Getting IAM Identity Center user credentials for the AWS CLI or AWS SDKs - AWS IAM Identity Center
PrerequisitesConsiderationsGetting and refreshing temporary credentials

Getting IAM Identity Center user credentials for the AWS CLI or AWS SDKs

You can access AWS services programmatically by using the AWS Command Line Interface or AWS Software Development Kits (SDKs) with user credentials from IAM Identity Center. This topic describes how to get temporary credentials for a user in IAM Identity Center.

The AWS access portal provides IAM Identity Center users with single-sign on access to their AWS accounts and cloud applications. After you sign in to the AWS access portal as an IAM Identity Center user, you can get temporary credentials. You can then use the credentials, also referred to as IAM Identity Center user credentials, in the AWS CLI or AWS SDKs to access resources in an AWS account.

If you’re using the AWS CLI to access AWS services programmatically, you can use the procedures in this topic to initiate access to the AWS CLI. For information about the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

If you’re using the AWS SDKs to access AWS services programmatically, following the procedures in this topic also directly establishes authentication for the AWS SDKs. For information about the AWS SDKs, see the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide.

Note

Users in IAM Identity Center are different than IAM users. IAM users are granted long-term credentials to AWS resources. Users in IAM Identity Center are granted temporary credentials. We recommend that you use temporary credentials as a security best practice for accessing your AWS accounts because these credentials are generated every time you sign in.

Prerequisites

To get temporary credentials for your IAM Identity Center user, you'll need the following:

  • An IAM Identity Center user – You'll sign in to the AWS access portal as this user. You or your administrator might create this user. For information about how to enable IAM Identity Center and create an IAM Identity Center user, see Get started with common tasks in IAM Identity Center.

  • User access to an AWS account – To grant an IAM Identity Center user permission to retrieve their temporary credentials, you or an administrator must assign the IAM Identity Center user to a permission set. Permission sets are stored in IAM Identity Center and define the level of access that an IAM Identity Center user has to an AWS account. If your administrator created the IAM Identity Center user for you, ask them to add this access for you. For more information, see Assign user access to AWS accounts.

  • AWS CLI installed – To use the temporary credentials, you must install the AWS CLI. For instructions, see Installing or updating the latest version of the AWS CLI in the AWS CLI User Guide.

Considerations

Before you complete the steps to get temporary credentials for your IAM Identity Center user, keep the following considerations in mind:

  • IAM Identity Center creates IAM roles – When you assign a user in IAM Identity Center to a permission set, IAM Identity Center creates a corresponding IAM role from the permission set. IAM roles created by permission sets differ from IAM roles created in AWS Identity and Access Management in the following ways:

    • IAM Identity Center owns and secures the roles that are created by permission sets. Only IAM Identity Center can modify these roles.

    • Only users in IAM Identity Center can assume the roles that correspond to their assigned permission sets. You can’t assign permission set access to IAM users, IAM federated users, or service accounts.

    • You can’t modify a role trust policy on these roles to allow access to principals outside of IAM Identity Center.

    For information about how to get temporary credentials for a role that you create in IAM, see Using temporary security credentials with the AWS CLI in the AWS Identity and Access Management User Guide.

  • You can set the session duration for permission sets – After you sign in to the AWS access portal, the permission set to which your IAM Identity Center user is assigned appears as an available role. IAM Identity Center creates a separate session for this role. This session can be from one to 12 hours, depending the session duration configured for the permission set. The default session duration is one hour. For more information, see Set session duration for AWS accounts.

Getting and refreshing temporary credentials

You can get and refresh temporary credentials for your IAM Identity Center user automatically or manually.

Automatic credential refresh (recommended)

Automatic credential refresh uses the Open ID Connect (OIDC) Device Code Authorization standard. With this method, you initiate access directly by using the aws configure sso command in the AWS CLI. You can use this command to automatically access any role that's associated with any permission set that you’re assigned to for any AWS account.

