open-vault/website/source/api/secret/aws/index.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
api	AWS - Secrets Engines - HTTP API	docs-http-secret-aws	This is the API documentation for the Vault AWS secrets engine.

AWS Secrets Engine (API)

This is the API documentation for the Vault AWS secrets engine. For general information about the usage and operation of the AWS secrets engine, please see the Vault AWS documentation.

This documentation assumes the AWS secrets engine is enabled at the /aws path in Vault. Since it is possible to enable secrets engines at any location, please update your API calls accordingly.

Configure Root IAM Credentials

This endpoint configures the root IAM credentials to communicate with AWS. There are multiple ways to pass root IAM credentials to the Vault server, specified below with the highest precedence first. If credentials already exist, this will overwrite them.

The official AWS SDK is used for sourcing credentials from env vars, shared files, or IAM/ECS instances.

• Static credentials provided to the API as a payload

• Credentials in the AWS_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SECRET_KEY, and AWS_REGION environment variables on the server

• Shared credentials files

• Assigned IAM role or ECS task role credentials

At present, this endpoint does not confirm that the provided AWS credentials are valid AWS credentials with proper permissions.

Method	Path	Produces
POST	/aws/config/root	204 (empty body)

Parameters

• max_retries (int: -1) - Number of max retries the client should use for recoverable errors. The default (-1) falls back to the AWS SDK's default behavior.

• access_key (string: <required>) – Specifies the AWS access key ID.

• secret_key (string: <required>) – Specifies the AWS secret access key.

• region (string: <optional>) – Specifies the AWS region. If not set it will use the AWS_REGION env var, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION env var, or us-east-1 in that order.

• iam_endpoint (string: <optional>) – Specifies a custom HTTP IAM endpoint to use.

• sts_endpoint (string: <optional>) – Specifies a custom HTTP STS endpoint to use.

Sample Payload

{
  "access_key": "AKIA...",
  "secret_key": "2J+...",
  "region": "us-east-1"
}

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/config/root

Rotate Root IAM Credentials

When you have configured Vault with static credentials, you can use this endpoint to have Vault rotate the access key it used. Note that, due to AWS eventual consistency, after calling this endpoint, subsequent calls from Vault to AWS may fail for a few seconds until AWS becomes consistent again.

In order to call this endpoint, Vault's AWS access key MUST be the only access key on the IAM user; otherwise, generation of a new access key will fail. Once this method is called, Vault will now be the only entity that knows the AWS secret key is used to access AWS.

Method	Path	Produces
POST	/aws/config/rotate-root	200 application/json

Parameters

There are no parameters to this operation.

Sample Request

    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    http://127.0.0.1:8211/v1/aws/config/rotate-root

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "access_key": "AKIA..."
  }
}

The new access key Vault uses is returned by this operation.

Configure Lease

This endpoint configures lease settings for the AWS secrets engine. It is optional, as there are default values for lease and lease_max.

Method	Path	Produces
POST	/aws/config/lease	204 (empty body)

Parameters

• lease (string: <required>) – Specifies the lease value provided as a string duration with time suffix. "h" (hour) is the largest suffix.

• lease_max (string: <required>) – Specifies the maximum lease value provided as a string duration with time suffix. "h" (hour) is the largest suffix.

Sample Payload

{
  "lease": "30m",
  "lease_max": "12h"
}

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/config/lease

Read Lease

This endpoint returns the current lease settings for the AWS secrets engine.

Method	Path	Produces
GET	/aws/config/lease	200 application/json

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/config/lease

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "lease": "30m0s",
    "lease_max": "12h0m0s"
  }
}

Create/Update Role

This endpoint creates or updates the role with the given name. If a role with the name does not exist, it will be created. If the role exists, it will be updated with the new attributes.

Method	Path	Produces
POST	/aws/roles/:name	204 (empty body)

Parameters

• name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the role to create. This is part of the request URL.

• credential_type (string: <required>) – Specifies the type of credential to be used when retrieving credentials from the role. Must be one of iam_user, assumed_role, or federation_token.

• role_arns (list: []) – Specifies the ARNs of the AWS roles this Vault role is allowed to assume. Required when credential_type is assumed_role and prohibited otherwise. This is a comma-separated string or JSON array.

