Using the shared AWS credentials file - AWS SDK for .NET
General informationExamples of profile management

Using the shared AWS credentials file

(Be sure to review the important warnings and guidance for credentials.)

One way to provide credentials for your applications is to create profiles in the shared AWS credentials file and then store credentials in those profiles. This file can be used by the other AWS SDKs. It can also be used by the AWS CLI, the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, and the AWS toolkits for Visual Studio, JetBrains, and VS Code.

Warning

To avoid security risks, don't use IAM users for authentication when developing purpose-built software or working with real data. Instead, use federation with an identity provider such as AWS IAM Identity Center.

Note

The information in this topic is for circumstances where you need to obtain and manage short-term or long-term credentials manually. For additional information about short-term and long-term credentials, see Other ways to authenticate in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide.

For best security practices, use AWS IAM Identity Center, as described in Configure SDK authentication.

General information

By default, the shared AWS credentials file is located in the .aws directory within your home directory and is named credentials; that is, ~/.aws/credentials (Linux or macOS) or %USERPROFILE%\.aws\credentials (Windows). For information about alternative locations, see Location of the shared files in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide. Also see Accessing credentials and profiles in an application.

The shared AWS credentials file is a plaintext file and follows a certain format. For information about the format of AWS credentials files, see Format of the credentials file in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide.

You can manage the profiles in the shared AWS credentials file in several ways.

Examples of profile management

The following sections show examples of profiles in the shared AWS credentials file. Some of the examples show the result, which can be obtained through any of the credential-management methods described earlier. Other examples show how to use a particular method.

The default profile

The shared AWS credentials file will almost always have a profile named default. This is where the AWS SDK for .NET looks for credentials if no other profiles are defined.

The [default] profile typically looks something like the following.

[default]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

Create a profile programmatically

This example shows you how to create a profile and save it to the shared AWS credentials file programmatically. It uses the following classes of the Amazon.Runtime.CredentialManagement namespace: CredentialProfileOptions, CredentialProfile, and SharedCredentialsFile.

using Amazon.Runtime.CredentialManagement;
...

// Do not include credentials in your code.
WriteProfile("my_new_profile", SecurelyStoredKeyID, SecurelyStoredSecretAccessKey);
...

void WriteProfile(string profileName, string keyId, string secret)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Create the [{profileName}] profile...");
    var options = new CredentialProfileOptions
    {
        AccessKey = keyId,
        SecretKey = secret
    };
    var profile = new CredentialProfile(profileName, options);
    var sharedFile = new SharedCredentialsFile();
    sharedFile.RegisterProfile(profile);
}
Warning

Code such as this generally shouldn't be in your application. If you include it in your application, take appropriate precautions to ensure that plaintext keys can't possibly be seen in the code, over the network, or even in computer memory.

The following is the profile that's created by this example.

[my_new_profile]
aws_access_key_id=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

Update an existing profile programmatically

This example shows you how to programmatically update the profile that was created earlier. It uses the following classes of the Amazon.Runtime.CredentialManagement namespace: CredentialProfile and SharedCredentialsFile. It also uses the RegionEndpoint class of the Amazon namespace.

using Amazon.Runtime.CredentialManagement;
...

AddRegion("my_new_profile", RegionEndpoint.USWest2);
...

void AddRegion(string profileName, RegionEndpoint region)
{
    var sharedFile = new SharedCredentialsFile();
    CredentialProfile profile;
    if (sharedFile.TryGetProfile(profileName, out profile))
    {
        profile.Region = region;
        sharedFile.RegisterProfile(profile);
    }
}

The following is the updated profile.

[my_new_profile]
aws_access_key_id=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
region=us-west-2
Note

You can also set the AWS Region in other locations and by using other methods. For more information, see Configure the AWS Region.