Region and version availability Limitations Overview Benefits Permissions required for Secrets Manager integration Enforcing Aurora management Managing the master user password for a DB cluster Rotating the master user password secret for a DB cluster Viewing the details about a secret for a DB cluster

Password management with Amazon Aurora and AWS Secrets Manager

Amazon Aurora integrates with Secrets Manager to manage master user passwords for your DB clusters.

Topics

Region and version availability
Limitations for Secrets Manager integration with Amazon Aurora
Overview of managing master user passwords with AWS Secrets Manager
Benefits of managing master user passwords with Secrets Manager
Permissions required for Secrets Manager integration
Enforcing Aurora management of the master user password in AWS Secrets Manager
Managing the master user password for a DB cluster with Secrets Manager
Rotating the master user password secret for a DB cluster
Viewing the details about a secret for a DB cluster

Region and version availability

Feature availability and support varies across specific versions of each database engine and across AWS Regions. For more information about version and Region availability with Secrets Manager integration with Amazon Aurora, see Secrets Manager integration.

Limitations for Secrets Manager integration with Amazon Aurora

Managing master user passwords with Secrets Manager isn't supported for the following features:

Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments
DB clusters that are part of an Aurora global database
Aurora Serverless v1 DB clusters
Aurora MySQL cross-Region read replicas
Managing master user password with Secrets Manager for a read replica

Overview of managing master user passwords with AWS Secrets Manager

With AWS Secrets Manager, you can replace hard-coded credentials in your code, including database passwords, with an API call to Secrets Manager to retrieve the secret programmatically. For more information about Secrets Manager, see the AWS Secrets Manager User Guide.

When you store database secrets in Secrets Manager, your AWS account incurs charges. For information about pricing, see AWS Secrets Manager Pricing.

You can specify that Aurora manages the master user password in Secrets Manager for an Amazon Aurora DB cluster when you perform one of the following operations:

Create the DB cluster
Modify the DB cluster
Restore the DB cluster from Amazon S3 (Aurora MySQL only)

When you specify that Aurora manages the master user password in Secrets Manager, Aurora generates the password and stores it in Secrets Manager. You can interact directly with the secret to retrieve the credentials for the master user. You can also specify a customer managed key to encrypt the secret, or use the KMS key that is provided by Secrets Manager.

Aurora manages the settings for the secret and rotates the secret every seven days by default. You can modify some of the settings, such as the rotation schedule. If you delete a DB cluster that manages a secret in Secrets Manager, the secret and its associated metadata are also deleted.

To connect to a DB cluster with the credentials in a secret, you can retrieve the secret from Secrets Manager. For more information, see Retrieve secrets from AWS Secrets Manager and Connect to a SQL database with credentials in an AWS Secrets Manager secret in the AWS Secrets Manager User Guide.

Benefits of managing master user passwords with Secrets Manager

Managing Aurora master user passwords with Secrets Manager provides the following benefits:

Aurora automatically generates database credentials.
Aurora automatically stores and manages database credentials in AWS Secrets Manager.
Aurora rotates database credentials regularly, without requiring application changes.
Secrets Manager secures database credentials from human access and plain text view.
Secrets Manager allows retrieval of database credentials in secrets for database connections.
Secrets Manager allows fine-grained control of access to database credentials in secrets using IAM.
You can optionally separate database encryption from credentials encryption with different KMS keys.
You can eliminate manual management and rotation of database credentials.
You can monitor database credentials easily with AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch.

For more information about the benefits of Secrets Manager, see the AWS Secrets Manager User Guide.

Permissions required for Secrets Manager integration

Users must have the required permissions to perform operations related to Secrets Manager integration. You can create IAM policies that grant permissions to perform specific API operations on the specified resources they need. You can then attach those policies to the IAM permission sets or roles that require those permissions. For more information, see Identity and access management for Amazon Aurora.

For create, modify, or restore operations, the user who specifies that Aurora manages the master user password in Secrets Manager must have permissions to perform the following operations:

kms:DescribeKey
secretsmanager:CreateSecret
secretsmanager:TagResource

For create, modify, or restore operations, the user who specifies the customer managed key to encrypt the secret in Secrets Manager must have permissions to perform the following operations:

kms:Decrypt
kms:GenerateDataKey
kms:CreateGrant

For modify operations, the user who rotates the master user password in Secrets Manager must have permissions to perform the following operation:

secretsmanager:RotateSecret

Enforcing Aurora management of the master user password in AWS Secrets Manager

You can use IAM condition keys to enforce Aurora management of the master user password in AWS Secrets Manager. The following policy doesn't allow users to create or restore DB instances or DB clusters unless the master user password is managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager.


