How to List AWS Policies with Python & Boto3

In this Python & Boto3 tutorial we want to learn How to List AWS Policies with Python & Boto3, so we already talked that AWS IAM policies define permissions for IAM entities (users, groups, roles) to access AWS resources. Custom policies are policies created by users to meet specific access control requirements that are not addressed by AWS-managed policies. Using Python and Boto3, you can dynamically create and manage custom IAM policies to enforce granular access control across your AWS environment.

Prerequisites:

Before we start crafting custom IAM policies with Python and Boto3, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

Python installed on your system.
Boto3 library installed (pip install boto3).

AWS credentials configured on your system (either through AWS CLI or environment variables).

Also make sure that you have already read these three articles, because they are related to this article.

How to Create AWS IAM User with Python & Boto3

Listing AWS Policies with Python & Boto3:

Let’s talk about the steps that we need for listing AWS IAM policies programmatically using Python and Boto3:

Step 1: Import Boto3

Now let’s start by importing the Boto3 library in your Python script:

import boto3

1	import boto3

Step 2: Initialize Boto3 IAM Client

After that we need to initialize Boto3 IAM client to interact with AWS IAM:

iam = boto3.client('iam')

1	iam = boto3.client('iam')

Step 3: List IAM Policies

Use the list_policies method to retrieve a list of IAM policies:

response = iam.list_policies()
policies = response['Policies']

for policy in policies:
    print("Policy Name:", policy['PolicyName'])
    print("Policy ARN:", policy['Arn'])
    print("Policy ID:", policy['PolicyId'])
    print("Default Version ID:", policy['DefaultVersionId'])
    print()

response = iam.list_policies()

policies = response['Policies']

for policy in policies:

print("Policy Name:", policy['PolicyName'])

print("Policy ARN:", policy['Arn'])

print("Policy ID:", policy['PolicyId'])

print("Default Version ID:", policy['DefaultVersionId'])

print()

This is the complete code

import boto3

# Initialize Boto3 IAM client
iam = boto3.client('iam')

# List IAM Policies
response = iam.list_policies()
policies = response['Policies']

for policy in policies:
    print("Policy Name:", policy['PolicyName'])
    print("Policy ARN:", policy['Arn'])
    print("Policy ID:", policy['PolicyId'])
    print("Default Version ID:", policy['DefaultVersionId'])
    print()

import boto3

# Initialize Boto3 IAM client

iam = boto3.client('iam')

# List IAM Policies

response = iam.list_policies()

policies = response['Policies']

for policy in policies:

print("Policy Name:", policy['PolicyName'])

print("Policy ARN:", policy['Arn'])

print("Policy ID:", policy['PolicyId'])

print("Default Version ID:", policy['DefaultVersionId'])

print()

This code will retrieve a list of IAM policies from your AWS account and print details such as policy name, ARN (Amazon Resource Name), policy ID, and default version ID for each policy.

This will be the result

How to List AWS Policies with Python & Boto3

FAQs

Q: What types of AWS policies can be listed using Python and Boto3?

A: You can list different types of policies, including IAM policies (inline and managed), S3 bucket policies, and AWS resource policies (like S3 bucket policies, SQS queue policies).

Q: Can I filter the list of policies based on specific criteria?

A: Yes, you can use parameters such as PathPrefix and Scope to filter the list of policies based on specific criteria, such as path prefix or policy scope (like AWS-managed policies, customer-managed policies).

Q: Is it possible to list policies attached to specific IAM users, groups or roles?

A: Yes, you can list policies attached to IAM users, groups or roles by retrieving policy attachments using Boto3 methods such as list_attached_user_policies, list_attached_group_policies and list_attached_role_policies.

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