When should I attach AWSCloudMapFullAccess?

The AWS Cloud Map Developer Guide says you can attach it to your IAM entities and that it provides full access to all AWS Cloud Map actions. Attach it where that scope is intended.

What does AWSCloudMapFullAccess grant?

It allows servicediscovery:* on all resources, plus Route 53 hosted zone, record and health check actions and three EC2 describe actions.

What are the security risks of AWSCloudMapFullAccess?

servicediscovery:* allows every Cloud Map action, and the Route 53 actions are on all resources, including route53:DeleteHostedZone and route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets. AWS managed policies do not grant least privilege permissions, and an AWS update to the policy affects every identity it is attached to.

AWSCloudMapFullAccess

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Summary

Provides full access to all AWS Cloud Map actions. The AWS Cloud Map Developer Guide says you can attach it to your IAM entities.

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

Identity

ARN: arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudMapFullAccess
Default version: v2
Created: 2018-11-28
Last edited: 2020-07-29
Services: ec2, route53, servicediscovery

Control-plane actions (43)

By access level: 6 List, 12 Read, 2 Tagging, 23 Write.

Control-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
EC2	3 of 834	3 List; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	ec2:DescribeInstances, ec2:DescribeRegions, ec2:DescribeVpcs
Route 53	9 of 71	2 List, 1 Read, 6 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets, route53:CreateHealthCheck, route53:CreateHostedZone, route53:DeleteHealthCheck, route53:DeleteHostedZone, route53:GetHealthCheck, route53:GetHostedZone, route53:ListHostedZonesByName, route53:UpdateHealthCheck
Cloud Map	All 31 actions (see the Cloud Map page)	1 List, 11 Read, 2 Tagging, 17 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	servicediscovery:*

EC2: 3 actions

ec2:DescribeInstances (List)
ec2:DescribeRegions (List)
ec2:DescribeVpcs (List)

Route 53: 9 actions

route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets (Write)
route53:CreateHealthCheck (Write)
route53:CreateHostedZone (Write)
route53:DeleteHealthCheck (Write)
route53:DeleteHostedZone (Write)
route53:GetHealthCheck (Read)
route53:GetHostedZone (List)
route53:ListHostedZonesByName (List)
route53:UpdateHealthCheck (Write)

Data-plane actions (2)

By access level: 2 Read.

Data-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
Cloud Map	All 2 actions (see the Cloud Map page)	2 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	servicediscovery:*

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: servicediscovery (17 of 17).

Guidance

Practical scope

One statement allows servicediscovery:* and a set of related actions on Resource "*", with no Condition: route53:GetHostedZone, route53:ListHostedZonesByName, route53:CreateHostedZone, route53:DeleteHostedZone, route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets, route53:CreateHealthCheck, route53:GetHealthCheck, route53:DeleteHealthCheck, route53:UpdateHealthCheck, ec2:DescribeVpcs, ec2:DescribeRegions and ec2:DescribeInstances.

Use cases

Use all AWS Cloud Map actions. The policy also allows the Route 53 hosted zone and health check actions listed above.

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

servicediscovery:* allows every AWS Cloud Map action on all resources.
The policy allows route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets, route53:DeleteHostedZone and route53:CreateHostedZone on all resources, so it can change or remove any hosted zone in the account, not only Cloud Map ones.
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 AWS Cloud Map access is intended. Where a narrower scope is needed, AWS recommends customer managed policies specific to your use cases.

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AWSCloudMapFullAccess?: The AWS Cloud Map Developer Guide says you can attach it to your IAM entities and that it provides full access to all AWS Cloud Map actions. Attach it where that scope is intended.
What does AWSCloudMapFullAccess grant?: It allows servicediscovery:* on all resources, plus Route 53 hosted zone, record and health check actions and three EC2 describe actions.
What are the security risks of AWSCloudMapFullAccess?: servicediscovery:* allows every Cloud Map action, and the Route 53 actions are on all resources, including route53:DeleteHostedZone and route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets. AWS managed policies do not grant least privilege permissions, and an AWS update to the policy affects every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "route53:GetHostedZone",
        "route53:ListHostedZonesByName",
        "route53:CreateHostedZone",
        "route53:DeleteHostedZone",
        "route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets",
        "route53:CreateHealthCheck",
        "route53:GetHealthCheck",
        "route53:DeleteHealthCheck",
        "route53:UpdateHealthCheck",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
        "ec2:DescribeRegions",
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "servicediscovery:*"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v2, edited by AWS on 2020-07-29. 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/AWSCloudMapFullAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudMapFullAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudMapFullAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources

AWSCloudMapFullAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
AWS managed policies for AWS Cloud Map (AWS Cloud Map Developer Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, 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)