{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": ["rds:CreateDBInstance", "rds:CreateDBCluster", "rds:RestoreDBInstanceFromS3", "rds:RestoreDBClusterFromS3"],
            "Resource": "*",
            "Condition": {
                "Bool": {
                    "rds:ManageMasterUserPassword": false
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Note

This policy enforces password management in AWS Secrets Manager at creation. However, you can still disable Secrets Manager integration and manually set a master password by modifying the cluster.

To prevent this, include rds:ModifyDBInstance, rds:ModifyDBCluster in the action block of the policy. Be aware, this prevents the user from applying any further modifications to existing clusters that don't have Secrets Manager integration enabled.

For more information about using condition keys in IAM policies, see Policy condition keys for Aurora and Example policies: Using condition keys.

Managing the master user password for a DB cluster with Secrets Manager

You can configure Aurora management of the master user password in Secrets Manager when you perform the following actions:

You can use the RDS console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API to perform these actions.

Follow the instructions for creating or modifying a DB cluster with the RDS console:

Creating a DB cluster
Modifying a DB instance in a DB cluster

In the RDS console, you can modify any DB instance to specify the master user password management settings for the entire DB cluster.
Restoring an Amazon Aurora MySQL DB cluster from an Amazon S3 bucket

When you use the RDS console to perform one of these operations, you can specify that the master user password is managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager. To do so when you are creating or restoring a DB cluster, select Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager in Credential settings. When you are modifying a DB cluster, select Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager in Settings.

The following image is an example of the Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager setting when you are creating or restoring a DB cluster.

When you select this option, Aurora generates the master user password and manages it throughout its lifecycle in Secrets Manager.

Manage master credentials in AWS Secrets Manager selected

You can choose to encrypt the secret with a KMS key that Secrets Manager provides or with a customer managed key that you create. After Aurora is managing the database credentials for a DB cluster, you can't change the KMS key that is used to encrypt the secret.

You can choose other settings to meet your requirements.

For more information about the available settings when you are creating a DB cluster, see Settings for Aurora DB clusters. For more information about the available settings when you are modifying a DB cluster, see Settings for Amazon Aurora.

To specify that Aurora manages the master user password in Secrets Manager, specify the --manage-master-user-password option in one of the following commands:

When you specify the --manage-master-user-password option in these commands, Aurora generates the master user password and manages it throughout its lifecycle in Secrets Manager.

To encrypt the secret, you can specify a customer managed key or use the default KMS key that is provided by Secrets Manager. Use the --master-user-secret-kms-key-id option to specify a customer managed key. The AWS KMS key identifier is the key ARN, key ID, alias ARN, or alias name for the KMS key. To use a KMS key in a different AWS account, specify the key ARN or alias ARN. After Aurora is managing the database credentials for a DB cluster, you can't change the KMS key that is used to encrypt the secret.

You can choose other settings to meet your requirements.

This example creates a DB cluster and specifies that Aurora manages the password in Secrets Manager. The secret is encrypted using the KMS key that is provided by Secrets Manager.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws rds create-db-cluster \
     --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster \
     --engine aurora-mysql \
     --engine-version 8.0 \
     --master-username admin \
     --manage-master-user-password

For Windows:


aws rds create-db-cluster ^
     --db-cluster-identifier sample-cluster ^
     --engine aurora-mysql ^
     --engine-version 8.0 ^
     --master-username admin ^
     --manage-master-user-password

To specify that Aurora manages the master user password in Secrets Manager, set the ManageMasterUserPassword parameter to true in one of the following operations:

When you set the ManageMasterUserPassword parameter to true in one of these operations, Aurora generates the master user password and manages it throughout its lifecycle in Secrets Manager.

To encrypt the secret, you can specify a customer managed key or use the default KMS key that is provided by Secrets Manager. Use the MasterUserSecretKmsKeyId parameter to specify a customer managed key. The AWS KMS key identifier is the key ARN, key ID, alias ARN, or alias name for the KMS key. To use a KMS key in a different AWS account, specify the key ARN or alias ARN. After Aurora is managing the database credentials for a DB cluster, you can't change the KMS key that is used to encrypt the secret.

Rotating the master user password secret for a DB cluster

When Aurora rotates a master user password secret, Secrets Manager generates a new secret version for the existing secret. The new version of the secret contains the new master user password. Aurora changes the master user password for the DB cluster to match the password for the new secret version.