To access the role created for your IAM Identity Center user, run the aws configure sso command, and then authorize the AWS CLI from a browser window. As long as you have an active AWS access portal session, the AWS CLI automatically retrieves temporary credentials and refreshes the credentials automatically.

For more information, see Configure your profile with the aws configure sso wizard in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

To get temporary credentials that automatically refresh

  1. Sign in to the AWS access portal by using the specific sign-in URL provided by your administrator. If you created the IAM Identity Center user, AWS sent an email invitation that includes your sign-in URL. For more information, see Sign in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

  2. In the Accounts tab, locate the AWS account from which you want to retrieve credentials. When you choose the account, the account name, account ID, and email address associated with the account appear.

    Note

    If you don't see any AWS accounts listed, it's likely that you've not yet been assigned to a permission set for that account. In this case, contact your administrator and ask them to add this access for you. For more information, see Assign user access to AWS accounts.

  3. Below the name of the account, the permission set to which your IAM Identity Center user is assigned appears as an available role. For example, if your IAM Identity Center user is assigned to the PowerUserAccess permission set for the account, the role appears in the AWS access portal as PowerUserAccess.

  4. Depending on your option next to the role name, either choose Access keys or choose Command line or programmatic access.

  5. In the Get credentials dialog box, choose either macOS and Linux, Windows, or PowerShell, depending on the operating system on which you installed the AWS CLI.

  6. Under AWS IAM Identity Center credentials (Recommended), your SSO Start URL and SSO Region are displayed. These values are required to configure both an IAM Identity Center enabled profile and sso-session to your AWS CLI. To complete this configuration, follow the instructions in Configure your profile with the aws configure sso wizard in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

Continue using the AWS CLI as necessary for your AWS account until the credentials have expired.

Manual credential refresh

You can use the manual credential refresh method to get temporary credentials for a role that's associated with a specific permission set in a specific AWS account. To do so, you copy and paste the required commands for the temporary credentials. With this method, you must refresh the temporary credentials manually.

You can run AWS CLI commands until your temporary credentials expire.

To get credentials that you manually refresh

  1. Sign in to the AWS access portal by using the specific sign-in URL provided by your administrator. If you created the IAM Identity Center user, AWS sent an email invitation that includes your sign-in URL. For more information, see Sign in to the AWS access portal in the AWS Sign-In User Guide.

  2. In the Accounts tab, locate the AWS account from which you want to retrieve access credentials and expand it to show the IAM role name (for example Administrator). Depending on your option next to the IAM role name, either choose Access keys or choose Command line or programmatic access.

    Note

    If you don't see any AWS accounts listed, it's likely that you've not yet been assigned to a permission set for that account. In this case, contact your administrator and ask them to add this access for you. For more information, see Assign user access to AWS accounts.

  3. In the Get credentials dialog box, choose MacOS and Linux, Windows, or PowerShell, depending on the operating system on which you installed the AWS CLI.

  4. Choose any of the following options:

    • Option 1: Set AWS environment variables

      Choose this option to override all credential settings, including any settings in the credentials files and config files. For more information, see Environment variables to configure the AWS CLI in the AWS CLI User Guide.

      To use this option, copy the commands to your clipboard, paste the commands into your AWS CLI terminal window, and then press Enter to set the required environment variables.

    • Option 2: Add a profile to your AWS credentials file

      Choose this option to run commands with different sets of credentials.

      To use this option, copy the commands to your clipboard, and then paste the commands into your shared AWS credentials file to set up a new named profile. For more information, see Shared config and credentials files in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide. To use this credential, specify the --profile option in your AWS CLI command. This affects all environments that use the same credential file.

    • Option 3: Use individual values in your AWS service client

      Choose this option to access AWS resources from an AWS service client. For more information, see Tools to Build on AWS.

      To use this option, copy the values to your clipboard, paste the values into your code, and assign them to the appropriate variables for your SDK. For more information, see the documentation for your specific SDK API.