NeptuneReadOnlyAccess

Summary

Provides read only access to Amazon Neptune. AWS notes that the policy also grants access to Amazon RDS resources.

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

Identity

ARN

arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/NeptuneReadOnlyAccessCopy ARN

Default version

v3

Created

2018-05-30

Last edited

2024-01-22

Services

cloudwatch, ec2, kms, logs, neptune-db, rds

Control-plane actions (50)

By access level: 36 List, 14 Read.

Data-plane actions (2)

By access level: 1 List, 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 only List and Read actions.

Guidance

Related policies

Same service

• AdministratorAccess-AWSElasticBeanstalk
• AIDevOpsReleaseManagementVPCPolicy
• AmazonAppStreamServiceAccess
• AmazonBioDiscoveryServiceLinkedRolePolicy
• AmazonDataZoneEnvironmentRolePermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneProjectDeploymentPermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneProjectRolePermissionsBoundary
• AmazonDataZoneSageMakerProvisioningRolePolicy

Same domain

• AmazonAuroraDSQLConsoleFullAccess
• AmazonAuroraDSQLFullAccess
• AmazonAuroraDSQLReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonDocDBConsoleFullAccess
• AmazonDocDBElasticFullAccess
• AmazonDocDBElasticReadOnlyAccess
• AmazonDocDBFullAccess
• AmazonDocDBReadOnlyAccess

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach NeptuneReadOnlyAccess?

The Neptune User Guide says to use it for users who need to view cluster configurations and query data without making changes. You can attach it to users, groups and roles.

What does NeptuneReadOnlyAccess grant?

It allows read-style rds actions, CloudWatch metric reads, EC2 describe actions, KMS list actions and log stream reads on RDS and Neptune log groups, plus neptune-db:Read*, neptune-db:Get* and neptune-db:List* on all resources.

What are the security risks of NeptuneReadOnlyAccess?

It grants data access through neptune-db and rds log reads as well as configuration reads. AWS notes it also grants access to Amazon RDS resources. 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": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForRDS",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "rds:DescribeAccountAttributes",
        "rds:DescribeCertificates",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterParameterGroups",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterParameters",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterSnapshotAttributes",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusterSnapshots",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
        "rds:DescribeDBEngineVersions",
        "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
        "rds:DescribeDBLogFiles",
        "rds:DescribeDBParameterGroups",
        "rds:DescribeDBParameters",
        "rds:DescribeDBSubnetGroups",
        "rds:DescribeEventCategories",
        "rds:DescribeEventSubscriptions",
        "rds:DescribeEvents",
        "rds:DescribeGlobalClusters",
        "rds:DescribeOrderableDBInstanceOptions",
        "rds:DescribePendingMaintenanceActions",
        "rds:DownloadDBLogFilePortion",
        "rds:ListTagsForResource"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForCloudwatch",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForEC2",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:DescribeAccountAttributes",
        "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
        "ec2:DescribeInternetGateways",
        "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
        "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcAttribute",
        "ec2:DescribeVpcs"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForKMS",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:ListKeys",
        "kms:ListRetirableGrants",
        "kms:ListAliases",
        "kms:ListKeyPolicies"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForLogs",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:DescribeLogStreams",
        "logs:GetLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/rds/*:log-stream:*",
        "arn:aws:logs:*:*:log-group:/aws/neptune/*:log-stream:*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Sid": "AllowReadOnlyPermissionsForNeptuneDB",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "neptune-db:Read*",
        "neptune-db:Get*",
        "neptune-db:List*"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v3, edited by AWS on 2024-01-22. 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/NeptuneReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/NeptuneReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/NeptuneReadOnlyAccess

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

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

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

Sources

• NeptuneReadOnlyAccess (AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, useCases, securityConsiderations, assignmentGuidance, faqs)
• Using AWS managed policies to access Amazon Neptune databases (Amazon Neptune User Guide) (retrieved 2026-11-13; supports summary, practicalScope, 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 NeptuneReadOnlyAccess
• AWS service guide
• Report a data issue