AWS Auth

Learn how to authenticate with Infisical for EC2 instances, Lambda functions, and other IAM principals.

AWS Auth is an AWS-native authentication method for IAM principals like EC2 instances or Lambda functions to access Infisical.

Diagram

The following sequence digram illustrates the AWS Auth workflow for authenticating AWS IAM principals with Infisical.

Concept

At a high-level, Infisical authenticates an IAM principal by verifying its identity and checking that it meets specific requirements (e.g. it is an allowed IAM principal ARN) at the /api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login endpoint. If successful, then Infisical returns a short-lived access token that can be used to make authenticated requests to the Infisical API.

To be more specific:

1. The client IAM principal signs a GetCallerIdentity query using the AWS Signature v4 algorithm; this is done using the credentials from the AWS environment where the IAM principal is running.
2. The client sends the signed query data to Infisical including the request method, request body, and request headers at the /api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login endpoint.
3. Infisical reconstructs the query and sends it to AWS STS API via the sts:GetCallerIdentity method for verification and obtains the identity associated with the IAM principal.
4. Infisical checks the identity’s properties against set criteria such Allowed Principal ARNs.
5. If all is well, Infisical returns a short-lived access token that the IAM principal can use to make authenticated requests to the Infisical API.

We recommend using one of Infisical’s clients like SDKs or the Infisical Agent to authenticate with Infisical using AWS Auth as they handle the authentication process including the signed GetCallerIdentity query construction for you.

Also, note that Infisical needs network-level access to send requests to the AWS STS API as part of the AWS Auth workflow.

Guide

In the following steps, we explore how to create and use identities for your workloads and applications on AWS to access the Infisical API using the AWS Auth authentication method.

1. Creating an identity

   To create an identity, head to your Organization Settings > Access Control > Machine Identities and press Create identity.

   

   When creating an identity, you specify an organization level role for it to assume; you can configure roles in Organization Settings > Access Control > Organization Roles.

   

   Now input a few details for your new identity. Here’s some guidance for each field:

   • Name (required): A friendly name for the identity.
   • Role (required): A role from the Organization Roles tab for the identity to assume. The organization role assigned will determine what organization level resources this identity can have access to.

   Once you’ve created an identity, you’ll be prompted to configure the authentication method for it. Here, select AWS Auth.

   

   Here’s some more guidance on each field:

   • Allowed Principal ARNs: A comma-separated list of trusted IAM principal ARNs that are allowed to authenticate with Infisical. The values should take one of three forms: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/MyUserName, arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/MyRoleName, or arn:aws:iam::123456789012:*. Using a wildcard in this case allows any IAM principal in the account 123456789012 to authenticate with Infisical under the identity.
   • Allowed Account IDs: A comma-separated list of trusted AWS account IDs that are allowed to authenticate with Infisical.
   • STS Endpoint (default is https://sts.amazonaws.com/): The endpoint URL for the AWS STS API. This value should be adjusted based on the AWS region you are operating in (e.g. https://sts.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/); refer to the list of regional STS endpoints here.
   • Access Token TTL (default is 2592000 equivalent to 30 days): The lifetime for an acccess token in seconds. This value will be referenced at renewal time.
   • Access Token Max TTL (default is 2592000 equivalent to 30 days): The maximum lifetime for an acccess token in seconds. This value will be referenced at renewal time.
   • Access Token Max Number of Uses (default is 0): The maximum number of times that an access token can be used; a value of 0 implies infinite number of uses.
   • Access Token Trusted IPs: The IPs or CIDR ranges that access tokens can be used from. By default, each token is given the 0.0.0.0/0, allowing usage from any network address.
2. Adding an identity to a project

   To enable the identity to access project-level resources such as secrets within a specific project, you should add it to that project.

   To do this, head over to the project you want to add the identity to and go to Project Settings > Access Control > Machine Identities and press Add identity.

   Next, select the identity you want to add to the project and the project level role you want to allow it to assume. The project role assigned will determine what project level resources this identity can have access to.

   

   

3. Accessing the Infisical API with the identity

   To access the Infisical API as the identity, you need to construct a signed GetCallerIdentity query using the AWS Signature v4 algorithm and make a request to the /api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login endpoint containing the query data in exchange for an access token.

   We provide a few code examples below of how you can authenticate with Infisical from inside a Lambda function, EC2 instance, etc. and obtain an access token to access the Infisical API.

   Sample code for inside a Lambda function

   The following query construction is an example of how you can authenticate with Infisical from inside a Lambda function.

   The shown example uses Node.js but you can use other languages supported by AWS Lambda.

   import AWS from "aws-sdk";
   import axios from "axios";
   
   export const handler = async (event, context) => {
       try {
           const region = process.env.AWS_REGION;
           AWS.config.update({ region });
   
           const iamRequestURL = `https://sts.${region}.amazonaws.com/`;
           const iamRequestBody = "Action=GetCallerIdentity&Version=2011-06-15";
           const iamRequestHeaders = {
               "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8",
               Host: `sts.${region}.amazonaws.com`,
           };
   
           // Create the request
           const request = new AWS.HttpRequest(iamRequestURL, region);
           request.method = "POST";
           request.headers = iamRequestHeaders;
           request.headers["X-Amz-Date"] = AWS.util.date
               .iso8601(new Date())
               .replace(/[:-]|\.\d{3}/g, "");
           request.body = iamRequestBody;
           request.headers["Content-Length"] =
           Buffer.byteLength(iamRequestBody).toString();
   
