The awscli-login plugin allows retrieving temporary Amazon credentials by authenticating against a SAML Identity Provider (IdP). This application is fully supported under Linux, macOS, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Currently, Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, and Git Shell for Windows are supported with limitations (See Windows Issues).
This product is supported by the Cybersecurity Development team at the University of Illinois, on a best-effort basis. As of the last update to this README, the expected End-of-Life and End-of-Support dates of this version are October of 2025, the same as its primary dependencies: the AWS CLI and Python V3.9.
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The simplest way to install the awscli-login plugin is to use pip.
There can be issues installing with older versions of setuptools, so we recommend ensuring setuptools is up to date before installing.:
$ pip install --upgrade setuptools $ pip install awscli-login
After awscli-login has been installed, run the following command to enable the plugin:
$ aws configure set plugins.login awscli_login
If you receive a bad interpreter error or other error please see the Known Issues section below.
Before using awscli-login to retrieve temporary credentials, optionally configure one or more named profiles for use with the plugin. To configure this plugin, you must know the URL of the ECP Endpoint for your IdP. If you do not have this information, contact your IdP administrator.
Here is an example configuring the default profile for use with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's IdP:
$ aws login configure ECP Endpoint URL [None]: https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP Username [None]: Enable Keyring [False]: Duo Factor [None]: Role ARN [None]:
To log in, type the following command:
$ aws login Username [username]: netid Password: ******** Factor: passcode Code: 123456789
The username
and password
are the values needed to authenticate
against the IdP configured for the selected profile. The factor
is only required if your IdP requires Duo for authentication. If
it does not, leave factor
blank. If your IdP does require Duo
then factor
may be one of auto
, push
, passcode
,
sms
, or phone
. If factor
is left blank, auto
is
the default. The code
is a Duo code useful for use with a
YubiKey, SMS codes, or other one-time codes.
If you have access to more than one role, you will be prompted to choose one. For example:
$ aws login Username [username]: netid Password: ******** Factor: Please choose the role you would like to assume: Account: 978517677611 [ 0 ]: Admin Account: 520135271718 [ 1 ]: ReadOnlyUser [ 2 ]: S3Admin Selection: 2
To switch roles, first log out, then log in again selecting a different role. Note that if you log in to the same IdP using the same username, you will not be prompted for your password or Duo factor until the IdP session expires:
$ aws logout $ aws login Username [netid]: Please choose the role you would like to assume: Account: 520135271718 [ 0 ]: TestUser [ 1 ]: IAMUser Selection: 0
It is possible to be logged in to more than one role at the same
time using multiple named profiles.
For example, consider the following configuration involving two
profiles – one called prod
, and the other test
:
$ aws --profile prod login configure ECP Endpoint URL [None]: https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP Username [None]: netid Enable Keyring [False]: True Duo Factor [None]: auto Role ARN [None]: arn:aws:iam::999999999999:role/Admin $ aws --profile test login configure ECP Endpoint URL [None]: https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP Username [None]: netid Enable Keyring [False]: True Duo Factor [None]: passcode Role ARN [None]: arn:aws:iam::111111111111:role/Admin
This example involves several advanced features. First, we are setting the username, factor, and role. This means we will not be prompted for this information when logging in to these two profiles. In addition, we are using a keyring. On the first login using one of the profiles, the user will be prompted for his password. On subsequent logins the user will not be prompted for his password because it has been stored in a secure keyring.
For example, when we initially log in to prod:
$ export AWS_PROFILE=test $ aws login Password: ******** Code: 123456789
We are only prompted for the password and code. We're prompted for the password because this is the initial login, and the code because this profile is configured for use with a passcode device such as a YubiKey. We are now no longer prompted when we log in to test:
$ aws --profile prod login
Even if the IdP session has expired in this case, we will not be prompted for a password because it is stored in the keyring. The user will receive either a phone call or a push to the default Duo device.
The plugin's configuration file (~/.aws-login/config
) is an ini
file that supports more configuration options than is exposed via
the basic interactive configuration as seen in the Getting Started
section. Each section corresponds to an AWS named profile
just like the awscli's credentials file ~/.aws/credentials
.
Here is a simple example configuration file:
[default] ecp_endpoint_url = https://shib.uiuc.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP username = netid enable_keyring = True factor = auto [prod] username = netid ecp_endpoint_url = https://shib.uiuc.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP
and the corresponding awscli configuration file ~/.aws/config
[plugins] login = awscli_login [default] region = us-east-2 output = json [profile prod] region = us-east-2 output = json
All configuration options are documented below in the properties section.
Each property can be overridden at the command line using a flag.
See the online documentation for further details by running aws
login help
.
