Write policy analysis to BigQuery

This page explains how to analyze Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies asynchronously and write results to BigQuery. The process is similar to analyzing IAM policies except the analysis result is written to BigQuery tables.

Before you begin

Enable the Cloud Asset API.

Roles required to enable APIs

To enable APIs, you need the serviceusage.services.enable permission. If you created the project, then you likely already have this permission through the Owner role (roles/owner). Otherwise, you can get this permission through the Service Usage Admin role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin). Learn how to grant roles.

Enable the API

You must enable the API in the project you will use to send the query. This doesn't have to be the same resource that you scope your query to.

Required roles and permissions

The following roles and permissions are required to run a policy analysis and export the results to BigQuery.

Required IAM roles

To get the permissions that you need to analyze a policy and export the results to BigQuery, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project, folder, or organization that you will scope your query to:

BigQuery Data Editor (roles/bigquery.dataEditor)
Cloud Asset Viewer (roles/cloudasset.viewer)
To analyze policies with custom IAM roles: Role Viewer (roles/iam.roleViewer)
To use the Google Cloud CLI to analyze policies: Service Usage Consumer (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageConsumer)

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

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to analyze a policy and export the results to BigQuery. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to analyze a policy and export the results to BigQuery:

bigquery.datasets.create
bigquery.jobs.create
bigquery.tables.create
bigquery.tables.get
bigquery.tables.updateData
bigquery.tables.update
cloudasset.assets.analyzeIamPolicy
cloudasset.assets.searchAllResources
cloudasset.assets.searchAllIamPolicies
To analyze policies with custom IAM roles: iam.roles.get
To use the Google Cloud CLI to analyze policies: serviceusage.services.use

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

Required Google Workspace permissions

If you want to see if a principal has certain roles or permissions as a result of their membership in a Google Workspace group, you need the groups.read Google Workspace permission. This permission is contained in the Groups Reader Admin role, and in more powerful roles such as the Groups Admin or Super Admin roles. See Assign specific admin roles for more information.

Analyze policies and export results

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Policy Analyzer page.

Go to Policy Analyzer
In the Analyze policies section, find the query template you want to use, then click Create query. If you want to create a custom query, click Create custom query.
In the Select query scope field, select the project, folder, or organization that you want to scope the query to. Policy Analyzer will analyze access for that project, folder, or organization, as well as any resources within that project, folder, or organization.
Ensure that your query parameters are set:
- If you're using a query template, confirm the prefilled query parameters.
- If you're creating a custom query, set the resources, principals, roles, and permissions that you want to query for.
For more information about the types of queries you can create, see Analyze IAM policies.
In the pane labeled with the name of the query, click Analyze > Export result only. The Export results pane opens.
In the Set export destination section, enter the following information:
- Project: The project where your BigQuery dataset is located.
- Dataset: The BigQuery dataset that you want to export results to.
- Table: The prefix of the BigQuery tables to which the analysis results will be written. If a table with the specified prefix doesn't exist, BigQuery creates a new table.
Click Continue.
Optional: In the Configure additional settings section, select the options you want:
- Partitioning: Whether to partition the table. To learn more about partitioned tables, see Introduction to partitioned tables.
- Write preference: Specifies the action that occurs if the destination table or partition already exists. By default, if the table or partition already exists, BigQuery appends the data to the table or the latest partition.
Click Export.

Policy Analyzer runs your query and exports the results to the specified table.

gcloud

The AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning method allows you to issue an analysis request and get results in the specified BigQuery destination.

