sts_get_session_token: Returns a set of temporary credentials for an AWS account or IAM user

Description

Returns a set of temporary credentials for an AWS account or IAM user. The credentials consist of an access key ID, a secret access key, and a security token. Typically, you use get_session_token if you want to use MFA to protect programmatic calls to specific AWS API operations like Amazon EC2 StopInstances. MFA-enabled IAM users would need to call get_session_token and submit an MFA code that is associated with their MFA device. Using the temporary security credentials that are returned from the call, IAM users can then make programmatic calls to API operations that require MFA authentication. If you do not supply a correct MFA code, then the API returns an access denied error. For a comparison of get_session_token with the other API operations that produce temporary credentials, see Requesting Temporary Security Credentials and Comparing the AWS STS API operations in the IAM User Guide.

Session Duration

The get_session_token operation must be called by using the long-term AWS security credentials of the AWS account root user or 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 get_session_token can be used to make API calls to any AWS service with the following exceptions:

You cannot call any IAM API operations unless MFA authentication information is included in the request.
You cannot call any STS API except assume_role or get_caller_identity.

We recommend that you do not call get_session_token with AWS account root user credentials. Instead, follow our best practices by creating one or more IAM users, giving them the necessary permissions, and using IAM users for everyday interaction with AWS.

The credentials that are returned by get_session_token are based on permissions associated with the user whose credentials were used to call the operation. If get_session_token is called using AWS account root user credentials, the temporary credentials have root user permissions. Similarly, if get_session_token is called using the credentials of an IAM user, the temporary credentials have the same permissions as the IAM user.

For more information about using get_session_token to create temporary credentials, go to Temporary Credentials for Users in Untrusted Environments in the IAM User Guide.

Usage

sts_get_session_token(DurationSeconds, SerialNumber, TokenCode)

Value

A list with the following syntax:

list(
  Credentials = list(
    AccessKeyId = "string",
    SecretAccessKey = "string",
    SessionToken = "string",
    Expiration = as.POSIXct(
      "2015-01-01"
    )
  )
)

Arguments

DurationSeconds

The duration, in seconds, that the credentials should remain valid. Acceptable durations for IAM user sessions range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) to 129,600 seconds (36 hours), with 43,200 seconds (12 hours) as the default. Sessions for AWS account owners are restricted to a maximum of 3,600 seconds (one hour). If the duration is longer than one hour, the session for AWS account owners defaults to one hour.

SerialNumber

The identification number of the MFA device that is associated with the IAM user who is making the get_session_token call. Specify this value if the IAM user has a policy that requires MFA authentication. The value is either the serial number for a hardware device (such as GAHT12345678) or an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for a virtual device (such as arn:aws:iam::123456789012:mfa/user). You can find the device for an IAM user by going to the AWS Management Console and viewing the user's security credentials.

The regex used to validate this parameter is a string of characters consisting of upper- and lower-case alphanumeric characters with no spaces. You can also include underscores or any of the following characters: =,.@:/-

TokenCode

The value provided by the MFA device, if MFA is required. If any policy requires the IAM user to submit an MFA code, specify this value. If MFA authentication is required, the user must provide a code when requesting a set of temporary security credentials. A user who fails to provide the code receives an "access denied" response when requesting resources that require MFA authentication.

The format for this parameter, as described by its regex pattern, is a sequence of six numeric digits.

Request syntax

svc$get_session_token(
  DurationSeconds = 123,
  SerialNumber = "string",
  TokenCode = "string"
)

Examples

Run this code

if (FALSE) {
# 
svc$get_session_token(
  DurationSeconds = 3600L,
  SerialNumber = "YourMFASerialNumber",
  TokenCode = "123456"
)
}

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