How to Create and Attach an IAM Role with Read-Only Access for EC2 Instances

When working with AWS, security is paramount. One of the most secure ways to delegate permissions to services like EC2 is by using IAM roles. Instead of embedding credentials in your application or EC2 instances, you assign an IAM role to your EC2 instance to grant the necessary permissions.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps of creating an IAM role for EC2 and attaching the IAMReadOnlyAccess policy. This is perfect for situations where you want your EC2 instance to access AWS resources in a read-only capacity, such as viewing S3 bucket contents, listing EC2 instances, or querying DynamoDB tables without modifying any resources.

Why Use IAM Roles for EC2?

IAM roles allow EC2 instances to access AWS resources securely. Instead of hard-coding credentials into your EC2 instance, the instance can assume an IAM role, which provides temporary security credentials to access the resources you specify. This eliminates the need to manage credentials manually and improves security by controlling the specific actions your instance can perform.

What is the IAMReadOnlyAccess Policy?

The IAMReadOnlyAccess policy is a predefined AWS managed policy that grants read-only permissions across all AWS services. By attaching this policy to an IAM role for EC2, you ensure that the instance can only view resources without making any changes.