Amazon EKS identity-based policy examples - Amazon EKS
Policy best practicesUsing the Amazon EKS consoleAllow IAM users to view their own permissionsCreate a Kubernetes cluster on the AWS CloudCreate a local Kubernetes cluster on an OutpostUpdate a Kubernetes clusterList or describe all clusters

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Amazon EKS identity-based policy examples

By default, IAM users and roles don’t have permission to create or modify Amazon EKS resources. They also can’t perform tasks using the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS API. An IAM administrator must create IAM policies that grant users and roles permission to perform specific API operations on the specified resources they need. The administrator must then attach those policies to the IAM users or groups that require those permissions.

To learn how to create an IAM identity-based policy using these example JSON policy documents, see Creating policies on the JSON tab in the IAM User Guide.

When you create an Amazon EKS cluster, the IAM principal that creates the cluster is automatically granted system:masters permissions in the cluster’s role-based access control (RBAC) configuration in the Amazon EKS control plane. This principal doesn’t appear in any visible configuration, so make sure to keep track of which principal originally created the cluster. To grant additional IAM principals the ability to interact with your cluster, edit the aws-auth ConfigMap within Kubernetes and create a Kubernetes rolebinding or clusterrolebinding with the name of a group that you specify in the aws-auth ConfigMap.

For more information about working with the ConfigMap, see Grant IAM users and roles access to Kubernetes APIs.

Policy best practices

Identity-based policies determine whether someone can create, access, or delete Amazon EKS resources in your account. These actions can incur costs for your AWS account. When you create or edit identity-based policies, follow these guidelines and recommendations:

  • Get started with AWS managed policies and move toward least-privilege permissions – To get started granting permissions to your users and workloads, use the AWS managed policies that grant permissions for many common use cases. They are available in your AWS account. We recommend that you reduce permissions further by defining AWS customer managed policies that are specific to your use cases. For more information, see AWS managed policies or AWS managed policies for job functions in the IAM User Guide.

  • Apply least-privilege permissions – When you set permissions with IAM policies, grant only the permissions required to perform a task. You do this by defining the actions that can be taken on specific resources under specific conditions, also known as least-privilege permissions. For more information about using IAM to apply permissions, see Policies and permissions in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

  • Use conditions in IAM policies to further restrict access – You can add a condition to your policies to limit access to actions and resources. For example, you can write a policy condition to specify that all requests must be sent using SSL. You can also use conditions to grant access to service actions if they are used through a specific AWS service, such as AWS CloudFormation. For more information, see IAM JSON policy elements: Condition in the IAM User Guide.

  • Use IAM Access Analyzer to validate your IAM policies to ensure secure and functional permissions – IAM Access Analyzer validates new and existing policies so that the policies adhere to the IAM policy language (JSON) and IAM best practices. IAM Access Analyzer provides more than 100 policy checks and actionable recommendations to help you author secure and functional policies. For more information, see IAM Access Analyzer policy validation in the IAM User Guide.

  • Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) – If you have a scenario that requires IAM users or a root user in your AWS account, turn on MFA for additional security. To require MFA when API operations are called, add MFA conditions to your policies. For more information, see Configuring MFA-protected API access in the IAM User Guide.

For more information about best practices in IAM, see Security best practices in IAM in the IAM User Guide.

Using the Amazon EKS console

To access the Amazon EKS console, an IAM principal, must have a minimum set of permissions. These permissions allow the principal to list and view details about the Amazon EKS resources in your AWS account. If you create an identity-based policy that is more restrictive than the minimum required permissions, the console won’t function as intended for principals with that policy attached to them.

