SCPs are managed from the organizational master account and applied to member accounts or entire OUs so you need to start there for the “what scps are mapped to my accounts “ question Answer from dghah on reddit.com
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws organizations › user guide › managing organization policies with aws organizations › authorization policies in aws organizations › service control policies (scps)
Service control policies (SCPs) - AWS Organizations
3 weeks ago - SCPs are similar to AWS Identity and Access Management permission policies and use almost the same syntax. However, an SCP never grants permissions. Instead, SCPs are access controls that specify the maximum available permissions for the IAM users and IAM roles in your organization.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › blogs › security › unlock-new-possibilities-aws-organizations-service-control-policy-now-supports-full-iam-language
Unlock new possibilities: AWS Organizations service control policy now supports full IAM language | Amazon Web Services
September 26, 2025 - Amazon Web Service (AWS) recently announced that AWS Organizations now offers full AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy language support for service control policies (SCPs).
Discussions

How to find out which SCP is denying action in an AWS multi-account scenario?
SCPs are managed from the organizational master account and applied to member accounts or entire OUs so you need to start there for the “what scps are mapped to my accounts “ question More on reddit.com
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March 20, 2025
What are the SCP best practices?
This covers quite a few use cases: https://summitroute.com/blog/2020/03/25/aws_scp_best_practices/ More on reddit.com
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September 7, 2020
Need help forging an SCP
If I'm not mistaken you can't use wildcards (*) with StringNotEquals. Try StringNotLike More on reddit.com
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August 6, 2022
How long does it take SCP changes propagate?
In my experience it's near instantaneous. More on reddit.com
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November 25, 2021
People also ask

What is the primary purpose of AWS Service Control Policies?
AWS SCPs are designed to set guardrails on permissions across multiple AWS accounts within an organization, helping to enforce compliance, security, and cost control measures.
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infracost.io
infracost.io › home › glossary terms › architecture & operations › aws scp
AWS SCP - Infracost
Can SCPs be applied to individual IAM users or roles?
No, SCPs can only be applied at the organization, organizational unit, or account level within AWS Organizations.
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infracost.io
infracost.io › home › glossary terms › architecture & operations › aws scp
AWS SCP - Infracost
How do SCPs differ from IAM policies?
While IAM policies grant permissions to specific users or roles, SCPs set the maximum permissions available to any entity within an AWS account or organizational unit.
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infracost.io
infracost.io › home › glossary terms › architecture & operations › aws scp
AWS SCP - Infracost
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws ram › user guide › security in aws ram › identity and access management for aws ram › example service control policies for aws organizations and aws ram
Example service control policies for AWS Organizations and AWS RAM - AWS Resource Access Manager
AWS RAM supports service control policies (SCPs). SCPs are policies that you attach to elements in an organization to manage permissions within that organization. An SCP applies to all AWS accounts under the element to which you attach the SCP. SCPs offer central control over the maximum available ...
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Sonrai
sonraisecurity.com › home › what are aws service control policies (scp)? a complete guide
What Are AWS Service Control Policies (SCP)? A Complete Guide
October 16, 2024 - A service control policy is a set of controls at the organizational unit that restricts the maximum level of permissions that users, roles, and even root users in AWS accounts can hold.
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GitHub
github.com › aws-samples › service-control-policy-examples
GitHub - aws-samples/service-control-policy-examples: Example AWS Service control policies to get started or mature your usage of AWS SCPs.
A Service control policy (SCP), when attached to an AWS organization, organization unit or an account offers a central control over the maximum available permissions for all accounts in your organization, organization unit or an account.
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Asecure
asecure.cloud › l › scp
AWS Service Control Policy (SCP) Repository
A repository of AWS Service Control Policy templates and examples that can be deployed using CloudFormation custom resource or AWS CLI scripts. ... A configuration package to deploy common Service Control Policies (SCPs) in the master account of an AWS Organization.
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Towards The Cloud
towardsthecloud.com › home › blog › aws service control policy (scp) examples by organizational unit: production, development, security & more
AWS Service Control Policy (SCP) Examples by Organizational Unit: Production, Development, Security & More | Towards The Cloud
November 13, 2025 - Combined with AWS Budgets set to $100-500 per month, this creates true sandboxes: safe, isolated, cheap experimentation environments. Infrastructure accounts (Network, Shared Services, CI/CD) should only perform their designated functions. These SCPs prevent scope creep.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › how to find out which scp is denying action in an aws multi-account scenario?
r/aws on Reddit: How to find out which SCP is denying action in an AWS multi-account scenario?
March 20, 2025 -

Hello everyone, sorry if the question is really dumb, but I can’t figure out how to find out which SCP is denying actions to a role in our AWS accounts.

I’m already using the IAM policy simulator and it tells me the action is blocked by a SCP, but

a) it doesn’t tell me which SCP is blocking b) which account is the one with the SCP linked to.

Also there seems to be no SCP associated with the account where the actions are denied.

Unfortunately the SCPs were already in place before my arrival and I can’t simply detach them all without cyber releasing the hounds.

Thanks for any input/suggestion.

UPDATE: Running the same commands from the CLI works without any issue, so we openend a support request to the AWS team.

UPDATE 2: Turns out we have a SCP blocking all requests on regions outside of the ones where we have our resources. Via CLI we couldn't see the issue because when running aws configure we already set the correct region. Support helped us notice that the application was instead trying to read all resources in all AWS regions, hence the error.

