Minimum IAM Permissions required for creating and managing cluster using eksctl. Please replace "account-id" in the permissions below with your aws account's id.

ekstcl-min-permission.json

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "iam:AddRoleToInstanceProfile",
                "iam:AttachRolePolicy",
                "iam:CreateInstanceProfile",
                "iam:CreateRole",
                "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
                "iam:DeleteInstanceProfile",
                "iam:DeleteRole",
                "iam:DeleteRolePolicy",
                "iam:DeleteServiceLinkedRole",
                "iam:DetachRolePolicy",
                "iam:GetInstanceProfile",
                "iam:GetRole",
                "iam:GetRolePolicy",
                "iam:ListAttachedRolePolicies",
                "iam:ListInstanceProfiles",
                "iam:ListInstanceProfilesForRole",
                "iam:PassRole",
                "iam:PutRolePolicy",
                "iam:RemoveRoleFromInstanceProfile",
                "iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
                "iam:ListRoleTags"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:iam::account-id:instance-profile/eksctl-*",
                "arn:aws:iam::account-id:role/eksctl-*",
                "arn:aws:iam::account-id:role/aws-service-role/eks-nodegroup.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSNodegroup"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ssm:GetParameter",
                "ssm:GetParameters",
                "ssm:DescribeParameters"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ssm:GetParameter",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ssm::::parameter/"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ssm:GetParameter",
                "ssm:GetParameters"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ssm::::parameter/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "cloudformation:*",
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "eks:*"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "ec2:DeleteInternetGateway",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:internet-gateway/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "autoscaling:CreateLaunchConfiguration",
                "autoscaling:DeleteLaunchConfiguration"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:autoscaling:*:*:launchConfiguration:*:launchConfigurationName/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "autoscaling:UpdateAutoScalingGroup",
                "autoscaling:DeleteAutoScalingGroup",
                "autoscaling:CreateAutoScalingGroup"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:autoscaling:*:*:autoScalingGroup:*:autoScalingGroupName/*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "autoscaling:DescribeAutoScalingGroups",
                "autoscaling:DescribeLaunchConfigurations",
                "autoscaling:DescribeScalingActivities"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        },
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:DeleteSubnet",
                "ec2:DeleteTags",
                "ec2:CreateNatGateway",
                "ec2:CreateVpc",
                "ec2:AttachInternetGateway",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcAttribute",
                "ec2:DeleteRouteTable",
                "ec2:AssociateRouteTable",
                "ec2:DescribeInternetGateways",
                "ec2:CreateRoute",
                "ec2:CreateInternetGateway",
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
                "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:ModifyVpcAttribute",
                "ec2:ModifySubnetAttribute",
                "ec2:DeleteInternetGateway",
                "ec2:DescribeRouteTables",
                "ec2:ReleaseAddress",
                "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
                "ec2:DescribeTags",
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:DeleteRoute",
                "ec2:CreateRouteTable",
                "ec2:DetachInternetGateway",
                "ec2:DescribeNatGateways",
                "ec2:DisassociateRouteTable",
                "ec2:AllocateAddress",
                "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
                "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
                "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
                "ec2:DeleteNatGateway",
                "ec2:DeleteVpc",
                "ec2:CreateSubnet",
                "ec2:DescribeSubnets",
                "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
                "ec2:DescribeImages",
                "ec2:describeAddresses",
                "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
                "ec2:CreateLaunchTemplate",
                "ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplates",
                "ec2:DeleteLaunchTemplate",
                "ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplateVersions",
                "ec2:RunInstances"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}