Review ECR repository access policies

Limit access to the principals and image operations that need it.

Description

An ECR repository policy grants or restricts access to a particular repository. Its absence does not make the repository public; IAM identity policies can also grant access within the same account.

Potential impact

Adding a broad repository policy without considering its principals can grant unintended access to images.

Remediation

Check effective IAM permissions first. If a repository policy is needed, allow only the intended principals and actions. Grant ecr:GetAuthorizationToken through an IAM policy for image push and pull authentication.

Examples

The second example allows a specified role to perform two image-retrieval actions. Replace its ARN with the role that should receive access.

Before

hcl
resource "aws_ecr_repository" "example" {
  name = "bar"
}

After

hcl
resource "aws_ecr_repository" "example" {
  name = "bar"
}

resource "aws_ecr_repository_policy" "example_policy" {
  repository = aws_ecr_repository.example.name

  policy = <<EOF
{
  "Version": "2008-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "new policy",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ImagePuller"},
      "Action": [
        "ecr:GetDownloadUrlForLayer",
        "ecr:BatchGetImage"
      ]
    }
  ]
}
EOF
}

References