Sharing SSM documents

Best practices for shared SSM documents Block public sharing for SSM documents Share an SSM document Modify permissions for a shared SSM document Using shared SSM documents

You can share AWS Systems Manager (SSM) documents privately or publicly with accounts in the same AWS Region. To privately share a document, you modify the document permissions and allow specific individuals to access it according to their AWS account ID. To publicly share an SSM document, you modify the document permissions and specify All. Documents can't be simultaneously shared publicly and privately.

Warning

Use shared SSM documents only from trusted sources. When using any shared document, carefully review the contents of the document before using it so that you understand how it will change the configuration of your instance. For more information about shared document best practices, see Best practices for shared SSM documents.

Limitations

As you begin working with SSM documents, be aware of the following limitations.

Only the owner can share a document.
You must stop sharing a document before you can delete it. For more information, see Modify permissions for a shared SSM document.
You can share a document with a maximum of 1000 AWS accounts. You can request an increase to this limit in the AWS Support Center. For Limit type, choose EC2 Systems Manager and describe your reason for the request.
You can publicly share a maximum of five SSM documents. You can request an increase to this limit in the AWS Support Center. For Limit type, choose EC2 Systems Manager and describe your reason for the request.
Documents can be shared with other accounts in the same AWS Region only. Cross-Region sharing isn't supported.

Important

In Systems Manager, an Amazon-owned SSM document is a document created and managed by Amazon Web Services itself. Amazon-owned documents include a prefix like AWS-* in the document name. The owner of the document is considered to be Amazon, not a specific user account within AWS. These documents are publicly available for all to use.

For more information about Systems Manager service quotas, see AWS Systems Manager Service Quotas.

Best practices for shared SSM documents
Block public sharing for SSM documents
Share an SSM document
Modify permissions for a shared SSM document
Using shared SSM documents

Best practices for shared SSM documents

Review the following guidelines before you share or use a shared document.

Remove sensitive information

Review your AWS Systems Manager (SSM) document carefully and remove any sensitive information. For example, verify that the document doesn't include your AWS credentials. If you share a document with specific individuals, those users can view the information in the document. If you share a document publicly, anyone can view the information in the document.

Block public sharing for documents

Review all publicly shared SSM documents in your account and confirm whether you want to continue sharing them. To stop sharing a document with the public, you must modify the document permission setting as described in the Modify permissions for a shared SSM document section of this topic. Turning on the block public sharing setting doesn't affect any documents you're currently sharing with the public. Unless your use case requires you to share documents with the public, we recommend turning on the block public sharing setting for your SSM documents in the Preferences section of the Systems Manager Documents console. Turning on this setting prevents unwanted access to your SSM documents. The block public sharing setting is an account level setting that can differ for each AWS Region.

Restrict Run Command actions using an IAM trust policy

Create a restrictive AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy for users who will have access to the document. The IAM policy determines which SSM documents a user can see in either the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) console or by calling ListDocuments using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell. The policy also restricts the actions the user can perform with SSM documents. You can create a restrictive policy so that a user can only use specific documents. For more information, see Customer managed policy examples.

Use caution when using shared SSM documents

Review the contents of every document that is shared with you, especially public documents, to understand the commands that will be run on your instances. A document could intentionally or unintentionally have negative repercussions after it's run. If the document references an external network, review the external source before you use the document.

Send commands using the document hash

When you share a document, the system creates a Sha-256 hash and assigns it to the document. The system also saves a snapshot of the document content. When you send a command using a shared document, you can specify the hash in your command to ensure that the following conditions are true:

You're running a command from the correct Systems Manager document
The content of the document hasn't changed since it was shared with you.

If the hash doesn't match the specified document or if the content of the shared document has changed, the command returns an InvalidDocument exception. The hash can't verify document content from external locations.

Block public sharing for SSM documents

Before you begin, review all publicly shared SSM documents in your AWS account and confirm whether you want to continue sharing them. To stop sharing an SSM document with the public, you must modify the document permission setting as described in the Modify permissions for a shared SSM document section of this topic. Turning on the block public sharing setting doesn't affect any SSM documents you're currently sharing with the public. With the block public sharing setting enabled, you won’t be able to share any additional SSM documents with the public.

Unless your use case requires you to share documents with the public, we recommend turning on the block public sharing setting for your SSM documents. Turning on this setting prevents unwanted access to your SSM documents. The block public sharing setting is an account level setting that can differ for each AWS Region. Complete the following tasks to block public sharing for any SSM documents you're not currently sharing.

Block public sharing (console)

To block public sharing of your SSM documents

Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/.
In the navigation pane, choose Documents.
Choose Preferences, and then choose Edit in the Block public sharing section.
Select the Block public sharing check box, and then choose Save.

