AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy

Summary

Provides access to AWS Resources managed or used by AWS Control Tower

Permissions imported from the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide; other sections pending editorial review.

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicyCopy ARN

Default version

v22

Created

2019-05-03

Last edited

2026-09-10

Services

account, cloudformation, cloudtrail, config, ec2, iam, logs, organizations, s3, servicecatalog, sts

Control-plane actions (70)

By access level: 16 List, 17 Read, 3 Tagging, 34 Write.

Data-plane actions (1)

By access level: 1 Read.

Excluded and conditional actions

No patterns are excluded by NotAction or Deny statements.

Resource scope and attachment

Resource scope across granted actions: mixed.

Can be attached: Yes, to users, groups and roles.

Why this tier

• Grants 37 write, tagging or permissions-management actions, short of full control of any service.
• Grants iam:PassRole, but only for scoped roles or under conditions (for example iam:PassedToService).

Guidance

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Related policies

Same service

• AccessAnalyzerServiceRolePolicy
• AccountAccessManagerServiceRolePolicy
• AdministratorAccess-AWSElasticBeanstalk
• AIDevOpsOrganizationsAccessPolicy
• AmazonDataZoneRedshiftGlueProvisioningPolicy
• AmazonDetectiveOrganizationsAccess
• AmazonDetectiveServiceLinkedRolePolicy
• AmazonDevOpsGuruOrganizationsAccess

Same domain

• AIDevOpsAgentAccessPolicy
• AmazonCloudWatchEvidentlyServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonCodeCatalystSupportAccess
• AmazonDevOpsGuruServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonEKSConnectorServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonEKSDashboardConsoleReadOnly
• AmazonEKSDashboardServiceRolePolicy
• AmazonEKSLocalOutpostClusterPolicy

Frequently asked questions

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:CreateStack",
        "cloudformation:CreateStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:CreateStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStack",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackInstance",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStacks",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackSetOperation",
        "cloudformation:ListStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStack",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStackSet"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:type/resource/AWS-IAM-Role"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:CreateStack",
        "cloudformation:CreateStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:CreateStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStack",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackInstance",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStacks",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackSet",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackSetOperation",
        "cloudformation:GetTemplate",
        "cloudformation:ListStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStack",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStackInstances",
        "cloudformation:UpdateStackSet"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stack/AWSControlTower*/*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stack/StackSet-AWSControlTower*/*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stackset/AWSControlTower*:*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stackset-target/AWSControlTower*/*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudtrail:CreateTrail",
        "cloudtrail:DeleteTrail",
        "cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus",
        "cloudtrail:StartLogging",
        "cloudtrail:StopLogging",
        "cloudtrail:UpdateTrail",
        "cloudtrail:PutEventSelectors",
        "logs:CreateLogStream",
        "logs:PutLogEvents",
        "logs:PutRetentionPolicy"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:aws-controltower/CloudTrailLogs*:*",
        "arn:aws:cloudtrail:*:*:trail/aws-controltower*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:s3:::aws-controltower*/*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "sts:AssumeRole"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:iam::*:role/AWSControlTowerExecution",
        "arn:aws:iam::*:role/AWSControlTowerBlueprintAccess"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudtrail:DescribeTrails",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "iam:ListRoles",
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups",
        "organizations:CreateAccount",
        "organizations:DescribeAccount",
        "organizations:DescribeCreateAccountStatus",
        "organizations:DescribeOrganization",
        "organizations:DescribeOrganizationalUnit",
        "organizations:DescribePolicy",
        "organizations:ListAccounts",
        "organizations:ListAccountsForParent",
        "organizations:ListAWSServiceAccessForOrganization",
        "organizations:ListChildren",
        "organizations:ListOrganizationalUnitsForParent",
        "organizations:ListParents",
        "organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget",
        "organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy",
        "organizations:ListRoots",
        "organizations:MoveAccount",
        "servicecatalog:AssociatePrincipalWithPortfolio"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "iam:GetRole",
        "iam:GetUser",
        "iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies",
        "iam:GetRolePolicy"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "iam:PassRole"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:iam::*:role/service-role/AWSControlTowerStackSetRole",
        "arn:aws:iam::*:role/service-role/AWSControlTowerCloudTrailRole",
        "arn:aws:iam::*:role/service-role/AWSControlTowerConfigAggregatorRoleForOrganizations"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "config:DeleteConfigurationAggregator",
        "config:PutConfigurationAggregator",
        "config:TagResource"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "aws:ResourceTag/aws-control-tower": "managed-by-control-tower"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "organizations:EnableAWSServiceAccess",
        "organizations:DisableAWSServiceAccess"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "organizations:ServicePrincipal": [
            "config.amazonaws.com",
            "cloudtrail.amazonaws.com"
          ]
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "iam:AWSServiceName": "cloudtrail.amazonaws.com"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "account:EnableRegion",
        "account:ListRegions",
        "account:GetRegionOptStatus"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowActionsForCloudFormationHooksIntegration",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:SetTypeConfiguration",
        "cloudformation:DeactivateType",
        "cloudformation:ActivateType"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:type/hook/AWS-ControlTower*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowBatchDescribeTypeConfigurationsForHookConfigFetch",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "cloudformation:BatchDescribeTypeConfigurations",
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowActionsForCloudFormationStackSetOrganizationsTrustedAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:ActivateOrganizationsAccess",
        "cloudformation:DescribeOrganizationsAccess"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudFormationTagOnCreate",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:TagResource",
        "cloudformation:UntagResource"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:type/resource/AWS-IAM-Role",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stack/AWSControlTower*/*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stack/StackSet-AWSControlTower*/*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stackset/AWSControlTower*:*",
        "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stackset-target/AWSControlTower*/*"
      ],
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "cloudformation:CreateAction": [
            "CreateStack",
            "UpdateStack"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v22, edited by AWS on 2026-09-10. 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/service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy

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

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "service_role_awscontroltowerservicerolepolicy" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.example.name
  policy_arn = "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy"
}

role.addManagedPolicy(
  iam.ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName("service-role/AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy"),
);

Sources

Pending editorial review. No editorial sources are listed yet.

• Official AWS reference for AWSControlTowerServiceRolePolicy
• Report a data issue