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

RESOURCE_TYPE: The type of the resource that you want to scope your search to. Only IAM allow policies attached to this resource and to its descendants will be analyzed. Use the value project, folder, or organization.
RESOURCE_ID: The ID of the Google Cloud project, folder, or organization that you want to scope your search to. Only IAM allow policies attached to this resource and to its descendants will be analyzed. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project. Folder and organization IDs are numeric, like 123456789012.
PRINCIPAL: The principal whose access you want to analyze, in the form PRINCIPAL_TYPE:ID—for example, user:my-user@example.com. For a full list of the principal types, see Principal identifiers.
PERMISSIONS: A comma-separated list of the permissions that you want to check for—for example, compute.instances.get,compute.instances.start. If you list multiple permissions, Policy Analyzer will check for any of the permissions listed.
DATASET: The BigQuery dataset in the form projects/PROJECT_ID/datasets/DATASET_ID, where PROJECT_ID is the alphanumeric ID of your Google Cloud project and DATASET_ID is the ID of your dataset.
TABLE_PREFIX: The prefix of the BigQuery tables to which the analysis results will be written. If a table with the specified prefix doesn't exist, BigQuery creates a new table.
PARTITION_KEY: Optional. The partition key for BigQuery partitioned table. Policy Analyzer only supports REQUEST_TIME partition keys.
WRITE_DISPOSITION: Optional. Specifies the action that occurs if the destination table or partition already exists. For a list of possible values, see writeDisposition. By default, if the table or partition already exists, BigQuery appends the data to the table or the latest partition.

Execute the gcloud asset analyze-iam-policy-longrunning command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud asset analyze-iam-policy-longrunning --RESOURCE_TYPE=RESOURCE_ID \
    --full-resource-name=FULL_RESOURCE_NAME \
    --identity=PRINCIPAL \
    --permissions='PERMISSIONS' \
    --bigquery-dataset=DATASET \
    --bigquery-table-prefix=TABLE_PREFIX \
    --bigquery-partition-key=PARTITION_KEY \
    --bigquery-write-disposition=WRITE_DISPOSITION

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud asset analyze-iam-policy-longrunning --RESOURCE_TYPE=RESOURCE_ID `
    --full-resource-name=FULL_RESOURCE_NAME `
    --identity=PRINCIPAL `
    --permissions='PERMISSIONS' `
    --bigquery-dataset=DATASET `
    --bigquery-table-prefix=TABLE_PREFIX `
    --bigquery-partition-key=PARTITION_KEY `
    --bigquery-write-disposition=WRITE_DISPOSITION

Windows (cmd.exe)

Note: If this command uses ' for quoting content, replace these single quotes with double quotes. If quoting is nested, use \" to escape the inner quotes.

gcloud asset analyze-iam-policy-longrunning --RESOURCE_TYPE=RESOURCE_ID ^
    --full-resource-name=FULL_RESOURCE_NAME ^
    --identity=PRINCIPAL ^
    --permissions='PERMISSIONS' ^
    --bigquery-dataset=DATASET ^
    --bigquery-table-prefix=TABLE_PREFIX ^
    --bigquery-partition-key=PARTITION_KEY ^
    --bigquery-write-disposition=WRITE_DISPOSITION

You should receive a response similar to the following:

Analyze IAM Policy in progress.
Use [gcloud asset operations describe projects/my-project/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/1195028485971902504711950280359719028666] to check the status of the operation.

REST

The AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning method allows you to issue an analysis request and get results in the specified BigQuery destination.

To analyze an IAM allow policy and export the results to BigQuery, use the Cloud Asset Inventory API's analyzeIamPolicyLongrunning method.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

RESOURCE_TYPE: The type of the resource that you want to scope your search to. Only IAM allow policies attached to this resource and to its descendants will be analyzed. Use the value projects, folders, or organizations.
RESOURCE_ID: The ID of the Google Cloud project, folder, or organization that you want to scope your search to. Only IAM allow policies attached to this resource and to its descendants will be analyzed. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project. Folder and organization IDs are numeric, like 123456789012.
FULL_RESOURCE_NAME: Optional. The full resource name of the resource that you want to analyze access for. For a list of full resource name formats, see Resource name format.
PRINCIPAL: Optional. The principal whose access you want to analyze, in the form PRINCIPAL_TYPE:ID—for example, user:my-user@example.com. For a full list of the principal types, see Principal identifiers.
PERMISSION_1, PERMISSION_2... PERMISSION_N: Optional. The permissions that you want to check for—for example, compute.instances.get. If you list multiple permissions, Policy Analyzer will check for any of the permissions listed.
DATASET: The BigQuery dataset in the form projects/PROJECT_ID/datasets/DATASET_ID, where PROJECT_ID is the alphanumeric ID of your Google Cloud project and DATASET_ID is the ID of your dataset.
TABLE_PREFIX: The prefix of the BigQuery tables to which the analysis results will be written. If a table with the specified prefix doesn't exist, BigQuery creates a new table.
PARTITION_KEY: Optional. The partition key for BigQuery partitioned table. Policy Analyzer only supports REQUEST_TIME partition keys.
WRITE_DISPOSITION: Optional. Specifies the action that occurs if the destination table or partition already exists. For a list of possible values, see writeDisposition. By default, if the table or partition already exists, BigQuery appends the data to the table or the latest partition.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://cloudasset.googleapis.com/v1/RESOURCE_TYPE/RESOURCE_ID:analyzeIamPolicyLongrunning

