End of support notice: On May 20, 2026, AWS will end support for Amazon Inspector Classic. After May 20, 2026, you will no longer be able to access the Amazon Inspector Classic console or Amazon Inspector Classic resources. Amazon Inspector Classic no longer available to new accounts and accounts that have not completed an assessment in the last 6 months. For all other accounts, access will remain valid until May 20, 2026, after which you will no longer be able to access the Amazon Inspector Classic console or Amazon Inspector Classic resources. For more information, see [Amazon Inspector Classic end of support](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/inspector/v1/userguide/inspector-migration.html). # Identity and Access Management for Amazon Inspector Classic AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an AWS service that helps an administrator securely control access to AWS resources. IAM administrators control who can be *authenticated* (signed in) and *authorized* (have permissions) to use Amazon Inspector resources. IAM is an AWS service that you can use with no additional charge. **Topics** + [Audience](#security_iam_audience) + [Authenticating with identities](#security_iam_authentication) + [Managing access using policies](#security_iam_access-manage) + [How Amazon Inspector Classic works with IAM](security_iam_service-with-iam.md) + [Example 2: Allow a user to perform describe and list operations only on Amazon Inspector findings](#IAMPolicyExamples_Inspector_perform_create_action) + [Policy resources for Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-id-based-policies-resources) + [Policy condition keys for Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-id-based-policies-conditionkeys) + [ACLs in Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-acls) + [ABAC with Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-tags) + [Using temporary credentials with Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-roles-tempcreds) + [Cross-service principal permissions for Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-principal-permissions) + [Service roles for Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-roles-service) + [Service-linked roles for Amazon Inspector](#security_iam_service-with-iam-roles-service-linked) + [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon Inspector Classic](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md) + [Using service-linked roles for Amazon Inspector Classic](inspector_slr.md) + [Troubleshooting Amazon Inspector Classic identity and access](security_iam_troubleshoot.md) ## Audience How you use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) differs based on your role: + **Service user** - request permissions from your administrator if you cannot access features (see [Troubleshooting Amazon Inspector Classic identity and access](security_iam_troubleshoot.md)) + **Service administrator** - determine user access and submit permission requests (see [How Amazon Inspector Classic works with IAM](security_iam_service-with-iam.md)) + **IAM administrator** - write policies to manage access (see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon Inspector Classic](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md)) ## Authenticating with identities Authentication is how you sign in to AWS using your identity credentials. You must be authenticated as the AWS account root user, an IAM user, or by assuming an IAM role. You can sign in as a federated identity using credentials from an identity source like AWS IAM Identity Center (IAM Identity Center), single sign-on authentication, or Google/Facebook credentials. For more information about signing in, see [How to sign in to your AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/signin/latest/userguide/how-to-sign-in.html) in the *AWS Sign-In User Guide*. For programmatic access, AWS provides an SDK and CLI to cryptographically sign requests. For more information, see [AWS Signature Version 4 for API requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ### AWS account root user When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity called the AWS account *root user* that has complete access to all AWS services and resources. We strongly recommend that you don't use the root user for everyday tasks. For tasks that require root user credentials, see [Tasks that require root user credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_root-user.html#root-user-tasks) in the *IAM User Guide*. ### Federated identity As a best practice, require human users to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS services using temporary credentials. A *federated identity* is a user from your enterprise directory, web identity provider, or Directory Service that accesses AWS services using credentials from an identity source. Federated identities assume roles that provide temporary credentials. For centralized access management, we recommend AWS IAM Identity Center. For more information, see [What is IAM Identity Center?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/singlesignon/latest/userguide/what-is.html) in the *AWS IAM Identity Center User Guide*. ### IAM users and groups An *[IAM user](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_users.html)* is an identity with specific permissions for a single person or application. We recommend using temporary credentials instead of IAM users with long-term credentials. For more information, see [Require human users to use federation with an identity provider to access AWS using temporary credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#bp-users-federation-idp) in the *IAM User Guide*. An [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_groups.html) specifies a collection of IAM users and makes permissions easier to manage for large sets of users. For more information, see [Use cases for IAM users](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/gs-identities-iam-users.