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IAM Policy Map

AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess

High privilegeOperatorAWS managedActiveReviewedShow on mapCompare

Summary

Grants AWS permission to manage organization control policies for AWS managed accounts, according to the description on the reference page.

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

Identity

ARN
arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess
Default version
v1
Created
Last edited
Services
organizations

Control-plane actions (11)

By access level: 3 List, 3 Permissions management, 1 Read, 2 Tagging, 2 Write.

Control-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
Organizations11 of 633 List, 3 Permissions management, 1 Read, 2 Tagging, 2 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalorganizations:AttachPolicy, organizations:CreatePolicy, organizations:DeletePolicy, organizations:DescribePolicy, organizations:DetachPolicy, organizations:ListPolicies, organizations:ListRoots, organizations:ListTagsForResource, organizations:TagResource, organizations:UntagResource, organizations:UpdatePolicy
Organizations: 11 actions
  • organizations:AttachPolicy (Permissions management)
  • organizations:CreatePolicy (Write)
  • organizations:DeletePolicy (Write)
  • organizations:DescribePolicy (Read)
  • organizations:DetachPolicy (Permissions management)
  • organizations:ListPolicies (List)
  • organizations:ListRoots (List)
  • organizations:ListTagsForResource (List)
  • organizations:TagResource (Tagging)
  • organizations:UntagResource (Tagging)
  • organizations:UpdatePolicy (Permissions management)

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 7 write, tagging or permissions-management actions, short of full control of any service.
  • Grants permissions-management actions on organizations on all resources without conditions.

Guidance

Practical scope

One statement allows organizations:DescribePolicy, organizations:UpdatePolicy, organizations:ListPolicies, organizations:ListRoots, organizations:CreatePolicy, organizations:AttachPolicy, organizations:DetachPolicy, organizations:DeletePolicy, organizations:TagResource, organizations:UntagResource and organizations:ListTagsForResource on Resource "*".

Use cases

  • Let a principal create, update, attach, detach, delete, list and tag policies in AWS Organizations, for the organization control policies the description refers to.

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

  • The policy allows organizations:AttachPolicy, organizations:DetachPolicy, organizations:UpdatePolicy and organizations:DeletePolicy on Resource "*", so a principal with it can change and remove policies across the organization.
  • The description is worded as granting AWS permission. The reference page says you can attach it to your users, groups and roles, but the cached sources do not say which service uses it, so confirm the intended use before attaching it to a human identity.
  • 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. The description says it grants AWS permission to manage organization control policies for AWS managed accounts.

Related policies

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess?
The reference page says you can attach it to your users, groups and roles. The description says it grants AWS permission to manage organization control policies for AWS managed accounts, so attach it only where managing those policies is the intended scope.
What does AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess grant?
On all resources it allows organizations:DescribePolicy, UpdatePolicy, ListPolicies, ListRoots, CreatePolicy, AttachPolicy, DetachPolicy, DeletePolicy, TagResource, UntagResource and ListTagsForResource.
What are the security risks of AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess?
It allows creating, updating, attaching, detaching and deleting policies on all resources in AWS Organizations. AWS managed policies don't 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": [
      "organizations:DescribePolicy",
      "organizations:UpdatePolicy",
      "organizations:ListPolicies",
      "organizations:ListRoots",
      "organizations:CreatePolicy",
      "organizations:AttachPolicy",
      "organizations:DetachPolicy",
      "organizations:DeletePolicy",
      "organizations:TagResource",
      "organizations:UntagResource",
      "organizations:ListTagsForResource"
    ],
    "Resource": "*"
  }
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2026-07-21. 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/AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSManagedControlPolicyManagementAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources