CreateSecretCommand

Creates a new secret. A secret can be a password, a set of credentials such as a user name and password, an OAuth token, or other secret information that you store in an encrypted form in Secrets Manager. The secret also includes the connection information to access a database or other service, which Secrets Manager doesn't encrypt. A secret in Secrets Manager consists of both the protected secret data and the important information needed to manage the secret.

For secrets that use managed rotation, you need to create the secret through the managing service. For more information, see Secrets Manager secrets managed by other Amazon Web Services services .

For information about creating a secret in the console, see Create a secret .

To create a secret, you can provide the secret value to be encrypted in either the SecretString parameter or the SecretBinary parameter, but not both. If you include SecretString or SecretBinary then Secrets Manager creates an initial secret version and automatically attaches the staging label AWSCURRENT to it.

For database credentials you want to rotate, for Secrets Manager to be able to rotate the secret, you must make sure the JSON you store in the SecretString matches the JSON structure of a database secret .

If you don't specify an KMS encryption key, Secrets Manager uses the Amazon Web Services managed key aws/secretsmanager. If this key doesn't already exist in your account, then Secrets Manager creates it for you automatically. All users and roles in the Amazon Web Services account automatically have access to use aws/secretsmanager. Creating aws/secretsmanager can result in a one-time significant delay in returning the result.

If the secret is in a different Amazon Web Services account from the credentials calling the API, then you can't use aws/secretsmanager to encrypt the secret, and you must create and use a customer managed KMS key.

Secrets Manager generates a CloudTrail log entry when you call this action. Do not include sensitive information in request parameters except SecretBinary or SecretString because it might be logged. For more information, see Logging Secrets Manager events with CloudTrail .

Required permissions: secretsmanager:CreateSecret. If you include tags in the secret, you also need secretsmanager:TagResource. To add replica Regions, you must also have secretsmanager:ReplicateSecretToRegions. For more information, see IAM policy actions for Secrets Manager  and Authentication and access control in Secrets Manager .

To encrypt the secret with a KMS key other than aws/secretsmanager, you need kms:GenerateDataKey and kms:Decrypt permission to the key.

When you enter commands in a command shell, there is a risk of the command history being accessed or utilities having access to your command parameters. This is a concern if the command includes the value of a secret. Learn how to Mitigate the risks of using command-line tools to store Secrets Manager secrets .

Example Syntax

Use a bare-bones client and the command you need to make an API call.

import { SecretsManagerClient, CreateSecretCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-secrets-manager"; // ES Modules import
// const { SecretsManagerClient, CreateSecretCommand } = require("@aws-sdk/client-secrets-manager"); // CommonJS import
const client = new SecretsManagerClient(config);
const input = { // CreateSecretRequest
  Name: "STRING_VALUE", // required
  ClientRequestToken: "STRING_VALUE",
  Description: "STRING_VALUE",
  KmsKeyId: "STRING_VALUE",
  SecretBinary: new Uint8Array(), // e.g. Buffer.from("") or new TextEncoder().encode("")
  SecretString: "STRING_VALUE",
  Tags: [ // TagListType
    { // Tag
      Key: "STRING_VALUE",
      Value: "STRING_VALUE",
    },
  ],
  AddReplicaRegions: [ // AddReplicaRegionListType
    { // ReplicaRegionType
      Region: "STRING_VALUE",
      KmsKeyId: "STRING_VALUE",
    },
  ],
  ForceOverwriteReplicaSecret: true || false,
};
const command = new CreateSecretCommand(input);
const response = await client.send(command);
// { // CreateSecretResponse
//   ARN: "STRING_VALUE",
//   Name: "STRING_VALUE",
//   VersionId: "STRING_VALUE",
//   ReplicationStatus: [ // ReplicationStatusListType
//     { // ReplicationStatusType
//       Region: "STRING_VALUE",
//       KmsKeyId: "STRING_VALUE",
//       Status: "InSync" || "Failed" || "InProgress",
//       StatusMessage: "STRING_VALUE",
//       LastAccessedDate: new Date("TIMESTAMP"),
//     },
//   ],
// };

Example Usage

 There was an error loading the code editor. Retry

CreateSecretCommand Input

See CreateSecretCommandInput for more details

Parameter
Type
Description
Name
Required
string | undefined

The name of the new secret.

The secret name can contain ASCII letters, numbers, and the following characters: /_+=.-

Do not end your secret name with a hyphen followed by six characters. If you do so, you risk confusion and unexpected results when searching for a secret by partial ARN. Secrets Manager automatically adds a hyphen and six random characters after the secret name at the end of the ARN.

AddReplicaRegions
ReplicaRegionType[] | undefined

A list of Regions and KMS keys to replicate secrets.

ClientRequestToken
string | undefined

If you include SecretString or SecretBinary, then Secrets Manager creates an initial version for the secret, and this parameter specifies the unique identifier for the new version.

If you use the Amazon Web Services CLI or one of the Amazon Web Services SDKs to call this operation, then you can leave this parameter empty. The CLI or SDK generates a random UUID for you and includes it as the value for this parameter in the request.

If you generate a raw HTTP request to the Secrets Manager service endpoint, then you must generate a ClientRequestToken and include it in the request.

This value helps ensure idempotency. Secrets Manager uses this value to prevent the accidental creation of duplicate versions if there are failures and retries during a rotation. We recommend that you generate a UUID-type  value to ensure uniqueness of your versions within the specified secret.