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ### IAM roles An *[IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html)* is an identity with specific permissions that provides temporary credentials. You can assume a role by [switching from a user to an IAM role (console)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_use_switch-role-console.html) or by calling an AWS CLI or AWS API operation. For more information, see [Methods to assume a role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_manage-assume.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. IAM roles are useful for federated user access, temporary IAM user permissions, cross-account access, cross-service access, and applications running on Amazon EC2. For more information, see [Cross account resource access in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-cross-account-resource-access.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ## Managing access using policies You control access in AWS by creating policies and attaching them to AWS identities or resources. A policy defines permissions when associated with an identity or resource. AWS evaluates these policies when a principal makes a request. Most policies are stored in AWS as JSON documents. For more information about JSON policy documents, see [Overview of JSON policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#access_policies-json) in the *IAM User Guide*. Using policies, administrators specify who has access to what by defining which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources**, and under what **conditions**. By default, users and roles have no permissions. An IAM administrator creates IAM policies and adds them to roles, which users can then assume. IAM policies define permissions regardless of the method used to perform the operation. ### Identity-based policies Identity-based policies are JSON permissions policy documents that you attach to an identity (user, group, or role). These policies control what actions identities can perform, on which resources, and under what conditions. To learn how to create an identity-based policy, see [Define custom IAM permissions with customer managed policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_create.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. Identity-based policies can be *inline policies* (embedded directly into a single identity) or *managed policies* (standalone policies attached to multiple identities). To learn how to choose between managed and inline policies, see [Choose between managed policies and inline policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies-choosing-managed-or-inline.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ### Resource-based policies Resource-based policies are JSON policy documents that you attach to a resource. Examples include IAM *role trust policies* and Amazon S3 *bucket policies*. In services that support resource-based policies, service administrators can use them to control access to a specific resource. You must [specify a principal](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_principal.html) in a resource-based policy. Resource-based policies are inline policies that are located in that service. You can't use AWS managed policies from IAM in a resource-based policy. ### Other policy types AWS supports additional policy types that can set the maximum permissions granted by more common policy types: + **Permissions boundaries** – Set the maximum permissions that an identity-based policy can grant to an IAM entity. For more information, see [Permissions boundaries for IAM entities](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_boundaries.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. + **Service control policies (SCPs)** – Specify the maximum permissions for an organization or organizational unit in AWS Organizations. For more information, see [Service control policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_scps.html) in the *AWS Organizations User Guide*. + **Resource control policies (RCPs)** – Set the maximum available permissions for resources in your accounts. For more information, see [Resource control policies (RCPs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_manage_policies_rcps.html) in the *AWS Organizations User Guide*. + **Session policies** – Advanced policies passed as a parameter when creating a temporary session for a role or federated user. For more information, see [Session policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies.html#policies_session) in the *IAM User Guide*. ### Multiple policy types When multiple types of policies apply to a request, the resulting permissions are more complicated to understand. To learn how AWS determines whether to allow a request when multiple policy types are involved, see [Policy evaluation logic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_evaluation-logic.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ## Example 2: Allow a user to perform describe and list operations only on Amazon Inspector findings The following permissions policy grants a user permission to run only `ListFindings` and `DescribeFindings` operations. These operations show information about Amazon Inspector findings. The wildcard character (\*) in the `Resource` element indicates that the operations are allowed for all Amazon Inspector resources that are owned by the account. ------ #### [ JSON ] **** ``` { "Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action": [ "inspector:DescribeFindings", "inspector:ListFindings" ], "Resource":"*" } ] } ``` ------ To view examples of Amazon Inspector identity-based policies, see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon Inspector Classic](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md). ## Policy resources for Amazon Inspector **Supports policy resources:** Yes Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources**, and under what **conditions**. The `Resource` JSON policy element specifies the object or objects to which the action applies. As a best practice, specify a resource using its [Amazon Resource Name (ARN)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference-arns.html). For actions that don't support resource-level permissions, use a wildcard (\*) to indicate that the statement applies to all resources. ``` "Resource": "*" ``` To see a list of Amazon Inspector resource types and their