When a new policy is attached at the root level, what does it automatically inherit?

When a new policy is attached at the root level within the OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) environment, it automatically inherits access permissions from all child compartments. This is a fundamental aspect of the OCI compartment model, which is designed as a hierarchical structure.

By placing policies at the root level, it creates a baseline set of permissions that applies universally throughout all compartments within the tenancy. All child compartments derive their access rules from the policies established at the root level, ensuring a consistent application of permissions across the entire environment. This inheritance mechanism facilitates easier management of access controls and ensures that any new compartments created under the root will automatically be governed by the rules defined at the top level.

Understanding this inheritance is crucial for effectively designing access strategies and ensures that administrators can implement permissions across multiple compartments without needing to replicate policies at each individual level. It simplifies governance and helps maintain security compliance across the various resources in the cloud infrastructure.