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Stormit
stormit.cloud › blog › aws-scp-service-control-policy
What is AWS SCP and How does it Work? | StormIT
July 14, 2022 - AWS Organizations provides centralised governance and management of multiple accounts. You can use Service Control Policies (SCPs) with AWS Organizations to establish controls that all IAM principals (users and roles) adhere to.
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Infracost
infracost.io › home › glossary terms › architecture & operations › aws scp
AWS SCP - Infracost
January 15, 2025 - AWS Service Control Policies (SCPs) are a component of AWS Organizations that enable centralized control over permissions and resource usage across multiple AWS accounts.
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Fogsecurity
fogsecurity.io › blog › understanding-rcps-and-scps-in-aws
Understanding RCPs and SCPs in AWS - Fog Security
January 15, 2025 - Since the release of AWS Resource Control Policies (RCPs), we’ve seen multiple posts on how to use RCPs. We believe a holistic security strategy in AWS with Organizational Policies include both Resource Control Policies (RCPs) and Service Control Policies (SCPs).
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws organizations › user guide › managing organization policies with aws organizations › attaching organization policies with aws organizations
Attaching organization policies with AWS Organizations - AWS Organizations
2 weeks ago - This topic describes how to attach policies with AWS Organizations. A policy defines the controls that you want to apply to a group of AWS accounts. ... To attach an authorization policy (SCP or RCP) to a root, OU, or account, you need permission to run the following action:
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › blogs › mt › achieving-operational-excellence-with-design-considerations-for-aws-organizations-scps
Achieving operational excellence with design considerations for AWS Organizations SCPs | AWS Cloud Operations Blog
September 22, 2025 - Service control policies (SCPs) are a set of policies that allow organizations to manage permissions using AWS Organizations. SCPs help control access to AWS services and resources provisioned across multiple accounts created within an organization.
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AWS Builder Center
builder.aws.com › content › 2bdbE4ATk9cZ6sju5Yy81QrqS4C › protecting-aws-organization-with-scps
AWS Builder Center
January 29, 2024 - Connect with builders who understand your journey. Share solutions, influence AWS product development, and access useful content that accelerates your growth. Your community starts here.
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws organizations › user guide › managing organization policies with aws organizations › authorization policies in aws organizations
Authorization policies in AWS Organizations - AWS Organizations
October 22, 2025 - SCPs are principal-centric controls. SCPs create a permissions guardrail, or set limits, on the maximum permissions available to principals in your member accounts. You can use an SCP when you want to centrally enforce consistent access controls on principals in your organization.
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Medium
maximaavem.medium.com › visual-explanation-of-scp-inheritance-for-aws-organizations-a7d31a6ff23d
Visual Explanation of SCP Inheritance for AWS Organizations | by John Byrd | Medium
January 22, 2020 - In the following diagrams think of the circles as representing service permissions (ec2:*, s3:*, etc.), each square is a direct attachment of an SCP, and the arrows represent the direction of effective inheritance of the policies. ... As with all things IAM related in AWS, we start with an implicit deny.
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws organizations › user guide › managing organization policies with aws organizations › authorization policies in aws organizations › service control policies (scps) › service control policy examples › example scps for amazon elastic compute cloud (amazon ec2)
Example SCPs for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) - AWS Organizations
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "DenyCreationAndAttachmentOfNonGP3Volumes", "Effect": "Deny", "Action": [ "ec2:AttachVolume", "ec2:CreateVolume", "ec2:RunInstances" ], "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:volume/*", "Condition": { "StringNotEquals": { "ec2:VolumeType": "gp3" } } } ] } This can help enforce a standardized volume configuration across an organization. You cannot restrict the action of modifying an existing gp3 volume to an Amazon EBS volume of another type using SCPs.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › what are the scp best practices?
r/aws on Reddit: What are the SCP best practices?
September 7, 2020 -

I lost the count of companies that I talked and have no idea what Service control polices can be used for. Once I explain I have the follow-up question that I don’t have answer yet. What should I set on my SCP?

This is a open question that can go from blocking unused regions to blocking IAM user creation, restrict to just a group to be allowed to delete resources/snapshot, etc.

Usually I share this site for them to start. https://asecure.cloud

What do you think it is a “must have” for any medium/small company that is worried about their security regarding SCP?

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AWS re:Post
repost.aws › knowledge-center › iam-policy-service-control-policy
Understand how IAM policies and Organizations SCPs interact | AWS re:Post
February 22, 2022 - The specified actions from an attached SCP affect all IAM identities including the root user of the member account. AWS services that aren't explicitly allowed by the SCPs associated with an AWS account or its parent OUs are denied access to the AWS accounts or OUs associated with the SCP.
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AWS
docs.aws.amazon.com › aws organizations › user guide › managing organization policies with aws organizations › creating organization policies with aws organizations
Creating organization policies with AWS Organizations - AWS Organizations
Create a service control policy (SCP)Create a resource control policy (RCP)Create a declarative policyCreate a backup policyCreate a tag policyCreate a chat applications policyCreate an AI services opt-out policyCreate a upgrade rollout policyCreate a Security Hub policy · After you enable policies for your organization, you can create a policy. This topic describes how to create policies with AWS ...