ARNs, see [Resources defined by Amazon Inspector Classic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/service-authorization/latest/reference/list_amazoninspector.html#amazoninspector-resources-for-iam-policies) in the *Service Authorization Reference*. To learn with which actions you can specify the ARN of each resource, see [Actions defined by Amazon Inspector Classic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/service-authorization/latest/reference/list_amazoninspector.html#amazoninspector-actions-as-permissions). To view examples of Amazon Inspector identity-based policies, see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon Inspector Classic](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md). ## Policy condition keys for Amazon Inspector **Supports service-specific policy condition keys:** Yes Administrators can use AWS JSON policies to specify who has access to what. That is, which **principal** can perform **actions** on what **resources**, and under what **conditions**. The `Condition` element specifies when statements execute based on defined criteria. You can create conditional expressions that use [condition operators](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_condition_operators.html), such as equals or less than, to match the condition in the policy with values in the request. To see all AWS global condition keys, see [AWS global condition context keys](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_condition-keys.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. To see a list of Amazon Inspector condition keys, see [Condition keys for Amazon Inspector Classic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/service-authorization/latest/reference/list_amazoninspector.html#amazoninspector-policy-keys) in the *Service Authorization Reference*. To learn with which actions and resources you can use a condition key, see [Actions defined by Amazon Inspector Classic](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/service-authorization/latest/reference/list_amazoninspector.html#amazoninspector-actions-as-permissions). To view examples of Amazon Inspector identity-based policies, see [Identity-based policy examples for Amazon Inspector Classic](security_iam_id-based-policy-examples.md). ## ACLs in Amazon Inspector **Supports ACLs:** No Access control lists (ACLs) control which principals (account members, users, or roles) have permissions to access a resource. ACLs are similar to resource-based policies, although they do not use the JSON policy document format. ## ABAC with Amazon Inspector **Supports ABAC (tags in policies):** Partial Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is an authorization strategy that defines permissions based on attributes called tags. You can attach tags to IAM entities and AWS resources, then design ABAC policies to allow operations when the principal's tag matches the tag on the resource. To control access based on tags, you provide tag information in the [condition element](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_elements_condition.html) of a policy using the `aws:ResourceTag/{{key-name}}`, `aws:RequestTag/{{key-name}}`, or `aws:TagKeys` condition keys. If a service supports all three condition keys for every resource type, then the value is **Yes** for the service. If a service supports all three condition keys for only some resource types, then the value is **Partial**. For more information about ABAC, see [Define permissions with ABAC authorization](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/introduction_attribute-based-access-control.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. To view a tutorial with steps for setting up ABAC, see [Use attribute-based access control (ABAC)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/tutorial_attribute-based-access-control.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ## Using temporary credentials with Amazon Inspector **Supports temporary credentials:** Yes Temporary credentials provide short-term access to AWS resources and are automatically created when you use federation or switch roles. AWS recommends that you dynamically generate temporary credentials instead of using long-term access keys. For more information, see [Temporary security credentials in IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp.html) and [AWS services that work with IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_aws-services-that-work-with-iam.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. ## Cross-service principal permissions for Amazon Inspector **Supports forward access sessions (FAS):** Yes Forward access sessions (FAS) use the permissions of the principal calling an AWS service, combined with the requesting AWS service to make requests to downstream services. For policy details when making FAS requests, see [Forward access sessions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_forward_access_sessions.html). ## Service roles for Amazon Inspector **Supports service roles:** No A service role is an [IAM role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles.html) that a service assumes to perform actions on your behalf. An IAM administrator can create, modify, and delete a service role from within IAM. For more information, see [Create a role to delegate permissions to an AWS service](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_create_for-service.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. **Warning** Changing the permissions for a service role might break Amazon Inspector functionality. Edit service roles only when Amazon Inspector provides guidance to do so. ## Service-linked roles for Amazon Inspector **Supports service-linked roles:** Yes A service-linked role is a type of service role that is linked to an AWS service. The service can assume the role to perform an action on your behalf. Service-linked roles appear in your AWS account and are owned by the service. An IAM administrator can view, but not edit the permissions for service-linked roles. For details about creating or managing Amazon Inspector service-linked roles, see [Using service-linked roles for Amazon Inspector Classic](inspector_slr.md).