Access control with IAM

This document describes how you use Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles and permissions to control access to logs data in the Logging API, the Logs Explorer, and the Google Cloud CLI.

Overview

IAM permissions and roles determine your ability to access logs data in the Logging API, the Logs Explorer, and the Google Cloud CLI.

A role is a collection of permissions. You can't grant a principal permissions directly; instead, you grant them a role. When you grant a role to a principal, you grant them all the permissions that the role contains. You can grant multiple roles to the same principal.

To use Logging within a Google Cloud resource, such as a Google Cloud project, folder, bucket, or organization, a principal must have an IAM role that contains the appropriate permissions.

Predefined roles

IAM provides predefined roles to grant granular access to specific Google Cloud resources and prevent unwanted access to other resources. Google Cloud creates and maintains these roles and automatically updates their permissions as necessary, such as when Logging adds new features.

The following table lists the predefined roles for Logging. For each role, the table displays the role title, description, contained permissions, and the lowest-level resource type where the roles can be granted. You can grant the predefined roles at the Google Cloud project level or, in most cases, any type higher in the resource hierarchy. To restrict the Logs View Accessor role to a log view on a bucket, use resource attributes for IAM Conditions.

To get a list of all individual permissions contained in a role, see Getting the role metadata.

Role	Permissions
Logging Admin (roles/logging.admin) Provides all permissions necessary to use all features of Cloud Logging. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.buckets.copyLogEntries logging.buckets.create logging.buckets.createTagBinding logging.buckets.delete logging.buckets.deleteTagBinding logging.buckets.get logging.buckets.list logging.buckets.listEffectiveTags logging.buckets.listTagBindings logging.buckets.undelete logging.buckets.update logging.exclusions.* logging.exclusions.create logging.exclusions.delete logging.exclusions.get logging.exclusions.list logging.exclusions.update logging.fields.access logging.links.* logging.links.create logging.links.delete logging.links.get logging.links.list logging.locations.* logging.locations.get logging.locations.list logging.logEntries.* logging.logEntries.create logging.logEntries.download logging.logEntries.list logging.logEntries.route logging.logMetrics.* logging.logMetrics.create logging.logMetrics.delete logging.logMetrics.get logging.logMetrics.list logging.logMetrics.update logging.logServiceIndexes.list logging.logServices.list logging.logs.* logging.logs.delete logging.logs.list logging.notificationRules.* logging.notificationRules.create logging.notificationRules.delete logging.notificationRules.get logging.notificationRules.list logging.notificationRules.update logging.operations.* logging.operations.cancel logging.operations.get logging.operations.list logging.privateLogEntries.list logging.queries.* logging.queries.deleteShared logging.queries.getShared logging.queries.listShared logging.queries.share logging.queries.updateShared logging.queries.usePrivate logging.settings.* logging.settings.get logging.settings.update logging.sinks.* logging.sinks.create logging.sinks.delete logging.sinks.get logging.sinks.list logging.sinks.update logging.sqlAlerts.* logging.sqlAlerts.create logging.sqlAlerts.update logging.usage.get logging.views.* logging.views.access logging.views.create logging.views.delete logging.views.get logging.views.getIamPolicy logging.views.list logging.views.listLogs logging.views.listResourceKeys logging.views.listResourceValues logging.views.setIamPolicy logging.views.update observability.scopes.get resourcemanager.projects.get resourcemanager.projects.list
Logs Bucket Writer (roles/logging.bucketWriter) Ability to write logs to a log bucket. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.buckets.write
