Using AWS CloudShell to work with AWS Identity and Access Management

AWS CloudShell is a browser-based, pre-authenticated shell that you can launch directly from the AWS Management Console. You can run AWS CLI commands against AWS services (including AWS Identity and Access Management) using your preferred shell (Bash, PowerShell or Z shell). And you can do this without needing to download or install command line tools.

You launch AWS CloudShell from the AWS Management Console, and the AWS credentials you used to sign in to the console are automatically available in a new shell session. This pre-authentication of AWS CloudShell users allows you to skip configuring credentials when interacting with AWS services such as IAM using AWS CLI version 2 (pre-installed on the shell's compute environment).

Obtaining IAM permissions for AWS CloudShell

Using the access management resources provided by AWS Identity and Access Management, administrators can grant permissions to IAM users so they can access AWS CloudShell and use the environment's features.

The quickest way for an administrator to grant access to users is through an AWS managed policy. An AWS managed policy is a standalone policy that's created and administered by AWS. The following AWS managed policy for CloudShell can be attached to IAM identities:

• AWSCloudShellFullAccess: Grants permission to use AWS CloudShell with full access to all features.

If you want to limit the scope of actions that an IAM user can perform with AWS CloudShell, you can create a custom policy that uses the AWSCloudShellFullAccess managed policy as a template. For more information about limiting the actions that are available to users in CloudShell, see Managing AWS CloudShell access and usage with IAM policies in the AWS CloudShell User Guide.

Interacting with IAM using AWS CloudShell

After you launch AWS CloudShell from the AWS Management Console, you can immediately start to interact with IAM using the command line interface.

Note

When using AWS CLI in AWS CloudShell, you don't need to download or install any additional resources. Moreover, because you're already authenticated within the shell, you don't need to configure credentials before making calls.

Create an IAM group and add an IAM user to the group using AWS CloudShell

The following example uses CloudShell to create an IAM group, add an IAM user to the group, and then verify that the command succeeded.

1. From the AWS Management Console, you can launch CloudShell by choosing the following options available on the navigation bar:

   • Choose the CloudShell icon.

   • Start typing "cloudshell" in Search box and then choose the CloudShell option.

2. To create an IAM group, enter the following command in the CloudShell command line. In this example we named the group east_coast:

   aws iam create-group --group-name east_coast

   If the call is successful, the command line displays a response from the service similar to the following output:

   
           {
              "Group": {
                  "Path": "/",
                  "GroupName": "east_coast",
                  "GroupId": "AGPAYBDBW4JBY3EXAMPLE",
                  "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:group/east_coast",
                  "CreateDate": "2023-09-11T21:02:21+00:00"
               }
           }
           

3. To add a user to the group that you created, use the following command, specifying the group name and username. In this example we named the group east_coast and the user johndoe:

   aws iam add-user-to-group --group-name east_coast --user-name johndoe

4. To verify that the user is in the group, use the following command, specifying the group name. In this example we continue using the group east_coast :

   aws iam get-group --group-name east_coast

   If the call is successful, the command line displays a response from the service similar to the following output:

   
          {
            "Users": [
              {
                  "Path": "/",
                  "UserName": "johndoe",
                  "UserId": "AIDAYBDBW4JBXGEXAMPLE",
                  "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::552108220995:user/johndoe",
                  "CreateDate": "2023-09-11T20:43:14+00:00",
                  "PasswordLastUsed": "2023-09-11T20:59:14+00:00"
              }
            ],
            "Group": {
                  "Path": "/",
                  "GroupName": "east_coast",
                  "GroupId": "AGPAYBDBW4JBY3EXAMPLE",
                  "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:group/east_coast",
                  "CreateDate": "2023-09-11T21:02:21+00:00"
               }
           }