Create single-account permissions for an IAM user - AWS Private Certificate Authority
Assign renewal permissions

Create single-account permissions for an IAM user

When the CA administrator (that is, the owner of the CA) and the certificate issuer reside in a single AWS account, a best practice is to separate the issuer and administrator roles by creating an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user with limited permissions. For information about using IAM with AWS Private CA, along with example permissions, see Identity and Access Management (IAM) for AWS Private Certificate Authority.

Single-account case 1: Issuing an unmanaged certificate

In this case, the account owner creates a private CA and then creates an IAM user with permission to issue certificates signed by the private CA. The IAM user issues a certificate by calling the AWS Private CA IssueCertificate API.

Issuing an unmanaged certificate

Certificates issued in this manner are unmanaged, which means that an administrator must export them and install them on devices where they are intended to be used. They also must be manually renewed when they expire. Issuing a certificate using this API requires a certificate signing request (CSR) and key pair that is generated outside of AWS Private CA by OpenSSL or a similar program. For more information, see the IssueCertificate documentation.

Single-account case 2: Issuing a managed certificate through ACM

This second case involves API operations from both ACM and PCA. The account owner creates a private CA and IAM user as before. The account owner then grants permission to the ACM service principal to renew automatically any certificates that are signed by this CA. The IAM user again issues the certificate, but this time by calling the ACM RequestCertificate API, which handles CSR and key generation. When the certificate expires, ACM automates the renewal workflow.

Issuing a managed certificate

The account owner has the option of granting renewal permission through the management console during or after CA creation or using the PCA CreatePermission API. The managed certificates created from this workflow are available for use on with AWS services that are integrated with ACM.

The following section contains procedures for granting renewal permissions.

Assign certificate renewal permissions to ACM

With managed renewal in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), you can automate the certificate renewal process for both public and private certificates. In order for ACM to automatically renew the certificates generated by a private CA, the ACM service principal must be given all possible permissions by the CA itself. If these renewal permissions are not present for ACM, the CA's owner (or an authorized representative) must manually reissue each private certificate when it expires.

Important

These procedures for assigning renewal permissions apply only when the CA owner and the certificate issuer reside in the same AWS account. For cross-account scenarios, see Attach a policy for cross-account access.

Renewal permissions can be delegated during private CA creation or altered anytime after as long as the CA is in the ACTIVE state.

You can manage private CA permissions from the AWS Private CA Console, the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), or the AWS Private CA API:

To assign private CA permissions to ACM (console)

  1. Sign in to your AWS account and open the AWS Private CA console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/acm-pca/home.

  2. On the Private certificate authorities page, choose your private CA from the list.

  3. Choose Actions, Configure CA permissions.

  4. Select Authorize ACM access to renew certificates requested by this account.

  5. Choose Save.

To manage ACM permissions in AWS Private CA (AWS CLI)

Use the create-permission command to assign permissions to ACM. You must assign the necessary permissions (IssueCertificate, GetCertificate, and ListPermissions) in order for ACM to automatically renew your certificates.

$ aws acm-pca create-permission \
     --certificate-authority-arn arn:aws:acm-pca:region:account:certificate-authority/CA_ID \
     --actions IssueCertificate GetCertificate ListPermissions \
     --principal acm.amazonaws.com

Use the list-permissions command to list the permissions delegated by a CA.

$ aws acm-pca list-permissions \
     --certificate-authority-arn arn:aws:acm-pca:region:account:certificate-authority/CA_ID

Use the delete-permission command to revoke permissions assigned by a CA to an AWS service principal.

$ aws acm-pca delete-permission \
     --certificate-authority-arn arn:aws:acm-pca:region:account:certificate-authority/CA_ID \
     --principal acm.amazonaws.com