Bulk recording export S3 integration failing with 403

General Discussion
1
  • Environment: Genesys Cloud EU-West-1
  • Integration: S3 Bucket Policy with IAM Role trust
  • Job Status: FAILED
  • Error: AWS 403 Forbidden on upload

Stuck on the final upload step of the bulk export job for a legal discovery request. The Genesys Cloud service account has recording:export and bulk_export:write permissions, yet the S3 bucket rejects the PUT request with a 403. The IAM role trust policy is valid, so the issue seems to be with the temporary credentials generated by the export job. Is there a specific scope requirement for the S3 bucket policy that Genesys Cloud enforces?

2

resource “aws_iam_role_policy” “genesys_s3_upload” {
name = “GenesysBulkExportPolicy”
role = aws_iam_role.genesys_trust_role.id

policy = jsonencode({
Version = “2012-10-17”
Statement = [
{
Sid = “AllowGenesysUpload”
Effect = “Allow”
Action = [
“s3:PutObject”,
“s3:PutObjectAcl”
]
Resource = “arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*”
},
{
Sid = “AllowBucketCheck”
Effect = “Allow”
Action = “s3:ListBucket”
Resource = “arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name”
}
]
})
}

{
“Version”: “2012-10-17”,
“Statement”: [
{
“Sid”: “GenesysUpload”,
“Effect”: “Allow”,
“Principal”: {
“AWS”: “arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GenesysTrustedRole”
},
“Action”: “s3:PutObject”,
“Resource”: “arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*”,
“Condition”: {
“StringEquals”: {
“s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption”: “aws:kms”
}
}
}
]
}

The 403 error usually stems from missing **`s3:PutObjectAcl`** permissions or incorrect bucket policy syntax. Genesys Cloud often sets an ACL on upload, even if not explicitly requested in the API payload. If the IAM role lacks this specific action, S3 rejects the PUT request immediately.

Check the bucket policy as well. The principal must match the external ID or role ARN exactly. A common mistake is using the account ID instead of the full role ARN in the `Principal` field.



Also verify **Server-Side Encryption (SSE)** settings. If the bucket enforces SSE-KMS, the IAM role needs **`kms:GenerateDataKey`** and **`kms:Decrypt`** permissions on the specific key. Without KMS access, the upload fails with a 403, masking the real issue as a permissions error.

Use the AWS CLI to test the role directly:
`aws s3api put-object --bucket your-bucket-name --key test.txt --body ./test.txt --role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/GenesysTrustedRole`

This isolates whether the issue is Genesys-specific or a pure AWS config problem. Most automated deployments miss the KMS policy attachment. Add it to your Terraform state and retry the export job.
3

As far as I remember, the 403 often hides behind a missing KMS key permission rather than S3 access.

Error: AWS 403 Forbidden on upload

Check if the IAM role has kms:Decrypt for the bucket’s server-side encryption key.

4

The documentation actually says you need s3:GetBucketLocation too, otherwise the SDK fails before the PUT. Add that action to the policy and retry the export.

5

You need to verify the S3 bucket policy explicitly allows the Genesys Cloud AWS account ID. The IAM role permissions are correct, but if the bucket policy lacks the Principal statement for Genesys, it blocks the request regardless of user permissions. Check the policy JSON for the correct AWS::AccountID in the Principal field.