AWS SDK Version 3 for .NET
API Reference

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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:

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.

Note:

This is an asynchronous operation using the standard naming convention for .NET 4.5 or higher. For .NET 3.5 the operation is implemented as a pair of methods using the standard naming convention of BeginGetSessionToken and EndGetSessionToken.

Namespace: Amazon.SecurityToken
Assembly: AWSSDK.SecurityToken.dll
Version: 3.x.y.z

Syntax

C#
public virtual Task<GetSessionTokenResponse> GetSessionTokenAsync(
         GetSessionTokenRequest request,
         CancellationToken cancellationToken
)

Parameters

request
Type: Amazon.SecurityToken.Model.GetSessionTokenRequest

Container for the necessary parameters to execute the GetSessionToken service method.

cancellationToken
Type: System.Threading.CancellationToken

A cancellation token that can be used by other objects or threads to receive notice of cancellation.

Return Value


The response from the GetSessionToken service method, as returned by SecurityTokenService.

Exceptions

ExceptionCondition
RegionDisabledException STS is not activated in the requested region for the account that is being asked to generate credentials. The account administrator must use the IAM console to activate STS in that region. For more information, see Activating and Deactivating Amazon Web Services STS in an Amazon Web Services Region in the IAM User Guide.

Version Information

.NET Core App:
Supported in: 3.1

.NET Standard:
Supported in: 2.0

.NET Framework:
Supported in: 4.5

See Also