Use service-linked roles for CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront uses AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service-linked roles. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to CloudFront. Service-linked roles are predefined by CloudFront and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other AWS services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up CloudFront easier because you don’t have to manually add the necessary permissions. CloudFront defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only CloudFront can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, and that permissions policy cannot be attached to any other IAM entity.

You can delete a service-linked role only after first deleting their related resources. This protects your CloudFront resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see AWS services that work with IAM and look for the services that have Yes in the Service-linked roles column. Choose a Yes with a link to view the service-linked role documentation for that service.

Service-linked role permissions for CloudFront VPC Origins

CloudFront VPC Origins uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForCloudFrontVPCOrigin – Allows CloudFront to manage EC2 elastic network interfaces and security groups on your behalf.

The AWSServiceRoleForCloudFrontVPCOrigin service-linked role trusts the following services to assume the role:

The role permissions policy named AWSCloudFrontVPCOriginServiceRolePolicy allows CloudFront VPC Origins to complete the following actions on the specified resources:

You must configure permissions to allow your users, groups, or roles to create, edit, or delete a service-linked role. For more information, see Service-linked role permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Create a service-linked role for CloudFront VPC Origins

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. When you create a VPC origin in the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API, CloudFront VPC Origins creates the service-linked role for you.

If you delete this service-linked role, and then need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account. When you create a VPC origin, CloudFront VPC Origins creates the service-linked role for you again.

Edit a service-linked role for CloudFront VPC Origins

CloudFront VPC Origins does not allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForCloudFrontVPCOrigin service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you cannot change the name of the role because various entities might reference the role. However, you can edit the description of the role using IAM. For more information, see Editing a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Delete a service-linked role for CloudFront VPC Origins

If you no longer need to use a feature or service that requires a service-linked role, we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don’t have an unused entity that is not actively monitored or maintained. However, you must clean up the resources for your service-linked role before you can manually delete it.

To manually delete the service-linked role using IAM

Use the IAM console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API to delete the AWSServiceRoleForCloudFrontVPCOrigin service-linked role. For more information, see Deleting a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Supported Regions for CloudFront VPC Origins service-linked roles

CloudFront VPC Origins does not support using service-linked roles in every Region where the service is available. You can use the AWSServiceRoleForCloudFrontVPCOrigin role in the following Regions.