           // Sign the request
           const signer = new AWS.Signers.V4(request, "sts");
           signer.addAuthorization(AWS.config.credentials, new Date());
   
           const infisicalUrl = "https://app.infisical.com"; // or your self-hosted Infisical URL
           const identityId = "<your-identity-id>";
   
           const { data } = await axios.post(
               `${infisicalUrl}/api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login`,
               {
                   identityId,
                   iamHttpRequestMethod: "POST",
                   iamRequestUrl: Buffer.from(iamRequestURL).toString("base64"),
                   iamRequestBody: Buffer.from(iamRequestBody).toString("base64"),
                   iamRequestHeaders: Buffer.from(
                   JSON.stringify(iamRequestHeaders)
                   ).toString("base64"),
               }
           );
   
           console.log("result data: ", data); // access token here
       } catch (err) {
           console.error(err);
       }
   };
   

   Sample code for inside an EC2 instance

   The following query construction is an example of how you can authenticate with Infisical from inside a EC2 instance.

   The shown example uses Node.js but you can use other language you wish.

   import AWS from "aws-sdk";
   import axios from "axios";
   
   const main = async () => {
       try {
           // obtain region from EC2 instance metadata
           const tokenResponse = await axios.put("http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token", null, {
               headers: {
               "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds": "21600"
               }
           });
   
           const url = "http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document";
           const response = await axios.get(url, {
               headers: {
                   "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token": tokenResponse.data
               }
           });
   
           const region = response.data.region;
   
           AWS.config.update({
               region
           });
   
           const iamRequestURL = `https://sts.${region}.amazonaws.com/`;
           const iamRequestBody = "Action=GetCallerIdentity&Version=2011-06-15";
           const iamRequestHeaders = {
               "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8",
               Host: `sts.${region}.amazonaws.com`
           };
   
           const request = new AWS.HttpRequest(new AWS.Endpoint(iamRequestURL), AWS.config.region);
           request.method = "POST";
           request.headers = iamRequestHeaders;
           request.headers["X-Amz-Date"] = AWS.util.date.iso8601(new Date()).replace(/[:-]|\.\d{3}/g, "");
           request.body = iamRequestBody;
           request.headers["Content-Length"] = Buffer.byteLength(iamRequestBody);
   
           const signer = new AWS.Signers.V4(request, "sts");
           signer.addAuthorization(AWS.config.credentials, new Date());
   
           const infisicalUrl = "https://app.infisical.com"; // or your self-hosted Infisical URL
           const identityId = "<your-identity-id>";
   
           const { data } = await axios.post(`${infisicalUrl}/api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login`, {
               identityId,
               iamHttpRequestMethod: "POST",
               iamRequestUrl: Buffer.from(iamRequestURL).toString("base64"),
               iamRequestBody: Buffer.from(iamRequestBody).toString("base64"),
               iamRequestHeaders: Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(iamRequestHeaders)).toString("base64")
           });
   
           console.log("result data: ", data); // access token here
       } catch (err) {
           console.error(err);
       }
   }
   
   main();
   

   Sample code for general query construction

   The following query construction provides a generic example of how you can construct a signed GetCallerIdentity query and obtain the required payload components.

   The shown example uses Node.js but you can use any language you wish.

   const AWS = require("aws-sdk");
   
   const region = "<your-aws-region>";
   const infisicalUrl = "https://app.infisical.com"; // or your self-hosted Infisical URL
   
   const iamRequestURL = `https://sts.${region}.amazonaws.com/`;
   const iamRequestBody = "Action=GetCallerIdentity&Version=2011-06-15";
   const iamRequestHeaders = {
       "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8",
       Host: `sts.${region}.amazonaws.com`
   };
   
   const request = new AWS.HttpRequest(new AWS.Endpoint(iamRequestURL), region);
   request.method = "POST";
   request.headers = iamRequestHeaders;
   request.headers["X-Amz-Date"] = AWS.util.date.iso8601(new Date()).replace(/[:-]|\.\d{3}/g, "");
   request.body = iamRequestBody;
   request.headers["Content-Length"] = Buffer.byteLength(iamRequestBody);
   
   const signer = new AWS.Signers.V4(request, "sts");
   signer.addAuthorization(AWS.config.credentials, new Date());
   

   Sample request

   Request

   curl --location --request POST 'https://app.infisical.com/api/v1/auth/aws-auth/login' \
       --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
       --data-urlencode 'identityId=...' \
       --data-urlencode 'iamHttpRequestMethod=...' \
       --data-urlencode 'iamRequestBody=...' \
       --data-urlencode 'iamRequestHeaders=...'
   

   Note that you should replace <identityId> with the ID of the identity you created in step 1.

   Sample response

   Response

   {
       "accessToken": "...",
       "expiresIn": 7200,
       "accessTokenMaxTTL": 43244
       "tokenType": "Bearer"
   }
   

   Next, you can use the access token to access the Infisical API

   We recommend using one of Infisical’s clients like SDKs or the Infisical Agent to authenticate with Infisical using AWS Auth as they handle the authentication process including the signed GetCallerIdentity query construction for you.

   Each identity access token has a time-to-live (TLL) which you can infer from the response of the login operation; the default TTL is 7200 seconds which can be adjusted.

   If an identity access token expires, it can no longer authenticate with the Infisical API. In this case, a new access token should be obtained by performing another login operation.