Request JSON body:

{
  "analysisQuery": {
    "resourceSelector": {
      "fullResourceName": "FULL_RESOURCE_NAME"
    },
    "identitySelector": {
      "identity": "PRINCIPAL"
    },
    "accessSelector": {
      "permissions": [
        "PERMISSION_1",
        "PERMISSION_2",
        "PERMISSION_N"
      ]
    }
  },
  "outputConfig": {
    "bigqueryDestination": {
      "dataset": "DATASET",
      "tablePrefix": "TABLE_PREFIX",
      "partitionKey": "PARTITION_KEY",
      "writeDisposition": "WRITE_DISPOSITION"
    }
  }
}

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://cloudasset.googleapis.com/v1/RESOURCE_TYPE/RESOURCE_ID:analyzeIamPolicyLongrunning"

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://cloudasset.googleapis.com/v1/RESOURCE_TYPE/RESOURCE_ID:analyzeIamPolicyLongrunning" | Select-Object -Expand Content

APIs Explorer (browser)

Copy the request body and open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Paste the request body in this tool, complete any other required fields, and click Execute.

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
  "name": "projects/my-project/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/1206385342502762515812063858425027606003",
  "metadata": {
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.asset.v1.AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunningMetadata",
    "createTime": "2022-04-12T21:31:10.753173929Z"
  }
}

View IAM policy analysis results

To view your IAM policy analysis results:

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

Go to BigQuery
To display the tables and views in the dataset, open the navigation panel. In the Explorer section, select your project to expand it, and then select a dataset.
From the list, select the tables with your prefix. The table with an analysis suffix contains the query and metadata (for example, operation name, request time, and non-critical errors). The table with analysis_result suffix is the result listing tuples of {identity, role(s)/permission(s), resource} together with IAM policies that generate those tuples.
To view a sample set of data, select the Preview tab.

API

To browse your table's data, call tabledata.list. In the tableId parameter, specify the name of your table.

You can configure the following optional parameters to control the output.

maxResults is the maximum number of results to return.
selectedFields is a comma-separated list of columns to return; If unspecified, all columns are returned.
startIndex is the zero-based index of the starting row to read.

Values are returned wrapped in a JSON object that you must parse, as described in the tabledata.list reference documentation.

Query BigQuery

This section provides example SQL queries to show you how to use BigQuery tables written by AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning. For more information on BigQuery syntax, see Standard SQL Query Syntax.

OP_ID is needed for most queries, you can get it from AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning response. For example, in gcloud, You will find OP_ID is 123456 in "Use [gcloud asset operations describe organizations/123456789/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/123456] to check the status of the operation.".

List Operations

Your table could store results of multiple AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning operations. You can use the following query to list all of them:

SELECT DISTINCT
  requestTime,
  opName
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis`
ORDER BY 1 DESC
;

List Analyses in one Operation

In one AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning operation, there could be multiple analysis records generated. For example, when you enable the analyze_service_account_impersonation option in your request, the result could contain one main analysis (with analysisId 0) and several service account impersonation analysis.

You can use the following query to find out all analysis by giving an operation name.

