When should I attach IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly?

The reference page says you can attach IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly to your users, groups and roles, and describes it as read access to all information provided by IAM access advisor. Attach it for people who review last accessed information to refine permissions.

What does IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly grant?

It allows 23 actions on all resources: IAM list, get and report generation actions, including iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails and iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails, and ten AWS Organizations describe and list actions.

What are the security risks of IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly?

It cannot change policies, but it lists all users, groups, roles and policies and reads the Organizations structure. Last accessed information for IAM identities excludes some policy types such as SCPs and permissions boundaries. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and you must consider the security risk of granting principals more permissions than they need. AWS updates to the policy affect every identity it is attached to.

IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly

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Summary

This policy grants access to read all access information provided by IAM access advisor such as service last accessed information.

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

Identity

ARN: arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly
Default version: v1
Created: 2019-06-21
Last edited: 2019-06-21
Services: iam, organizations

Control-plane actions (23)

By access level: 11 List, 12 Read.

Control-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
IAM	13 of 190	5 List, 8 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	iam:GenerateCredentialReport, iam:GenerateOrganizationsAccessReport, iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails, iam:GetOrganizationsAccessReport, iam:GetPolicy, iam:GetRole, iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails, iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetailsWithEntities, iam:ListGroups, iam:ListPolicies, iam:ListPoliciesGrantingServiceAccess, iam:ListRoles and 1 more
Organizations	10 of 63	6 List, 4 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	organizations:DescribeAccount, organizations:DescribeOrganization, organizations:DescribeOrganizationalUnit, organizations:DescribePolicy, organizations:ListChildren, organizations:ListParents, organizations:ListPolicies, organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget, organizations:ListRoots, organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy

IAM: 13 actions

iam:GenerateCredentialReport (Read)
iam:GenerateOrganizationsAccessReport (Read)
iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails (Read)
iam:GetOrganizationsAccessReport (Read)
iam:GetPolicy (Read)
iam:GetRole (Read)
iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails (Read)
iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetailsWithEntities (Read)
iam:ListGroups (List)
iam:ListPolicies (List)
iam:ListPoliciesGrantingServiceAccess (List)
iam:ListRoles (List)
iam:ListUsers (List)

Organizations: 10 actions

organizations:DescribeAccount (Read)
organizations:DescribeOrganization (Read)
organizations:DescribeOrganizationalUnit (Read)
organizations:DescribePolicy (Read)
organizations:ListChildren (List)
organizations:ListParents (List)
organizations:ListPolicies (List)
organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget (List)
organizations:ListRoots (List)
organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy (List)

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 only List and Read actions.

Guidance

Practical scope

One statement allows 23 actions on Resource "*". For IAM it allows list actions (iam:ListRoles, iam:ListUsers, iam:ListGroups, iam:ListPolicies, iam:ListPoliciesGrantingServiceAccess), report generation (iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails, iam:GenerateOrganizationsAccessReport, iam:GenerateCredentialReport) and get actions (iam:GetRole, iam:GetPolicy, iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails, iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetailsWithEntities, iam:GetOrganizationsAccessReport). For AWS Organizations it allows ten describe and list actions (organizations:DescribeAccount, DescribeOrganization, DescribeOrganizationalUnit, DescribePolicy, ListChildren, ListParents, ListPoliciesForTarget, ListRoots, ListPolicies and ListTargetsForPolicy).

Use cases

Let reviewers see which services IAM users, roles and policies have accessed, using last accessed information, so unused permissions can be identified and removed.

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

It lets a principal list every user, group, role and policy in the account and read the AWS Organizations structure and policies, because the actions apply to all resources.
The IAM User Guide notes that last accessed information for IAM identities covers only some policy types and excludes resource-based policies, access control lists, SCPs, permissions boundaries and session policies, so those reports do not show access granted by them.
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 reviewing last accessed information for IAM and AWS Organizations is intended. The IAM User Guide lists the permissions needed to view last accessed information, which this policy covers in part.

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly?: The reference page says you can attach IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly to your users, groups and roles, and describes it as read access to all information provided by IAM access advisor. Attach it for people who review last accessed information to refine permissions.
What does IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly grant?: It allows 23 actions on all resources: IAM list, get and report generation actions, including iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails and iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails, and ten AWS Organizations describe and list actions.
What are the security risks of IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly?: It cannot change policies, but it lists all users, groups, roles and policies and reads the Organizations structure. Last accessed information for IAM identities excludes some policy types such as SCPs and permissions boundaries. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and you must consider the security risk of granting principals more permissions than they need. 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": [
        "iam:ListRoles",
        "iam:ListUsers",
        "iam:ListGroups",
        "iam:ListPolicies",
        "iam:ListPoliciesGrantingServiceAccess",
        "iam:GenerateServiceLastAccessedDetails",
        "iam:GenerateOrganizationsAccessReport",
        "iam:GenerateCredentialReport",
        "iam:GetRole",
        "iam:GetPolicy",
        "iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetails",
        "iam:GetServiceLastAccessedDetailsWithEntities",
        "iam:GetOrganizationsAccessReport",
        "organizations:DescribeAccount",
        "organizations:DescribeOrganization",
        "organizations:DescribeOrganizationalUnit",
        "organizations:DescribePolicy",
        "organizations:ListChildren",
        "organizations:ListParents",
        "organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget",
        "organizations:ListRoots",
        "organizations:ListPolicies",
        "organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v1, edited by AWS on 2019-06-21. 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/IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources

IAMAccessAdvisorReadOnly (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
Refine permissions in AWS using last accessed information (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
Managed policies and inline policies (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports securityConsiderations, faqs)
AWS managed policies for job functions (IAM User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-12; supports bestPractices, faqs)