  • If the ClientRequestToken value isn't already associated with a version of the secret then a new version of the secret is created.

  • If a version with this value already exists and the version SecretString and SecretBinary values are the same as those in the request, then the request is ignored.

  • If a version with this value already exists and that version's SecretString and SecretBinary values are different from those in the request, then the request fails because you cannot modify an existing version. Instead, use PutSecretValue to create a new version.

This value becomes the VersionId of the new version.

Description
string | undefined

The description of the secret.

ForceOverwriteReplicaSecret
boolean | undefined

Specifies whether to overwrite a secret with the same name in the destination Region. By default, secrets aren't overwritten.

KmsKeyId
string | undefined

The ARN, key ID, or alias of the KMS key that Secrets Manager uses to encrypt the secret value in the secret. An alias is always prefixed by alias/, for example alias/aws/secretsmanager. For more information, see About aliases .

To use a KMS key in a different account, use the key ARN or the alias ARN.

If you don't specify this value, then Secrets Manager uses the key aws/secretsmanager. If that key doesn't yet exist, then Secrets Manager creates it for you automatically the first time it encrypts the secret value.

If the secret is in a different Amazon Web Services account from the credentials calling the API, then you can't use aws/secretsmanager to encrypt the secret, and you must create and use a customer managed KMS key.

SecretBinary
Uint8Array | undefined

The binary data to encrypt and store in the new version of the secret. We recommend that you store your binary data in a file and then pass the contents of the file as a parameter.

Either SecretString or SecretBinary must have a value, but not both.

This parameter is not available in the Secrets Manager console.

Sensitive: This field contains sensitive information, so the service does not include it in CloudTrail log entries. If you create your own log entries, you must also avoid logging the information in this field.

SecretString
string | undefined

The text data to encrypt and store in this new version of the secret. We recommend you use a JSON structure of key/value pairs for your secret value.

Either SecretString or SecretBinary must have a value, but not both.

If you create a secret by using the Secrets Manager console then Secrets Manager puts the protected secret text in only the SecretString parameter. The Secrets Manager console stores the information as a JSON structure of key/value pairs that a Lambda rotation function can parse.

Sensitive: This field contains sensitive information, so the service does not include it in CloudTrail log entries. If you create your own log entries, you must also avoid logging the information in this field.

Tags
Tag[] | undefined

A list of tags to attach to the secret. Each tag is a key and value pair of strings in a JSON text string, for example:

[{"Key":"CostCenter","Value":"12345"},{"Key":"environment","Value":"production"}]

Secrets Manager tag key names are case sensitive. A tag with the key "ABC" is a different tag from one with key "abc".

If you check tags in permissions policies as part of your security strategy, then adding or removing a tag can change permissions. If the completion of this operation would result in you losing your permissions for this secret, then Secrets Manager blocks the operation and returns an Access Denied error. For more information, see Control access to secrets using tags  and Limit access to identities with tags that match secrets' tags .

For information about how to format a JSON parameter for the various command line tool environments, see Using JSON for Parameters . If your command-line tool or SDK requires quotation marks around the parameter, you should use single quotes to avoid confusion with the double quotes required in the JSON text.

For tag quotas and naming restrictions, see Service quotas for Tagging  in the Amazon Web Services General Reference guide.

CreateSecretCommand Output

Parameter
Type
Description
$metadata
Required
ResponseMetadata
Metadata pertaining to this request.
ARN
string | undefined

The ARN of the new secret. The ARN includes the name of the secret followed by six random characters. This ensures that if you create a new secret with the same name as a deleted secret, then users with access to the old secret don't get access to the new secret because the ARNs are different.

Name
string | undefined

The name of the new secret.

ReplicationStatus
ReplicationStatusType[] | undefined

A list of the replicas of this secret and their status:

  • Failed, which indicates that the replica was not created.

  • InProgress, which indicates that Secrets Manager is in the process of creating the replica.

  • InSync, which indicates that the replica was created.

VersionId
string | undefined

The unique identifier associated with the version of the new secret.

Throws

Name
Fault
Details
DecryptionFailure
client

Secrets Manager can't decrypt the protected secret text using the provided KMS key.

EncryptionFailure
client

Secrets Manager can't encrypt the protected secret text using the provided KMS key. Check that the KMS key is available, enabled, and not in an invalid state. For more information, see Key state: Effect on your KMS key .

InternalServiceError
server

An error occurred on the server side.

InvalidParameterException
client

The parameter name or value is invalid.

InvalidRequestException
client

A parameter value is not valid for the current state of the resource.

Possible causes:

  • The secret is scheduled for deletion.

  • You tried to enable rotation on a secret that doesn't already have a Lambda function ARN configured and you didn't include such an ARN as a parameter in this call.

  • The secret is managed by another service, and you must use that service to update it. For more information, see Secrets managed by other Amazon Web Services services .

LimitExceededException
client

The request failed because it would exceed one of the Secrets Manager quotas.

MalformedPolicyDocumentException
client

The resource policy has syntax errors.

PreconditionNotMetException
client

The request failed because you did not complete all the prerequisite steps.

ResourceExistsException
client

A resource with the ID you requested already exists.

ResourceNotFoundException
client

Secrets Manager can't find the resource that you asked for.

SecretsManagerServiceException
Base exception class for all service exceptions from SecretsManager service.