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GetFederationTokenCommand

Returns a set of temporary security credentials (consisting of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token) for a user. A typical use is in a proxy application that gets temporary security credentials on behalf of distributed applications inside a corporate network.

You must call the GetFederationToken operation using the long-term security credentials of an IAM user. As a result, this call is appropriate in contexts where those credentials can be safeguarded, usually in a server-based application. For a comparison of GetFederationToken with the other API operations that produce temporary credentials, see Requesting Temporary Security Credentials and Compare STS credentials in the IAM User Guide.

Although it is possible to call GetFederationToken using the security credentials of an Amazon Web Services account root user rather than an IAM user that you create for the purpose of a proxy application, we do not recommend it. For more information, see Safeguard your root user credentials and don't use them for everyday tasks in the IAM User Guide.

You can create a mobile-based or browser-based app that can authenticate users using a web identity provider like Login with Amazon, Facebook, Google, or an OpenID Connect-compatible identity provider. In this case, we recommend that you use Amazon Cognito or AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity. For more information, see Federation Through a Web-based Identity Provider in the IAM User Guide.

Session duration

The temporary credentials are valid for the specified duration, from 900 seconds (15 minutes) up to a maximum of 129,600 seconds (36 hours). The default session duration is 43,200 seconds (12 hours). Temporary credentials obtained by using the root user credentials have a maximum duration of 3,600 seconds (1 hour).

Permissions

You can use the temporary credentials created by GetFederationToken in any Amazon Web Services service with the following exceptions:

You cannot call any IAM operations using the CLI or the Amazon Web Services API. This limitation does not apply to console sessions.
You cannot call any STS operations except GetCallerIdentity.

You can use temporary credentials for single sign-on (SSO) to the console.

You must pass an inline or managed session policy to this operation. You can pass a single JSON policy document to use as an inline session policy. You can also specify up to 10 managed policy Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) to use as managed session policies. The plaintext that you use for both inline and managed session policies can't exceed 2,048 characters.

Though the session policy parameters are optional, if you do not pass a policy, then the resulting federated user session has no permissions. When you pass session policies, the session permissions are the intersection of the IAM user policies and the session policies that you pass. This gives you a way to further restrict the permissions for a federated user. You cannot use session policies to grant more permissions than those that are defined in the permissions policy of the IAM user. For more information, see Session Policies in the IAM User Guide. For information about using GetFederationToken to create temporary security credentials, see GetFederationToken—Federation Through a Custom Identity Broker .

You can use the credentials to access a resource that has a resource-based policy. If that policy specifically references the federated user session in the Principal element of the policy, the session has the permissions allowed by the policy. These permissions are granted in addition to the permissions granted by the session policies.

Tags

(Optional) You can pass tag key-value pairs to your session. These are called session tags. For more information about session tags, see Passing Session Tags in STS in the IAM User Guide.

An administrator must grant you the permissions necessary to pass session tags. The administrator can also create granular permissions to allow you to pass only specific session tags. For more information, see Tutorial: Using Tags for Attribute-Based Access Control in the IAM User Guide.

Tag key–value pairs are not case sensitive, but case is preserved. This means that you cannot have separate Department and department tag keys. Assume that the user that you are federating has the Department=Marketing tag and you pass the department=engineering session tag. Department and department are not saved as separate tags, and the session tag passed in the request takes precedence over the user tag.

Example Syntax

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

import { STSClient, GetFederationTokenCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-sts"; // ES Modules import
// const { STSClient, GetFederationTokenCommand } = require("@aws-sdk/client-sts"); // CommonJS import
const client = new STSClient(config);
const input = { // GetFederationTokenRequest
  Name: "STRING_VALUE", // required
  Policy: "STRING_VALUE",
  PolicyArns: [ // policyDescriptorListType
    { // PolicyDescriptorType
      arn: "STRING_VALUE",
    },
  ],
  DurationSeconds: Number("int"),
  Tags: [ // tagListType
    { // Tag
      Key: "STRING_VALUE", // required
      Value: "STRING_VALUE", // required
    },
  ],
};
const command = new GetFederationTokenCommand(input);
const response = await client.send(command);
// { // GetFederationTokenResponse
//   Credentials: { // Credentials
//     AccessKeyId: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//     SecretAccessKey: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//     SessionToken: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//     Expiration: new Date("TIMESTAMP"), // required
//   },
//   FederatedUser: { // FederatedUser
//     FederatedUserId: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//     Arn: "STRING_VALUE", // required
//   },
//   PackedPolicySize: Number("int"),
// };

Example Usage

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