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

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.

• 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:

{
  "policy": "{\"Version\": \"...\"}",
}

Using an ARN:

{
  "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/David"
}

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

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": "{\"Version\": \"...\"}"
  }
}

For an ARN:

{
  "data": {
    "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/David"
  }
}

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 IAM Credentials

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

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

Parameters

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

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
  }
}

Generate IAM with STS

This generates a dynamic IAM credential with an STS token based on the named role.

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

Parameters

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

• ttl (string: "3600s") – Specifies the TTL for the use of the STS token. This is specified as a string with a duration suffix. AWS documentation excerpt: The duration, in seconds, that the credentials should remain valid. Acceptable durations for IAM user sessions range from 900 seconds (15 minutes) to 129600 seconds (36 hours), with 43200 seconds (12 hours) as the default. Sessions for AWS account owners are restricted to a maximum of 3600 seconds (one hour). If the duration is longer than one hour, the session for AWS account owners defaults to one hour.

Sample Payload

{
  "ttl": "15m"
}

Sample Request

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

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "access_key": "AKIA...",
    "secret_key": "xlCs...",
    "security_token": "429255"
  }
}