AWS CLI Command Reference

[ aws . sts ]

get-session-token

Description

Returns a set of temporary credentials for an Amazon Web Services account or IAM user. The credentials consist of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token. Typically, you use GetSessionToken if you want to use MFA to protect programmatic calls to specific Amazon Web Services API operations like Amazon EC2 StopInstances . MFA-enabled IAM users would need to call GetSessionToken and submit an MFA code that is associated with their MFA device. Using the temporary security credentials that are returned from the call, IAM users can then make programmatic calls to API operations that require MFA authentication. If you do not supply a correct MFA code, then the API returns an access denied error. For a comparison of GetSessionToken with the other API operations that produce temporary credentials, see Requesting Temporary Security Credentials and Comparing the Amazon Web Services STS API operations in the IAM User Guide .

Note

No permissions are required for users to perform this operation. The purpose of the sts:GetSessionToken operation is to authenticate the user using MFA. You cannot use policies to control authentication operations. For more information, see Permissions for GetSessionToken in the IAM User Guide .

Session Duration

The GetSessionToken operation must be called by using the long-term Amazon Web Services security credentials of the Amazon Web Services account root user or an IAM user. Credentials that are created by IAM users are valid for the duration that you specify. This duration can range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) up to a maximum of 129,600 seconds (36 hours), with a default of 43,200 seconds (12 hours). Credentials based on account credentials can range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) up to 3,600 seconds (1 hour), with a default of 1 hour.

Permissions

The temporary security credentials created by GetSessionToken can be used to make API calls to any Amazon Web Services service with the following exceptions:

  • You cannot call any IAM API operations unless MFA authentication information is included in the request.

  • You cannot call any STS API except AssumeRole or GetCallerIdentity .

Note

We recommend that you do not call GetSessionToken with Amazon Web Services account root user credentials. Instead, follow our best practices by creating one or more IAM users, giving them the necessary permissions, and using IAM users for everyday interaction with Amazon Web Services.

The credentials that are returned by GetSessionToken are based on permissions associated with the user whose credentials were used to call the operation. If GetSessionToken is called using Amazon Web Services account root user credentials, the temporary credentials have root user permissions. Similarly, if GetSessionToken is called using the credentials of an IAM user, the temporary credentials have the same permissions as the IAM user.

For more information about using GetSessionToken to create temporary credentials, go to Temporary Credentials for Users in Untrusted Environments in the IAM User Guide .

See also: AWS API Documentation

Synopsis

  get-session-token
[--duration-seconds <value>]
[--serial-number <value>]
[--token-code <value>]
[--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml]
[--generate-cli-skeleton <value>]
[--debug]
[--endpoint-url <value>]
[--no-verify-ssl]
[--no-paginate]
[--output <value>]
[--query <value>]
[--profile <value>]
[--region <value>]
[--version <value>]
[--color <value>]
[--no-sign-request]
[--ca-bundle <value>]
[--cli-read-timeout <value>]
[--cli-connect-timeout <value>]
[--cli-binary-format <value>]
[--no-cli-pager]
[--cli-auto-prompt]
[--no-cli-auto-prompt]

Options

--duration-seconds (integer)

The duration, in seconds, that the credentials should remain valid. Acceptable durations for IAM user sessions range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) to 129,600 seconds (36 hours), with 43,200 seconds (12 hours) as the default. Sessions for Amazon Web Services account owners are restricted to a maximum of 3,600 seconds (one hour). If the duration is longer than one hour, the session for Amazon Web Services account owners defaults to one hour.

--serial-number (string)

The identification number of the MFA device that is associated with the IAM user who is making the GetSessionToken call. Specify this value if the IAM user has a policy that requires MFA authentication. The value is either the serial number for a hardware device (such as GAHT12345678 ) or an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for a virtual device (such as arn:aws:iam::123456789012:mfa/user ). You can find the device for an IAM user by going to the Amazon Web Services Management Console and viewing the user’s security credentials.

The regex used to validate this parameter is a string of characters consisting of upper- and lower-case alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include underscores or any of the following characters: =,.@:/-

--token-code (string)

The value provided by the MFA device, if MFA is required. If any policy requires the IAM user to submit an MFA code, specify this value. If MFA authentication is required, the user must provide a code when requesting a set of temporary security credentials. A user who fails to provide the code receives an “access denied” response when requesting resources that require MFA authentication.

The format for this parameter, as described by its regex pattern, is a sequence of six numeric digits.

