Obtaining temporary security credentials from AWS Identity and Access Management Roles Anywhere - IAM Roles Anywhere
SynopsisOptionsOutputExamplesCredential Helper on GitHubCredential Helper Changelog

Obtaining temporary security credentials from AWS Identity and Access Management Roles Anywhere

To obtain temporary security credentials from AWS Identity and Access Management Roles Anywhere, use the credential helper tool that IAM Roles Anywhere provides. This tool is compatible with the credential_process feature available across the language SDKs. The helper manages the process of creating a signature with the certificate and calling the endpoint to obtain session credentials; it returns the credentials to the calling process in a standard JSON format. See Temporary security credentials in IAM for more information on session credentials.

To download the credential helper tool, use the following links. Releases for Darwin and Windows on or after version 1.1.1 are signed.

Platform Download URL SHA256 checksum

Linux

https://rolesanywhere.amazonaws.com/releases/1.2.0/X86_64/Linux/aws_signing_helper

8f78005cb9d932d2a316725253ba890df47821470de8e8d06370181f730af40d

Windows

https://rolesanywhere.amazonaws.com/releases/1.2.0/X86_64/Windows/aws_signing_helper.exe

a8074869eede2e3a0125bc7381697d872937614f024d2f1fddd572f4fd3ed379

Darwin

https://rolesanywhere.amazonaws.com/releases/1.2.0/X86_64/Darwin/aws_signing_helper

082515599fb97f87011db50863451f2d01d059a1fdd44803fd7f55cf607dd5fe

Before you can obtain temporary credentials, you must have both an end-entity certificate from the certificate authority and a trust anchor in IAM Roles Anywhere. For more information, see Creating a trust anchor and profile.

Synopsis

./aws_signing_helper credential-process \
    --certificate
    [--endpoint]
    [--region]
    [--intermediates]
    --private-key
    --profile-arn
    --role-arn
    [--session-duration]
    --trust-anchor-arn
    [--with-proxy]
    [--no-verify-ssl]
    [--role-session-name]

Options

--certificate (string)

Path to certificate file

--endpoint (string)

The IAM Roles Anywhere endpoint for the region. For a list of endpoints, see Service endpoints and quotas.

--region (string)

Signing region.

--intermediates (string)

Path to intermediate certificate bundle.

--private-key (string)

Path to private key file.

--profile-arn (string)

Profile to pull policies from.

--role-arn (string)

Target role to assume.

--session-duration (int)

Duration, in seconds, for the resulting session (corresponds to the durationSeconds parameter in the CreateSession request). This is optional and can range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) up to 43200 seconds (12 hours). Please see the Expiration subsection of the Credentials Object section for more details on how this value is used in determining the expiration of the vended session.

--trust-anchor-arn (string)

Trust anchor to use for authentication.

--with-proxy

To use the tool with a proxy. This is a boolean flag. Note that you will have to set the HTTPS_PROXY environment variable with the address of the proxy server.

--no-verify-ssl

To disable SSL verification. This is a boolean flag.

Important

Note that this disables TLS host authentication, and can open the connection to man-in-the-middle attacks. This option should only be used under specific, tightly controlled scenarios, such as debugging proxy connections.

--role-session-name

An identifier for the role session. Please see The relationship between CreateSession and AssumeRole section for more details on how this option will affect the CreateSession operation.

Output

The credential helper tool will return a JSON containing the credentials. This format allows the credentials to be consumed by the external credential process supported by the credential_process. 


                {
                    "Version":1,
                    "AccessKeyId": String,
                    "SecretAccessKey": String,
                    "SessionToken": String,
                    "Expiration": Timestamp
                }

Examples

Example Obtain temporary security credentials

To obtain temporary security credentials, use the following command.

$ ./aws_signing_helper credential-process \
      --certificate /path/to/certificate \
      --private-key /path/to/private-key \
      --trust-anchor-arn arn:aws:rolesanywhere:region:account:trust-anchor/TA_ID \
      --profile-arn arn:aws:rolesanywhere:region:account:profile/PROFILE_ID \
      --role-arn arn:aws:iam::account:role/role-name-with-path
Example Use temporary security credentials with AWS SDKs and the AWS CLI

To use temporary security credentials with AWS SDKs and the AWS CLI, you can configure the credential helper tool as a credential process. For more information, see Sourcing credentials with an external process.

The following example shows a the config file that sets the helper tool as the credential process. 

[profile developer]
    credential_process = ./aws_signing_helper credential-process --certificate /path/to/certificate --private-key /path/to/private-key --trust-anchor-arn arn:aws:rolesanywhere:region:account:trust-anchor/TA_ID --profile-arn arn:aws:rolesanywhere:region:account:profile/PROFILE_ID --role-arn arn:aws:iam::account:role/role-name-with-path

Credential Helper on GitHub

The source code for the credential helper is available on GitHub so that you can adapt the helper to your needs. We encourage you to submit pull requests for changes that you would like to have included. However, AWS doesn't provide support for running modified copies of this software.

Credential Helper Changelog

CredentialHelper version 1.2.0

On August 23, 2024, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.2.0. As a part of this release:

  • Custom role session name is supported in the CreateSession request.

  • A hop limit option is supported to limit the IP TTL on response packets for the serve command.

  • File updates for certificate and private key data are recognized by long-running commands and will be used for subsequent credentialing requests.

CredentialHelper version 1.1.1

On October 12, 2023, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.1.1. As a part of this release, providers in Windows are attempted to be silenced when performing signing operations. Also, Windows user certificate store names can now be explicitly provided.

CredentialHelper version 1.1.0

On September 20, 2023, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.1.0. As a part of this release, PKCS#11 module integration is now supported. Also, any debug logs that previously went to stderr now go to stdout.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.6

On August 16, 2023, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.6. As a part of this release, certificates within OS secure stores that can't be parsed are now skipped. An issue relating to mismatched regions in the ARN inputs is also now fixed.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.5

On July 25, 2023, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.5. As a part of this release, some bugs relating to the update command were fixed. PKCS#12 containers that aren't password-protected are now supported. Lastly, MacOS Keychain Access and Windows CNG/CryptoAPI integrations are also now supported.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.4

On January 17, 2023, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.4. As a part of this release, some bugs specific to the serve command were fixed.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.3

On December 5, 2022, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.3. As a part of this release, the tool now supports the update and serve commands.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.2

On September 8, 2022, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.2. As a part of this release, the tool now sets the minimum TLS version to 1.2.

CredentialHelper version 1.0.1

On July 14, 2022, AWS IAM Roles Anywhere released Credential Helper version 1.0.1. As a part of this release, the tool now has better error handling.