DECLARE _opName STRING DEFAULT "organizations/ORG_ID/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/OP_ID";

SELECT
  analysisId,
  requestTime,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysis.analysisQuery, true) as analysisQuery,
  analysis.fullyExplored,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysis.nonCriticalErrors, true) as nonCriticalErrors
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis`
WHERE opName=_opName
ORDER BY 1
;

List ACEs(Access Control Entries) in one Analysis

An ACE is an Access Control Entry {identity, role(s)/permission(s), resource}. You can use the following query to list ACE in one analysis.

DECLARE _opName STRING DEFAULT "organizations/ORG_ID/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/OP_ID";

SELECT DISTINCT
  ids.name AS identity,
  resources.fullResourceName AS resource,
  accesses.role AS role,
  accesses.permission AS permission
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis_result`,
  UNNEST(analysisResult.identityList.identities) AS ids,
  UNNEST(analysisResult.accessControlLists) AS acls,
  UNNEST(acls.accesses) AS accesses,
  UNNEST(acls.resources) AS resources
WHERE opName=_opName
AND analysisId = 0
ORDER BY 1,2,3,4
;

List ACEs(Access Control Entries) with IAM policy binding in one Analysis

In this query, we list both ACE and the IAM policy binding that generates this ACE for one analysis.

DECLARE _opName STRING DEFAULT "organizations/ORG_ID/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/OP_ID";

SELECT
  ids.name AS identity,
  resources.fullResourceName AS resource,
  accesses.role AS role,
  accesses.permission AS permission,
  analysisResult.attachedResourceFullName as iam_policy_attached_resource,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysisResult.iamBinding, true) as iam_policy_binding
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis_result`,
  UNNEST(analysisResult.identityList.identities) AS ids,
  UNNEST(analysisResult.accessControlLists) AS acls,
  UNNEST(acls.accesses) AS accesses,
  UNNEST(acls.resources) AS resources
WHERE opName=_opName AND analysisId = 0
ORDER BY 1,2,3,4
;

List IAM policy bindings in one Analysis

In this query, we list the IAM policy bindings appeared in one analysis.

DECLARE _opName STRING DEFAULT "organizations/ORG_ID/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/OP_ID";

SELECT DISTINCT
  analysisResult.attachedResourceFullName as iam_policy_attached_resource,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysisResult.iamBinding, true) as iam_policy_binding
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis_result`
WHERE opName=_opName AND analysisId = 0
ORDER BY 1, 2
;

List IAM policy bindings with ACE(Access Control Entry) in one Analysis

In this query, we list the IAM policy bindings with their derived ACEs in one analysis

DECLARE _opName STRING DEFAULT "organizations/ORG_ID/operations/AnalyzeIamPolicyLongrunning/OP_ID";

SELECT
  analysisResult.attachedResourceFullName as iam_policy_attached_resource,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysisResult.iamBinding, true) as iam_policy_binding,
  TO_JSON_STRING(analysisResult.identityList.identities, true) as identities,
  TO_JSON_STRING(acls.accesses, true) as accesses,
  TO_JSON_STRING(acls.resources, true) as resources
FROM `BQ_PROJECT_ID.BQ_DATASET_NAME.BQ_TABLE_PREFIX_analysis_result`,
  UNNEST(analysisResult.accessControlLists) AS acls
WHERE opName=_opName AND analysisId = 0
ORDER BY 1,2
;

Write policy analysis to BigQuery Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Before you begin

Required roles and permissions

Required IAM roles

Required permissions

Required Google Workspace permissions

Analyze policies and export results

Console

gcloud

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

Windows (PowerShell)

Windows (cmd.exe)

REST

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

PowerShell (Windows)

APIs Explorer (browser)

View IAM policy analysis results

Console

API

Query BigQuery

List Operations

List Analyses in one Operation

List ACEs(Access Control Entries) in one Analysis

List ACEs(Access Control Entries) with IAM policy binding in one Analysis

List IAM policy bindings in one Analysis

List IAM policy bindings with ACE(Access Control Entry) in one Analysis

Write policy analysis to BigQuery