Block public sharing (command line)

Open the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell on your local computer and run the following command to block public sharing of your SSM documents.

Confirm the setting value was updated using the following command.

Restricting access to block public sharing with IAM

You can create AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that restrict users from modifying the block public sharing setting. This prevents users from allowing unwanted access to your SSM documents.

The following is an example of an IAM policy that prevents users from updating the block public sharing setting. To use this example, you must replace the example Amazon Web Services account ID with your own account ID.


{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": "ssm:UpdateServiceSetting",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:ssm:*:987654321098:servicesetting/ssm/documents/console/public-sharing-permission"
        }
    ]
}

You can share AWS Systems Manager (SSM) documents by using the Systems Manager console. When sharing documents from the console, only the default version of the document can be shared. You can also share SSM documents programmatically by calling the ModifyDocumentPermission API operation using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, or the AWS SDK. Before you share a document, get the AWS account IDs of the people with whom you want to share. You will specify these account IDs when you share the document.

Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/.
In the navigation pane, choose Documents.
In the documents list, choose the document you want to share, and then choose View details. On the Permissions tab, verify that you're the document owner. Only a document owner can share a document.
Choose Edit.
To share the command publicly, choose Public and then choose Save. To share the command privately, choose Private, enter the AWS account ID, choose Add permission, and then choose Save.

The following procedure requires that you specify an AWS Region for your command line session.

Open the AWS CLI or AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell on your local computer and run the following command to specify your credentials.

In the following command, replace region with your own information. For a list of supported region values, see the Region column in Systems Manager service endpoints in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.
Linux & macOS
```
aws config

AWS Access Key ID: [your key]
AWS Secret Access Key: [your key]
Default region name: region
Default output format [None]:
```
Windows
```
aws config

AWS Access Key ID: [your key]
AWS Secret Access Key: [your key]
Default region name: region
Default output format [None]:
```
PowerShell
```
Set-AWSCredentials –AccessKey your key –SecretKey your key
Set-DefaultAWSRegion -Region region
```
Use the following command to list all of the SSM documents that are available for you. The list includes documents that you created and documents that were shared with you.
Linux & macOS
```
aws ssm list-documents
```
Windows
```
aws ssm list-documents
```
PowerShell
```
Get-SSMDocumentList
```

Use the following command to get a specific document.

Use the following command to get a description of the document.

Use the following command to view the permissions for the document.

Use the following command to modify the permissions for the document and share it. You must be the owner of the document to edit the permissions. Optionally, you can specify a version of the document you want to share using the --shared-document-version parameter. If you don't specify a version, the system shares the Default version of the document. This example command privately shares the document with a specific individual, based on that person's AWS account ID.
Linux & macOS
```
aws ssm modify-document-permission \
    --name document name \
    --permission-type Share \
    --account-ids-to-add AWS account ID
```
Windows
```
aws ssm modify-document-permission ^
    --name document name ^
    --permission-type Share ^
    --account-ids-to-add AWS account ID
```
PowerShell
```
Edit-SSMDocumentPermission `
    –Name document name `
    -PermissionType Share `
    -AccountIdsToAdd AWS account ID
```

Use the following command to share a document publicly.

Modify permissions for a shared SSM document

If you share a command, users can view and use that command until you either remove access to the AWS Systems Manager (SSM) document or delete the SSM document. However, you can't delete a document as long as it's shared. You must stop sharing it first and then delete it.

Stop sharing a document (console)

Stop sharing a document

Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/.
In the navigation pane, choose Documents.
In the documents list, choose the document you want to stop sharing, and then choose the Details. In the Permissions section, verify that you're the document owner. Only a document owner can stop sharing a document.
Choose Edit.
Choose X to delete the AWS account ID that should no longer have access to the command, and then choose Save.

Stop sharing a document (command line)

Open the AWS CLI or AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell on your local computer and run the following command to stop sharing a command.

Using shared SSM documents

When you share an AWS Systems Manager (SSM) document, the system generates an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) and assigns it to the command. If you select and run a shared document from the Systems Manager console, you don't see the ARN. However, if you want to run a shared SSM document using a method other than the Systems Manager console, you must specify the full ARN of the document for the DocumentName request parameter. You're shown the full ARN for an SSM document when you run the command to list documents.

Note

You aren't required to specify ARNs for AWS public documents (documents that begin with AWS-*) or documents that you own.

Use a shared SSM document (command line)

To list all public SSM documents

To list private SSM documents that have been shared with you

To list all SSM documents available to you

To get information about an SSM document that has been shared with you

To run a shared SSM document

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Document Conventions

Running documents from remote locations

Searching for SSM documents