[AWS] Security Token Service (STS)

Security Token Service (STS) creates temporary security credentials – short time use (A few minutes to several hours).

Features

• STS API calls return a credential, which has 3 components
  • Security Token
  • Access Key ID
  • Secrete Access Key

• Types of Tokens
  • AssumeRole
  • AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity
  • AssumeRoleWithSAML
  • GetFederationToken
  • GetSessionToken

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Benefits

• There is no need to pass or save credentials in an application or an instance.
• Use Cases
  • Identity Federation (SAML – Security Assertion Markup Language, Web Identity Federation)
  • Roles for Cross Account Access
  • Roles for EC2 instances