--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml (string) Reads arguments from the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by --generate-cli-skeleton. If other arguments are provided on the command line, those values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally. This may not be specified along with --cli-input-yaml.

--generate-cli-skeleton (string) Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value input, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for --cli-input-json. Similarly, if provided yaml-input it will print a sample input YAML that can be used with --cli-input-yaml. If provided with the value output, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command. The generated JSON skeleton is not stable between versions of the AWS CLI and there are no backwards compatibility guarantees in the JSON skeleton generated.

Global Options

--debug (boolean)

Turn on debug logging.

--endpoint-url (string)

Override command’s default URL with the given URL.

--no-verify-ssl (boolean)

By default, the AWS CLI uses SSL when communicating with AWS services. For each SSL connection, the AWS CLI will verify SSL certificates. This option overrides the default behavior of verifying SSL certificates.

--no-paginate (boolean)

Disable automatic pagination.

--output (string)

The formatting style for command output.

  • json

  • text

  • table

  • yaml

  • yaml-stream

--query (string)

A JMESPath query to use in filtering the response data.

--profile (string)

Use a specific profile from your credential file.

--region (string)

The region to use. Overrides config/env settings.

--version (string)

Display the version of this tool.

--color (string)

Turn on/off color output.

  • on

  • off

  • auto

--no-sign-request (boolean)

Do not sign requests. Credentials will not be loaded if this argument is provided.

--ca-bundle (string)

The CA certificate bundle to use when verifying SSL certificates. Overrides config/env settings.

--cli-read-timeout (int)

The maximum socket read time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket read will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

--cli-connect-timeout (int)

The maximum socket connect time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket connect will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

--cli-binary-format (string)

The formatting style to be used for binary blobs. The default format is base64. The base64 format expects binary blobs to be provided as a base64 encoded string. The raw-in-base64-out format preserves compatibility with AWS CLI V1 behavior and binary values must be passed literally. When providing contents from a file that map to a binary blob fileb:// will always be treated as binary and use the file contents directly regardless of the cli-binary-format setting. When using file:// the file contents will need to properly formatted for the configured cli-binary-format.

  • base64

  • raw-in-base64-out

--no-cli-pager (boolean)

Disable cli pager for output.

--cli-auto-prompt (boolean)

Automatically prompt for CLI input parameters.

--no-cli-auto-prompt (boolean)

Disable automatically prompt for CLI input parameters.

Examples

Note

To use the following examples, you must have the AWS CLI installed and configured. See the Getting started guide in the AWS CLI User Guide for more information.

Unless otherwise stated, all examples have unix-like quotation rules. These examples will need to be adapted to your terminal’s quoting rules. See Using quotation marks with strings in the AWS CLI User Guide .

To get a set of short term credentials for an IAM identity

The following get-session-token example retrieves a set of short-term credentials for the IAM identity making the call. The resulting credentials can be used for requests where multi-factor authentication (MFA) is required by policy. The credentials expire 15 minutes after they are generated.

aws sts get-session-token \
    --duration-seconds 900 \
    --serial-number "YourMFADeviceSerialNumber" \
    --token-code 123456

Output:

{
    "Credentials": {
        "AccessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "SecretAccessKey": "wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYzEXAMPLEKEY",
        "SessionToken": "AQoEXAMPLEH4aoAH0gNCAPyJxz4BlCFFxWNE1OPTgk5TthT+FvwqnKwRcOIfrRh3c/LTo6UDdyJwOOvEVPvLXCrrrUtdnniCEXAMPLE/IvU1dYUg2RVAJBanLiHb4IgRmpRV3zrkuWJOgQs8IZZaIv2BXIa2R4OlgkBN9bkUDNCJiBeb/AXlzBBko7b15fjrBs2+cTQtpZ3CYWFXG8C5zqx37wnOE49mRl/+OtkIKGO7fAE",
        "Expiration": "2020-05-19T18:06:10+00:00"
    }
}

For more information, see Requesting Temporary Security Credentials in the IAM User Guide.

Output

Credentials -> (structure)

The temporary security credentials, which include an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security (or session) token.

Note

The size of the security token that STS API operations return is not fixed. We strongly recommend that you make no assumptions about the maximum size.

AccessKeyId -> (string)

The access key ID that identifies the temporary security credentials.

SecretAccessKey -> (string)

The secret access key that can be used to sign requests.

SessionToken -> (string)

The token that users must pass to the service API to use the temporary credentials.

Expiration -> (timestamp)

The date on which the current credentials expire.

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