To ensure that your IAM principals can still use the Amazon EKS console, create a policy with your own unique name, such as AmazonEKSAdminPolicy. Attach the policy to the principals. For more information, see Adding and removing IAM identity permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Important

The following example policy allows a principal to view information on the Configuration tab in the console. To view information on the Overview and Resources tabs in the AWS Management Console, the principal also needs Kubernetes permissions. For more information, see Required permissions.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "eks:*"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:PassRole",
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "iam:PassedToService": "eks.amazonaws.com"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

You don’t need to allow minimum console permissions for principals that are making calls only to the AWS CLI or the AWS API. Instead, allow access to only the actions that match the API operation that you’re trying to perform.

Allow IAM users to view their own permissions

This example shows how you might create a policy that allows IAM users to view the inline and managed policies that are attached to their user identity. This policy includes permissions to complete this action on the console or programmatically using the AWS CLI or AWS API.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "ViewOwnUserInfo",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:GetUserPolicy",
                "iam:ListGroupsForUser",
                "iam:ListAttachedUserPolicies",
                "iam:ListUserPolicies",
                "iam:GetUser"
            ],
            "Resource": ["arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "NavigateInConsole",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:GetGroupPolicy",
                "iam:GetPolicyVersion",
                "iam:GetPolicy",
                "iam:ListAttachedGroupPolicies",
                "iam:ListGroupPolicies",
                "iam:ListPolicyVersions",
                "iam:ListPolicies",
                "iam:ListUsers"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

Create a Kubernetes cluster on the AWS Cloud

This example policy includes the minimum permissions required to create an Amazon EKS cluster named my-cluster in the us-west-2 AWS Region. You can replace the AWS Region with the AWS Region that you want to create a cluster in. If you see a warning that says The actions in your policy do not support resource-level permissions and require you to choose All resources in the AWS Management Console, it can be safely ignored. If your account already has the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKS role, you can remove the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole action from the policy. If you’ve ever created an Amazon EKS cluster in your account then this role already exists, unless you deleted it.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "eks:CreateCluster",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:eks:us-west-2:111122223333:cluster/my-cluster"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/aws-service-role/eks.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKS",
            "Condition": {
                "ForAnyValue:StringEquals": {
                    "iam:AWSServiceName": "eks"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:PassRole",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/cluster-role-name"
        }
    ]
}

Create a local Kubernetes cluster on an Outpost

This example policy includes the minimum permissions required to create an Amazon EKS local cluster named my-cluster on an Outpost in the us-west-2 AWS Region. You can replace the AWS Region with the AWS Region that you want to create a cluster in. If you see a warning that says The actions in your policy do not support resource-level permissions and require you to choose All resources in the AWS Management Console, it can be safely ignored. If your account already has the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSLocalOutpost role, you can remove the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole action from the policy. If you’ve ever created an Amazon EKS local cluster on an Outpost in your account then this role already exists, unless you deleted it.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "eks:CreateCluster",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:eks:us-west-2:111122223333:cluster/my-cluster"
        },
        {
            "Action": [
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "iam:GetRole"
            ],
            "Resource": "*",
            "Effect": "Allow"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/aws-service-role/outposts.eks-local.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSLocalOutpost"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:PassRole",
                "iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies"
            ]
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/cluster-role-name"
        },
        {
            "Action": [
                "iam:CreateInstanceProfile",
                "iam:TagInstanceProfile",
                "iam:AddRoleToInstanceProfile",
                "iam:GetInstanceProfile",
                "iam:DeleteInstanceProfile",
                "iam:RemoveRoleFromInstanceProfile"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:instance-profile/eks-local-*",
            "Effect": "Allow"
        },
    ]
}

Update a Kubernetes cluster

This example policy includes the minimum permission required to update a cluster named my-cluster in the us-west-2 AWS Region.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "eks:UpdateClusterVersion",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:eks:us-west-2:111122223333:cluster/my-cluster"
        }
    ]
}

List or describe all clusters

This example policy includes the minimum permissions required to list and describe all clusters in your account. An IAM principal must be able to list and describe clusters to use the update-kubeconfig AWS CLI command.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "eks:DescribeCluster",
                "eks:ListClusters"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}