[ aws . iam ]

create-virtual-mfa-device

Description

Creates a new virtual MFA device for the AWS account. After creating the virtual MFA, use EnableMFADevice to attach the MFA device to an IAM user. For more information about creating and working with virtual MFA devices, go to Using a Virtual MFA Device in the IAM User Guide .

The number and size of IAM resources in an AWS account are limited. For more information, see IAM and STS Quotas in the IAM User Guide .

Warning

The seed information contained in the QR code and the Base32 string should be treated like any other secret access information. In other words, protect the seed information as you would your AWS access keys or your passwords. After you provision your virtual device, you should ensure that the information is destroyed following secure procedures.

See also: AWS API Documentation

See ‘aws help’ for descriptions of global parameters.

Synopsis

  create-virtual-mfa-device
[--path <value>]
--virtual-mfa-device-name <value>
--outfile <value>
--bootstrap-method <value>

Options

--path (string)

The path for the virtual MFA device. For more information about paths, see IAM Identifiers in the IAM User Guide .

This parameter is optional. If it is not included, it defaults to a slash (/).

This parameter allows (through its regex pattern ) a string of characters consisting of either a forward slash (/) by itself or a string that must begin and end with forward slashes. In addition, it can contain any ASCII character from the ! (\u0021 ) through the DEL character (\u007F ), including most punctuation characters, digits, and upper and lowercased letters.

--virtual-mfa-device-name (string)

The name of the virtual MFA device. Use with path to uniquely identify a virtual MFA device.

This parameter allows (through its regex pattern ) a string of characters consisting of upper and lowercase alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include any of the following characters: _+=,.@-

--outfile (string) The output path and file name where the bootstrap information will be stored.

--bootstrap-method (string) Method to use to seed the virtual MFA. Valid values are: QRCodePNG | Base32StringSeed

See ‘aws help’ for descriptions of global parameters.

Examples

To create a virtual MFA device

This example creates a new virtual MFA device called BobsMFADevice. It creates a file that contains bootstrap information called QRCode.png and places it in the C:/ directory. The bootstrap method used in this example is QRCodePNG:

aws iam create-virtual-mfa-device --virtual-mfa-device-name BobsMFADevice --outfile C:/QRCode.png --bootstrap-method QRCodePNG

Output:

{
    "VirtualMFADevice": {
        "SerialNumber": "arn:aws:iam::210987654321:mfa/BobsMFADevice"
}

For more information, see Using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Devices with AWS in the Using IAM guide.

Output

VirtualMFADevice -> (structure)

A structure containing details about the new virtual MFA device.

SerialNumber -> (string)

The serial number associated with VirtualMFADevice .

Base32StringSeed -> (blob)

The base32 seed defined as specified in RFC3548 . The Base32StringSeed is base64-encoded.

QRCodePNG -> (blob)

A QR code PNG image that encodes otpauth://totp/$virtualMFADeviceName@$AccountName?secret=$Base32String where $virtualMFADeviceName is one of the create call arguments. AccountName is the user name if set (otherwise, the account ID otherwise), and Base32String is the seed in base32 format. The Base32String value is base64-encoded.

User -> (structure)

The IAM user associated with this virtual MFA device.

Path -> (string)

The path to the user. For more information about paths, see IAM Identifiers in the IAM User Guide .

UserName -> (string)

The friendly name identifying the user.

UserId -> (string)

The stable and unique string identifying the user. For more information about IDs, see IAM Identifiers in the IAM User Guide .

Arn -> (string)

The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) that identifies the user. For more information about ARNs and how to use ARNs in policies, see IAM Identifiers in the IAM User Guide .

CreateDate -> (timestamp)

The date and time, in ISO 8601 date-time format , when the user was created.

PasswordLastUsed -> (timestamp)

The date and time, in ISO 8601 date-time format , when the user’s password was last used to sign in to an AWS website. For a list of AWS websites that capture a user’s last sign-in time, see the Credential Reports topic in the IAM User Guide . If a password is used more than once in a five-minute span, only the first use is returned in this field. If the field is null (no value), then it indicates that they never signed in with a password. This can be because:

  • The user never had a password.

  • A password exists but has not been used since IAM started tracking this information on October 20, 2014.

A null value does not mean that the user never had a password. Also, if the user does not currently have a password but had one in the past, then this field contains the date and time the most recent password was used.

This value is returned only in the GetUser and ListUsers operations.

PermissionsBoundary -> (structure)

The ARN of the policy used to set the permissions boundary for the user.

For more information about permissions boundaries, see Permissions Boundaries for IAM Identities in the IAM User Guide .

PermissionsBoundaryType -> (string)

The permissions boundary usage type that indicates what type of IAM resource is used as the permissions boundary for an entity. This data type can only have a value of Policy .

PermissionsBoundaryArn -> (string)

The ARN of the policy used to set the permissions boundary for the user or role.

Tags -> (list)

A list of tags that are associated with the specified user. For more information about tagging, see Tagging IAM Identities in the IAM User Guide .

(structure)

A structure that represents user-provided metadata that can be associated with a resource such as an IAM user or role. For more information about tagging, see Tagging IAM Identities in the IAM User Guide .

Key -> (string)

The key name that can be used to look up or retrieve the associated value. For example, Department or Cost Center are common choices.

Value -> (string)

The value associated with this tag. For example, tags with a key name of Department could have values such as Human Resources , Accounting , and Support . Tags with a key name of Cost Center might have values that consist of the number associated with the different cost centers in your company. Typically, many resources have tags with the same key name but with different values.

Note

AWS always interprets the tag Value as a single string. If you need to store an array, you can store comma-separated values in the string. However, you must interpret the value in your code.

EnableDate -> (timestamp)

The date and time on which the virtual MFA device was enabled.