• policy_arns (list: []) – Specifies the ARNs of the AWS managed policies to be attached to IAM users when they are requested. Valid only when credential_type is iam_user. When credential_type is iam_user, at least one of policy_arns or policy_document must be specified. This is a comma-separated string or JSON array.

• policy_document (string) – The IAM policy document for the role. The behavior depends on the credential type. With iam_user, the policy document will be attached to the IAM user generated and augment the permissions the IAM user has. With assumed_role and federation_token, the policy document will act as a filter on what the credentials can do.

• default_sts_ttl (string) - The default TTL for STS credentials. When a TTL is not specified when STS credentials are requested, and a default TTL is specified on the role, then this default TTL will be used. Valid only when credential_type is one of assumed_role or federation_token.

Legacy parameters:

These parameters are supported for backwards compatibility only. They cannot be mixed with the parameters listed above.

• policy (string: <required unless arn provided>) – Specifies the IAM policy in JSON format.

• arn (string: <required unless policy provided>) – Specifies the full ARN reference to the desired existing policy.

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    --data @payload.json \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/roles/example-role

Sample Payloads

Using an inline IAM policy:

{
  "credential_type": "federation_token",
  "policy_document": "{\"Version\": \"...\"}"
}

Using an ARN:

{
  "credential_type": "assumed_role",
  "role_arns": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DeveloperRole"
}

Read Role

This endpoint queries an existing role by the given name. If the role does not exist, a 404 is returned.

Method	Path	Produces
GET	/aws/roles/:name	200 application/json

If invalid role data was supplied to the role from an earlier version of Vault, then it will show up in the response as invalid_data.

Parameters

• name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the role to read. This is part of the request URL.

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/roles/example-role

Sample Responses

For an inline IAM policy:

{
  "data": {
    "policy_document": "{\"Version\": \"...\"}",
    "policy_arns": [],
    "credential_types": ["assumed_role"],
    "role_arns": [],
  }
}

For a role ARN:

{
  "data": {
    "policy_document": "",
    "policy_arns": [],
    "credential_types": ["assumed_role"],
    "role_arns": ["arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/example-role"]
  }
}

List Roles

This endpoint lists all existing roles in the secrets engine.

Method	Path	Produces
LIST	/aws/roles	200 application/json

Sample Request

$ curl
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request LIST \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/roles

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "keys": [
      "example-role"
    ]
  }
}

Delete Role

This endpoint deletes an existing role by the given name. If the role does not exist, a 404 is returned.

Method	Path	Produces
DELETE	/aws/roles/:name	204 (empty body)

Parameters

• name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the role to delete. This is part of the request URL.

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request DELETE \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/roles/example-role

Generate Credentials

This endpoint generates credentials based on the named role. This role must be created before queried.

Method	Path	Produces
GET	/aws/creds/:name	200 application/json
GET	/aws/sts/:name	200 application/json

The /aws/creds and /aws/sts endpoints are almost identical. The exception is when retrieving credentials for a role that was specified with the legacy arn or policy parameter. In this case, credentials retrieved through /aws/sts must be of either the assumed_role or federation_token types, and credentials retrieved through /aws/creds must be of the iam_user type.

Parameters

• name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the role to generate credentials against. This is part of the request URL.
• role_arn (string) – The ARN of the role to assume if credential_type on the Vault role is assumed_role. Must match one of the allowed role ARNs in the Vault role. Optional if the Vault role only allows a single AWS role ARN; required otherwise.
• ttl (string: "3600s") – Specifies the TTL for the use of the STS token. This is specified as a string with a duration suffix. Valid only when credential_type is assumed_role or federation_token. When not specified, the default_sts_ttl set for the role will be used. If that is also not set, then the default value of 3600s will be used. AWS places limits on the maximum TTL allowed. See the AWS documentation on the DurationSeconds parameter for AssumeRole (for assumed_role credential types) and GetFederationToken (for federation_token credential types) for more details.

Sample Request

$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/aws/creds/example-role

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "access_key": "AKIA...",
    "secret_key": "xlCs...",
    "security_token": null
  }
}