Logs Configuration Writer (roles/logging.configWriter) Provides permissions to read and write the configurations of logs-based metrics and sinks for exporting logs. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.buckets.create logging.buckets.createTagBinding logging.buckets.delete logging.buckets.deleteTagBinding logging.buckets.get logging.buckets.list logging.buckets.listEffectiveTags logging.buckets.listTagBindings logging.buckets.undelete logging.buckets.update logging.exclusions.* logging.exclusions.create logging.exclusions.delete logging.exclusions.get logging.exclusions.list logging.exclusions.update logging.links.* logging.links.create logging.links.delete logging.links.get logging.links.list logging.locations.* logging.locations.get logging.locations.list logging.logMetrics.* logging.logMetrics.create logging.logMetrics.delete logging.logMetrics.get logging.logMetrics.list logging.logMetrics.update logging.logServiceIndexes.list logging.logServices.list logging.logs.list logging.notificationRules.* logging.notificationRules.create logging.notificationRules.delete logging.notificationRules.get logging.notificationRules.list logging.notificationRules.update logging.operations.* logging.operations.cancel logging.operations.get logging.operations.list logging.settings.* logging.settings.get logging.settings.update logging.sinks.* logging.sinks.create logging.sinks.delete logging.sinks.get logging.sinks.list logging.sinks.update logging.sqlAlerts.* logging.sqlAlerts.create logging.sqlAlerts.update logging.views.create logging.views.delete logging.views.get logging.views.getIamPolicy logging.views.list logging.views.update observability.scopes.get resourcemanager.projects.get resourcemanager.projects.list
Log Field Accessor (roles/logging.fieldAccessor) Ability to read restricted fields in a log bucket. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.fields.access
Log Link Accessor (roles/logging.linkViewer) Ability to see links for a bucket.	logging.links.get logging.links.list
Logs Writer (roles/logging.logWriter) Provides the permissions to write log entries. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.logEntries.create logging.logEntries.route
Private Logs Viewer (roles/logging.privateLogViewer) Provides permissions of the Logs Viewer role and in addition, provides read-only access to log entries in private logs. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.buckets.get logging.buckets.list logging.exclusions.get logging.exclusions.list logging.links.get logging.links.list logging.locations.* logging.locations.get logging.locations.list logging.logEntries.list logging.logMetrics.get logging.logMetrics.list logging.logServiceIndexes.list logging.logServices.list logging.logs.list logging.privateLogEntries.list logging.queries.getShared logging.queries.listShared logging.queries.usePrivate logging.sinks.get logging.sinks.list logging.usage.get logging.views.access logging.views.get logging.views.list observability.scopes.get resourcemanager.projects.get
SQL Alert Writer ^Beta (roles/logging.sqlAlertWriter) Ability to write SQL Alerts.	logging.sqlAlerts.* logging.sqlAlerts.create logging.sqlAlerts.update
Logs View Accessor (roles/logging.viewAccessor) Ability to read logs in a view. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.logEntries.download logging.views.access logging.views.listLogs logging.views.listResourceKeys logging.views.listResourceValues
Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer) Provides access to view logs. Lowest-level resources where you can grant this role: Project	logging.buckets.get logging.buckets.list logging.exclusions.get logging.exclusions.list logging.links.get logging.links.list logging.locations.* logging.locations.get logging.locations.list logging.logEntries.list logging.logMetrics.get logging.logMetrics.list logging.logServiceIndexes.list logging.logServices.list logging.logs.list logging.operations.get logging.operations.list logging.queries.getShared logging.queries.listShared logging.queries.usePrivate logging.sinks.get logging.sinks.list logging.usage.get logging.views.get logging.views.list observability.scopes.get resourcemanager.projects.get

The following sections provide additional information to help you decide which roles apply to your principals' use cases.

Logging roles

• To let a user perform all actions in Logging, grant the Logging Admin (roles/logging.admin) role.

• To let a user create and modify logging configurations, grant the Logs Configuration Writer (roles/logging.configWriter) role. This role lets you create or modify any of the following:

  • Log sinks
  • Log buckets
  • Log views
  • Linked data sets
  • Log scopes

  This role isn't sufficient to create log-based metrics or log-based alerting policies. For information about the roles required for these tasks, see Permissions for log-based metrics and Permissions for log-based alerting policies.

