Run the following command to create a new profile for a user we will call s3-read-user. It is at this point where we will use the AWS Vault tool to securely store these access credentials on our own machine. These credentials are shown only once and you cannot retrieve them from the AWS console after this step. Setup a New ProfileĪfter creating a new IAM user in the AWS Management console, you are presented with a screen with both the Access key ID and Secret access key. I use OS X as my primary operating system and the command for my system is:īrew install -cask aws-vault. Use this link to find the installation instructions of AWS Vault for your operating system. It then generates temporary credentials from the keystore and exposes it to our shell and applications, making sure we do not store these credentials in plain text. Each of these threats increases with each new member you add to your team.ĪWS Vault securely stores and access AWS credentials in our local setup using our operating system’s secure keystore. Remember that these IAM admin accounts have full access to your AWS account and in the wrong hands can cause a lot of damage.Īttack vectors can include a stolen laptop, malware that you are not aware of in your computer, and a compromised npm package just to name a few. This recommendation is widely practiced throughout the industry, but most engineers leave their credentials stored in plain text on their computers. Also other IAM users and roles should be created with limited access scoped to the tasks performed by these users and roles. Instead, you should create an IAM admin user and give admin access needed for administrative tasks. With your credentials, an attacker can use them to do almost anything in your AWS account based on the permissions set on the associated IAM user.ĪWS best practices states that you should never use your main account (the account that you used to sign up for AWS) to do any work. This is common knowledge and can be exploited in cases where your computer gets compromised and all of this can happen without your knowledge. When you configure your IAM user using the AWS CLI, it stores your credentials in plain text on your machine by default in an \.aws directory on your home directory. I’ll also show how to make using this tool easier with my setup of iTerm2 and oh-my-zsh. The main tool I will be using is called the AWS Vault. In this post, I’ll go through the process of setting up IAM users according to AWS best practices and show how to secure the Access and Secret keys on our local machines to prevent them from various attack vectors.
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