AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
Command Reference

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Synopsis

Calls the AWS Security Token Service (STS) GetSessionToken API operation.

Syntax

Get-STSSessionToken
-DurationInSeconds <Int32>
-SerialNumber <String>
-TokenCode <String>
-Select <String>
-PassThru <SwitchParameter>
-ClientConfig <AmazonSecurityTokenServiceConfig>

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 must call GetSessionToken and submit an MFA code that is associated with their MFA device. Using the temporary security credentials that the call returns, IAM users can then make programmatic calls to API operations that require MFA authentication. An incorrect MFA code causes the API to return 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. 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 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 exceptAssumeRole or GetCallerIdentity.
The credentials that GetSessionToken returns are based on permissions associated with the IAM user whose credentials were used to call the operation. The temporary credentials have the same permissions as the IAM user. Although it is possible to call GetSessionToken using the security credentials of an Amazon Web Services account root user rather than an IAM user, we do not recommend it. If GetSessionToken is called using root user credentials, the temporary credentials have root user permissions. For more information, see Safeguard your root user credentials and don't use them for everyday tasks in the IAM User Guide For more information about using GetSessionToken to create temporary credentials, see Temporary Credentials for Users in Untrusted Environments in the IAM User Guide.

Parameters

-ClientConfig <AmazonSecurityTokenServiceConfig>
Amazon.PowerShell.Cmdlets.STS.AmazonSecurityTokenServiceClientCmdlet.ClientConfig
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
-DurationInSeconds <Int32>
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.
Required?False
Position?1
Accept pipeline input?True (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
AliasesDurationSeconds
-PassThru <SwitchParameter>
Changes the cmdlet behavior to return the value passed to the DurationInSeconds parameter. The -PassThru parameter is deprecated, use -Select '^DurationInSeconds' instead. This parameter will be removed in a future version.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
-Select <String>
Use the -Select parameter to control the cmdlet output. The default value is 'Credentials'. Specifying -Select '*' will result in the cmdlet returning the whole service response (Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.GetSessionTokenResponse). Specifying the name of a property of type Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.GetSessionTokenResponse will result in that property being returned. Specifying -Select '^ParameterName' will result in the cmdlet returning the selected cmdlet parameter value.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
-SerialNumber <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: =,.@:/-
Required?False
Position?2
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
-TokenCode <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.
Required?False
Position?3
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)

Common Credential and Region Parameters

-AccessKey <String>
The AWS access key for the user account. This can be a temporary access key if the corresponding session token is supplied to the -SessionToken parameter.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesAK
-Credential <AWSCredentials>
An AWSCredentials object instance containing access and secret key information, and optionally a token for session-based credentials.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
-EndpointUrl <String>
The endpoint to make the call against.Note: This parameter is primarily for internal AWS use and is not required/should not be specified for normal usage. The cmdlets normally determine which endpoint to call based on the region specified to the -Region parameter or set as default in the shell (via Set-DefaultAWSRegion). Only specify this parameter if you must direct the call to a specific custom endpoint.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
-NetworkCredential <PSCredential>
Used with SAML-based authentication when ProfileName references a SAML role profile. Contains the network credentials to be supplied during authentication with the configured identity provider's endpoint. This parameter is not required if the user's default network identity can or should be used during authentication.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByValue, ByPropertyName)
-ProfileLocation <String>
Used to specify the name and location of the ini-format credential file (shared with the AWS CLI and other AWS SDKs)If this optional parameter is omitted this cmdlet will search the encrypted credential file used by the AWS SDK for .NET and AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio first. If the profile is not found then the cmdlet will search in the ini-format credential file at the default location: (user's home directory)\.aws\credentials.If this parameter is specified then this cmdlet will only search the ini-format credential file at the location given.As the current folder can vary in a shell or during script execution it is advised that you use specify a fully qualified path instead of a relative path.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesAWSProfilesLocation, ProfilesLocation
-ProfileName <String>
The user-defined name of an AWS credentials or SAML-based role profile containing credential information. The profile is expected to be found in the secure credential file shared with the AWS SDK for .NET and AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio. You can also specify the name of a profile stored in the .ini-format credential file used with the AWS CLI and other AWS SDKs.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesStoredCredentials, AWSProfileName
-Region <Object>
The system name of an AWS region or an AWSRegion instance. This governs the endpoint that will be used when calling service operations. Note that the AWS resources referenced in a call are usually region-specific.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesRegionToCall
-SecretKey <String>
The AWS secret key for the user account. This can be a temporary secret key if the corresponding session token is supplied to the -SessionToken parameter.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesSK, SecretAccessKey
-SessionToken <String>
The session token if the access and secret keys are temporary session-based credentials.
Required?False
Position?Named
Accept pipeline input?True (ByPropertyName)
AliasesST

Outputs

Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.Credentials or Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.GetSessionTokenResponse
This cmdlet returns an Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.Credentials object. The service call response (type Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.GetSessionTokenResponse) can also be referenced from properties attached to the cmdlet entry in the $AWSHistory stack.

Examples

Example 1

Get-STSSessionToken

AccessKeyId                             Expiration                              SecretAccessKey                        SessionToken
-----------                             ----------                              ---------------                        ------------
EXAMPLEACCESSKEYID                      2/16/2015 9:12:28 PM                    examplesecretaccesskey...              SamPleTokeN.....
    
Returns an Amazon.RuntimeAWSCredentials instance containing temporary credentials valid for a set period of time. The credentials used to request temporary credentials are inferred from the current shell defaults. To specify other credentials, use the -ProfileName or -AccessKey/-SecretKey parameters.

Example 2

Get-STSSessionToken -DurationInSeconds 3600 -ProfileName myprofile

AccessKeyId                             Expiration                              SecretAccessKey                        SessionToken
-----------                             ----------                              ---------------                        ------------
EXAMPLEACCESSKEYID                      2/16/2015 9:12:28 PM                    examplesecretaccesskey...              SamPleTokeN.....
    
Returns an Amazon.RuntimeAWSCredentials instance containing temporary credentials valid for one hour. The credentials used to make the request are obtained from the specified profile.

Example 3

Get-STSSessionToken -DurationInSeconds 3600 -ProfileName myprofile -SerialNumber YourMFADeviceSerialNumber -TokenCode 123456

AccessKeyId                             Expiration                              SecretAccessKey                        SessionToken
-----------                             ----------                              ---------------                        ------------
EXAMPLEACCESSKEYID                      2/16/2015 9:12:28 PM                    examplesecretaccesskey...              SamPleTokeN.....
    
Returns an Amazon.RuntimeAWSCredentials instance containing temporary credentials valid for one hour using the identification number of the MFA device associated with the account whose credentials are specified in the profile 'myprofilename' and the value provided by the device.
Service API Reference
AWS Tools for PowerShell User Guide

Supported Version

AWS Tools for PowerShell: 2.x.y.z