• To let a user read logs in the _Required and _Default buckets or to use the Logs Explorer and Log Analytics pages, grant one of the following roles:

  • For access to all logs in the _Required bucket, and access to the _Default view on the _Default bucket, grant the Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer) role.
  • For access to all logs in the _Required and _Default buckets, including data access logs, grant the Private Logs Viewer (roles/logging.privateLogViewer) role.

• To let a user read logs in all log views that are in a project, grant them the IAM role of roles/logging.viewAccessor on the project.

• To let a user only read logs in a specific log view, you have two options:

  • Create an IAM policy for the log view, and then add an IAM binding to that policy which grants the principal access to the log view.

  • Grant the principal the IAM role of roles/logging.viewAccessor on the project that contains the log view, but attach an IAM condition to restrict the grant to the specific log view.

  For information about creating log views and granting access, see Configure log views on a log bucket.

• To give a user access to restricted LogEntry fields, if any, in a given log bucket, grant the Logs Field Accessor (roles/logging.fieldAccessor) role. For more information, see Configure field-level access.

• To let a user write logs by using the Logging API, grant the Logs Writer (roles/logging.logWriter) role. This role doesn't grant viewing permissions.

• To let the service account of a sink route logs to a bucket in a different Google Cloud project, grant the service account the Logs Bucket Writer (roles/logging.bucketWriter) role. For instructions about granting permissions to a service account, see Set destination permissions.

Project-level roles

Caution: The following basic roles include thousands of permissions across all Google Cloud services. Use these roles carefully, or consider using their corresponding Logging predefined roles.

• To give view access to most Google Cloud services, grant the Viewer (roles/viewer) role.

  This role includes all permissions granted by the Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer) role.

• To give editor access to most Google Cloud services, grant the Editor (roles/editor) role.

  This role includes all permissions granted by the Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer) role, and the permissions to write log entries, delete logs, and create log-based metrics. However, this role doesn't let users create sinks, read Data Access audit logs that are in the _Default bucket, or read logs that are in user-defined log buckets.

• To give full access to most Google Cloud services, grant the Owner (roles/owner) role.

Granting roles

To learn how to grant a role to a principal, see Granting, changing, and revoking access.

You can grant multiple roles to the same user. To get a list of the permissions contained in a role, see Getting the role metadata.

If you're trying to access a Google Cloud resource and lack the necessary permissions, then contact the principal who is listed as the Owner for the resource.

Custom roles

To create a custom role with Logging permissions, do the following:

• For a role granting permissions for the Logging API, choose permissions from API permissions, then follow the instructions to create a custom role.

• For a role granting permissions to use the Logs Explorer, choose from permission groups in Console permissions, then follow the instructions to create a custom role.

• For a role granting permissions to use gcloud logging, see the Command-line permissions section on this page, then follow the instructions to create a custom role.

For more information about custom roles, see Understanding IAM custom roles.

Cloud Logging permissions

The following table is a partial list of the permissions needed for specific features of Cloud Logging. This table can help you identify the permissions that you need to use pages like the Logs Explorer.

In the table, a.b.[x,y] means a.b.x and a.b.y.

Console activity	Required permissions
Minimal read-only access	logging.logEntries.list logging.logs.list logging.logServiceIndexes.list logging.logServices.list resourcemanager.projects.get
View Data Access audit logs	logging.privateLogEntries.list
View log-based metrics	logging.logMetrics.[list, get]
View sinks	logging.sinks.[list, get]
View logs usage	logging.usage.get
Exclude logs	logging.exclusions.[list, create, get, update, delete] When creating a custom role that includes permissions to manage exclusion filters, add the logging.sinks.* permissions to the role instead of adding the logging.exclusions.* permissions.
Create and use sinks	logging.sinks.[list, create, get, update, delete] When creating a sink, you must also grant the service account an IAM role that lets it write log entries to the destination. For more information, see Set destination permissions. After your log entries have been routed to a supported destination, access to the log entries is controlled entirely by IAM permissions and roles on the destination.
Create log-based alerts	See Roles required to create and use log-based alerting policies.
Create log-based metrics	logging.logMetrics.[list, create, get, update, delete] For information about other IAM roles that you need to create and use log-based metrics, see Roles required to create and use log-based metrics.
Save and use private queries	logging.queries.usePrivate logging.queries.[listShared,getShared]
Save and use shared queries	logging.queries.[share, getShared, updateShared, deleteShared, listShared]
Use recent queries	logging.queries.[create, list]

Permissions for the command-line

gcloud logging commands are controlled by IAM permissions.

