerations

  • cloudformation:* allows every CloudFormation action on all resources.
  • 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 CloudFormation access is intended. Where a narrower scope is needed, AWS recommends a customer managed policy specific to the use case.

Related policies

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AWSCloudFormationFullAccess?
The AWS CloudFormation User Guide says you can attach it to users, groups and roles, and that it grants full access to CloudFormation actions and resources. Attach it where that scope is intended. If you need less, AWS recommends customer managed policies specific to your use cases.
What does AWSCloudFormationFullAccess grant?
It allows cloudformation:* on all resources and nothing else. The User Guide says principals can perform all CloudFormation actions on all resources.
What are the security risks of AWSCloudFormationFullAccess?
cloudformation:* allows every CloudFormation action on all resources. 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": [
        "cloudformation:*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2019-07-26. 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/AWSCloudFormationFullAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudFormationFullAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudFormationFullAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources