---
type: resource-type
title: IamPolicy
description: aws resource type AWS::IAM::Policy
name: IamPolicy
lexicon: aws
resource_type: AWS::IAM::Policy
---
`AWS::IAM::Policy`, a resource type of the aws lexicon.

## Properties

- `PolicyDocument` (`PolicyDocument`, required): The policy document. You must provide policies in JSON format in IAM. However, for CFN templates formatted in YAML, you can provide the policy in JSON or YAML format. CFN always converts a YAML policy to JSON format before submitting it to IAM. The [regex pattern](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex) used to validate this parameter is a string of characters consisting of the following: + Any printable ASCII character ranging from the space character (``\u0020``) through the end of the ASCII character range + The printable characters in the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Supplement character set (through ``\u00FF``) + The special characters tab (``\u0009``), line feed (``\u000A``), and carriage return (``\u000D``)
- `PolicyName` (`string`, required): The name of the policy document. This parameter allows (through its [regex pattern](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex)) a string of characters consisting of upper and lowercase alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include any of the following characters: _+=,.@-
- `Groups` (`string[]`, optional): The name of the group to associate the policy with. This parameter allows (through its [regex pattern](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex)) a string of characters consisting of upper and lowercase alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include any of the following characters: _+=,.@-.
- `Id` (`string`, optional)
- `Roles` (`string[]`, optional): The name of the role to associate the policy with. This parameter allows (per its [regex pattern](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex)) a string of characters consisting of upper and lowercase alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include any of the following characters: _+=,.@- If an external policy (such as ``AWS::IAM::Policy`` or ``AWS::IAM::ManagedPolicy``) has a ``Ref`` to a role and if a resource (such as ``AWS::ECS::Service``) also has a ``Ref`` to the same role, add a ``DependsOn`` attribute to the resource to make the resource depend on the external policy. This dependency ensures that the role's policy is available throughout the resource's lifecycle. For example, when you delete a stack with an ``AWS::ECS::Service`` resource, the ``DependsOn`` attribute ensures that CFN deletes the ``AWS::ECS::Service`` resource before deleting its role's policy.
- `Users` (`string[]`, optional): The name of the user to associate the policy with. This parameter allows (through its [regex pattern](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex)) a string of characters consisting of upper and lowercase alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include any of the following characters: _+=,.@-

## Attributes

- `Id`

## Governed by

- [WAW020](/rules/WAW020.md): IAM policy uses wildcard Action — use specific actions following least privilege
- [WAW059](/rules/WAW059.md): Wildcard Resource where the declared graph enumerates the touched set — tighten to the consumers' declared Arns
- [WAW060](/rules/WAW060.md): IAM policy attached to no principal — it grants nothing
- [WAW063](/rules/WAW063.md): IAM policy denies an action another attached policy on the same role allows — explicit Deny wins, runtime 403