AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator

Summary

Provides access within AWS SSO to manage AWS Organizations master and member accounts and cloud application, according to the reference page description. The IAM Identity Center User Guide says it provides the administrative actions for principals who perform the job role of an IAM Identity Center administrator, and that the list of actions is updated over time to match IAM Identity Center functionality.

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

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministratorCopy ARN

Default version

v13

Created

2018-06-27

Last edited

2026-02-12

Services

access-analyzer, ds, iam, identity-sync, identitystore, identitystore-auth, kms, organizations, signin, sso, sso-directory

Control-plane actions (244)

By access level: 41 List, 8 Permissions management, 75 Read, 2 Tagging, 118 Write.

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: mixed.

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

Why this tier

• Grants at least 80% of the write and permissions-management actions of: identitystore (14 of 14), sso (66 of 66), sso-directory (32 of 32).
• Grants permissions-management actions on sso on all resources without conditions.
• Grants iam:PassRole, but only for scoped roles or under conditions (for example iam:PassedToService).

Guidance

Related policies

Same service

• AIOpsConsoleAdminPolicy
• AmazonBioDiscoveryFullAccess
• AmazonBioDiscoveryInAppFullAccess
• AmazonHoneycodeServiceRolePolicy
• AppStudioServiceRolePolicy
• AWSControlTowerIdentityCenterManagementPolicy
• AWSDeadlineCloud-UserAccessFleets
• AWSDeadlineCloud-UserAccessJobs

Same domain

• AdministratorAccess
• AdministratorAccess-Amplify
• AIDevOpsAgentActionsPolicy
• AmazonDataZoneProjectDeploymentPermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess
• AmazonDynamoDBFullAccess_v2
• AmazonDynamoDBFullAccesswithDataPipeline
• AmazonEC2RoleforDataPipelineRole

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator?

The IAM Identity Center User Guide says it is intended for principals who perform the job role of an IAM Identity Center administrator. You can attach it to users, groups and roles. Because it grants administrative IAM Identity Center permissions across the AWS Organizations management account and member accounts, attach it only where that scope is intended. The IAM User Guide says AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions.

What does AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator grant?

It allows sso:*, sso-directory:*, identitystore:* and identitystore-auth:* on all resources, plus directory (ds:), AWS Organizations, IAM policy-listing and Access Analyzer validation actions that support administration. It allows creating and passing the IAM Identity Center service-linked role, registering and deregistering a delegated administrator (limited to the sso.amazonaws.com service principal), deleting identity-sync profiles, and the AWS KMS actions that IAM Identity Center instances with customer managed keys need.

What are the security risks of AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator?

The IAM Identity Center User Guide says a principal with the policy can fully manage all IAM Identity Center operations, including creating permission sets and assignments across member accounts, and that new administrative permissions are granted automatically as features are released. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and AWS updates to the policy affect every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AWSSSOCreateSLR",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/sso.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForSSO",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "iam:AWSServiceName": "sso.amazonaws.com"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "iam:PassRole",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/aws-service-role/sso.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForSSO",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "iam:PassedToService": "sso.amazonaws.com"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AWSSSOMemberAccountAdministrator",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ds:DescribeTrusts",
        "ds:UnauthorizeApplication",
        "ds:DescribeDirectories",
        "ds:AuthorizeApplication",
        "iam:ListPolicies",
        "organizations:EnableAWSServiceAccess",
        "organizations:ListRoots",
        "organizations:ListAccounts",
        "organizations:ListOrganizationalUnitsForParent",
        "organizations:ListAccountsForParent",
        "organizations:DescribeOrganization",
        "organizations:ListChildren",
        "organizations:DescribeAccount",
        "organizations:ListParents",
        "organizations:ListDelegatedAdministrators",
        "sso:*",
        "sso-directory:*",
        "identitystore:*",
        "identitystore-auth:*",
        "ds:CreateAlias",
        "access-analyzer:ValidatePolicy",
        "signin:CreateTrustedIdentityPropagationApplicationForConsole",
        "signin:ListTrustedIdentityPropagationApplicationsForConsole"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AWSSSOManageDelegatedAdministrator",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "organizations:RegisterDelegatedAdministrator",
        "organizations:DeregisterDelegatedAdministrator"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "organizations:ServicePrincipal": "sso.amazonaws.com"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowDeleteSyncProfile",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "identity-sync:DeleteSyncProfile"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:identity-sync:*:*:profile/*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowKMSKeyUseViaAWSIAMIdentityCenterService",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext",
        "kms:Encrypt",
        "kms:Decrypt"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "kms:ViaService": "sso.*.amazonaws.com",
          "kms:EncryptionContext:aws:sso:instance-arn": "*"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowKMSKeyUseViaAWSIdentityStoreService",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext",
        "kms:Encrypt",
        "kms:Decrypt"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "kms:ViaService": "identitystore.*.amazonaws.com",
          "kms:EncryptionContext:aws:identitystore:identitystore-arn": "*"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowKMSKeyDiscovery",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:ListAliases",
        "kms:DescribeKey"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v13, edited by AWS on 2026-02-12. 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/AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator

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

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

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

Sources

• AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• AWS managed policies for AWS IAM Identity Center (IAM Identity Center User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, useCases, securityConsiderations, 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)

• Official AWS reference for AWSSSOMasterAccountAdministrator
• AWS service guide
• Report a data issue