To use any of the gcloud logging commands, principals must have the serviceusage.services.use permission.

A principal must also have the IAM role that corresponds to the log's resource, and to the use case. For details, see command-line interface permissions.

Roles required to create and use log-based metrics

Following is a summary of the common roles and permissions that a principal needs to access log-based metrics:

• The Logs Configuration Writer (roles/logging.configWriter) role lets principals list, create, get, update, and delete log-based metrics.

• The Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer) role contains permissions to view existing metrics. Specifically, a principal needs the logging.logMetrics.get and logging.logMetrics.list permissions to view existing metrics.

• The Monitoring Viewer (roles/monitoring.viewer) role contains the permissions to read TimeSeries data. Specifically, a principal needs the monitoring.timeSeries.list permission to read time series data.

• The Logging Admin (roles/logging.admin), Project Editor (roles/editor), and Project Owner (roles/owner) roles contain the permissions to create log-based metrics. Specifically, a principal needs the logging.logMetrics.create permission to create log-based metrics.

Note: To secure private logs data, such as Data Access audit logs and Access Transparency audit logs, from unauthorized access, ensure that principals are granted the minimal permissions they need to do their jobs. For example, principals that have the Project Editor (roles/editor) role can create log-based metrics with labels that can extract sensitive information.

Roles required to create and use log-based alerting policies

To create and manage log-based alerting policies, a principal needs the following Logging and Monitoring roles and permissions:

• To get the permissions that you need to create log-based alerting policies in Monitoring and to create the associated Logging notification rules, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your project:

  • Monitoring AlertPolicy Editor (roles/monitoring.alertPolicyEditor)
  • Logs Configuration Writer (roles/logging.configWriter)

  For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

  These predefined roles contain the permissions required to create log-based alerting policies in Monitoring and to create the associated Logging notification rules. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

  Required permissions

  The following permissions are required to create log-based alerting policies in Monitoring and to create the associated Logging notification rules:

  • monitoring.alertPolicies.create
  • logging.notificationRules.create

  You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

If you create your alerting policy in the Google Cloud CLI, then the following role or permission is also required:

• To get the permission that you need to create an alerting policy by using the Google Cloud CLI, ask your administrator to grant you the Service Usage Consumer (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageConsumer) IAM role on your project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

  This predefined role contains the serviceusage.services.use permission, which is required to create an alerting policy by using the Google Cloud CLI.

  You might also be able to get this permission with custom roles or other predefined roles.

If your Google Cloud project already has notification channels, then you can configure your alerting policy to use an existing channel without any additional roles or permissions. However, if you need to create a notification channel for your log-based alerting policy, then the following role or permission is required:

• To get the permission that you need to create a notification channel for a log-based alerting policy, ask your administrator to grant you the Monitoring NotificationChannel Editor (roles/monitoring.notificationChannelEditor) IAM role on your project.

  This predefined role contains the monitoring.notificationChannels.create permission, which is required to create a notification channel for a log-based alerting policy.

Logging access scopes

Access scopes are the legacy method of specifying permissions for the service accounts on your Compute Engine VM instances.

The following access scopes apply to the Logging API:

Access scope	Permissions granted
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.read	roles/logging.viewer
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write	roles/logging.logWriter
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.admin	Full access to the Logging API.
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform	Full access to the Logging API and to all other enabled Google Cloud APIs.

For information on using this legacy method to set your service accounts' levels of access, see Service account permissions.