You can rotate a secret immediately instead of waiting for a scheduled rotation. To rotate a master user password secret in Secrets Manager, modify the DB cluster. For information about modifying a DB cluster, see Modifying an Amazon Aurora DB cluster.

You can rotate a master user password secret immediately with the RDS console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API. The new password is always 28 characters long and contains atleast one upper and lowercase character, one number, and one punctuation.

To rotate a master user password secret using the RDS console, modify the DB cluster and select Rotate secret immediately in Settings.

Follow the instructions for modifying a DB cluster with the RDS console in Modifying the DB cluster by using the console, CLI, and API. You must choose Apply immediately on the confirmation page.

To rotate a master user password secret using the AWS CLI, use the modify-db-cluster command and specify the --rotate-master-user-password option. You must specify the --apply-immediately option when you rotate the master password.

This example rotates a master user password secret.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws rds modify-db-cluster \
    --db-cluster-identifier mydbcluster \
    --rotate-master-user-password \
    --apply-immediately

For Windows:


aws rds modify-db-cluster ^
    --db-cluster-identifier mydbcluster ^
    --rotate-master-user-password ^
    --apply-immediately

You can rotate a master user password secret using the ModifyDBCluster operation and setting the RotateMasterUserPassword parameter to true. You must set the ApplyImmediately parameter to true when you rotate the master password.

Viewing the details about a secret for a DB cluster

You can retrieve your secrets using the console (https://console.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/) or the AWS CLI (get-secret-value Secrets Manager command).

You can find the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of a secret managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager with the RDS console, the AWS CLI, or the RDS API.

To view the details about a secret managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager

Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.
In the navigation pane, choose Databases.
Choose the name of the DB cluster to show its details.
Choose the Configuration tab.

In Master Credentials ARN, you can view the secret ARN.

You can follow the Manage in Secrets Manager link to view and manage the secret in the Secrets Manager console.

You can use the RDS AWS CLI describe-db-clusters command to find the following information about a secret managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager:

SecretArn – The ARN of the secret
SecretStatus – The status of the secret

The possible status values include the following:
- creating – The secret is being created.
- active – The secret is available for normal use and rotation.
- rotating – The secret is being rotated.
- impaired – The secret can be used to access database credentials, but it can't be rotated. A secret might have this status if, for example, permissions are changed so that RDS can no longer access the secret or the KMS key for the secret.
  
  When a secret has this status, you can correct the condition that caused the status. If you correct the condition that caused status, the status remains impaired until the next rotation. Alternatively, you can modify the DB cluster to turn off automatic management of database credentials, and then modify the DB cluster again to turn on automatic management of database credentials. To modify the DB cluster, use the --manage-master-user-password option in the modify-db-cluster command.
KmsKeyId – The ARN of the KMS key that is used to encrypt the secret

Specify the --db-cluster-identifier option to show output for a specific DB cluster. This example shows the output for a secret that is used by a DB cluster.


aws rds describe-db-clusters --db-cluster-identifier mydbcluster

The following sample shows the output for a secret:


"MasterUserSecret": {
                "SecretArn": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:eu-west-1:123456789012:secret:rds!cluster-033d7456-2c96-450d-9d48-f5de3025e51c-xmJRDx",
                "SecretStatus": "active",
                "KmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:eu-west-1:123456789012:key/0987dcba-09fe-87dc-65ba-ab0987654321"
            }

When you have the secret ARN, you can view details about the secret using the get-secret-value Secrets Manager CLI command.

This example shows the details for the secret in the previous sample output.

For Linux, macOS, or Unix:


aws secretsmanager get-secret-value \
    --secret-id 'arn:aws:secretsmanager:eu-west-1:123456789012:secret:rds!cluster-033d7456-2c96-450d-9d48-f5de3025e51c-xmJRDx'

For Windows:


aws secretsmanager get-secret-value ^
    --secret-id 'arn:aws:secretsmanager:eu-west-1:123456789012:secret:rds!cluster-033d7456-2c96-450d-9d48-f5de3025e51c-xmJRDx'

You can view the ARN, status, and KMS key for a secret managed by Aurora in Secrets Manager using the DescribeDBClusters RDS operation and setting the DBClusterIdentifier parameter to a DB cluster identifier. Details about the secret are included in the output.

When you have the secret ARN, you can view details about the secret using the GetSecretValue Secrets Manager operation.

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