- ecp_endpoint_url
The ECP endpoint URL of the IdP. This is the only required property:
ecp_endpoint_url = https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP
- username
The username to use on login to the IdP. If the username is not supplied the user will be prompted:
username = netid
- password
The password to use on login to the IdP. If the password is not supplied the user will be prompted. It is not recommended to use this property. Instead supply the password interactively or use the keyring for secure storage:
password = secret
The password property and command line flag are ignored if the keyring is enabled. When this happens a warning is issued.
- factor
The Duo factor to use on login:
factor = auto
The following values are currently supported:
factor auto
authenticates with push
if available, otherwise fallbacks tophone
push
authenticates with Duo Push passcode
authenticates the user with a user supplied code from a hardware token, Duo Mobile, or bypass code sms
sends a batch of SMS passcodes to the user phone
Authenticates with phone callback To login using
sms
, requires two attempts. The first attempt will send SMS passcodes, and return authentication failed. The second attempt will use the passcodes:$ aws login --factor sms Authentication failed! $ aws login --factor passcode Code: 829437
- passcode
A bypass code or Duo passcode generated by Duo Mobile, SMS, or a hardware token can be set using the passcode property:
passcode = 829437
It is not recommended to store a passcode in your configuration file since a passcode can only be used once. A passcode is better passed interactivally or by the
--passcode
command line flag.- role_arn
The role ARN to select. If the IdP returns a single role it is autoselected:
role_arn = arn:aws:iam::999999999999:role/Admin
- enable_keyring
By default the keyring is not used for password storage. The keyring is implemented using the Python module keyring, and supports various secure backends such as the macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Locker, and Linux keyrings. Additional, system configuration may be required to use a keyring on Linux systems (See https://pypi.org/project/keyring for details). Set to True to enable:
enable_keyring = True
The password property and command line flag are ignored when the keyring is enabled.
- disable_refresh:
On POSIX systems tokens are refreshed automatically unless this property is set to True:
disable-refresh = True
- refresh
How often the refresh process attempts to renew the STS credentials in seconds. When set to 0 the refresh process will refresh once 90% of the time till expiration has transpired (Default 0):
refresh = 1800
- duration
Set the time in seconds that the STS token will last. The token lasts for the duration you specify, or until the time specified by the IdP, whichever is shorter. The default is an hour, and the minimum is 15 minutes (See AssumeRoleWithSAML for details):
duration = 3600
- http_header_factor
HTTP Header to store the user's Duo factor:
http_header_factor = X-Shibboleth-Duo-Factor
- http_header_passcode
HTTP Header to store the user's passcode:
http_header_passcode = X-Shibboleth-Duo-Passcode
The plugin supports two subcommands login and logout.
Detailed online documentation can be accessed using the following command:
$ aws login help
All properties, except for enable_keyring, can be overridden
with a corresponding command line option. Properties that contain
an underscore will have a corresponding option with hyphens, for
example the property ecp_endpoint_url becomes --ecp-endpoint-url
.
For details on these options see the documentation above or refer
to the online documentation. Options not avaliable as properties
are documented below.
--ask-password
- Force prompt for password. This can be used to override the
enable_keyring
property. --force-refresh
- Forces the refresh process to retrieve new credentials for the user selected role. If the refresh process is not running then a normal login will proceed after a warning.
--verbose
- Display verbose output. The flag can be repeated up to three times. Each time it is repeated more detailed information is returned.
See Getting Started and online documentation for documentation on this subcommand:
$ aws login configure help
--verbose
- Display verbose output. The flag can be repeated up to three times. Each time it is repeated more detailed information is returned.
See Getting Started and online documentation for documentation on this subcommand:
$ aws logout help
--verbose
- Display verbose output. The flag can be repeated up to three times. Each time it is repeated more detailed information is returned.
After the user changes his IdP password, subsequent logins fail. To remedy the situation, change the data stored in the keyring as follows:
$ keyring set awscli_login username@hostname_of_your_IdP
You may be prompted for your user login password by your operating system, depending on how your key store is configured.
If you encounter the following error it is because the awscli expects urls passed as arguments to return a 200 on an HTTP GET (See aws-cli#4473):
$ aws login --ecp-endpoint-url https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP Error parsing parameter '--ecp-endpoint-url': Unable to retrieve https://shibboleth.illinois.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/SOAP/ECP: received non 200 status code of 500
This check can be disabled on a per profile basis using the following command:
$ aws configure set cli_follow_urlparam off
Auto-renewal is not supported under the Windows PowerShell, Command Prompt, or Git Shell for Windows. Auto-renewal is supported under the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
If you receive a bad interpreter error from the aws command it may be because you have a space in the path of your Python interpreter:
bash: /c/Users/me/AppData/Roaming/Python/Python38/Scripts/aws: c:\program: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
To fix this issue either reinstall your Python interpreter to a path that does not contain a space and then reinstall the awscli package, or more simply just define an alias in your bashrc file:
alias aws='python $(which aws)'
If you receive a bad interpreter error from the aws command on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) it may be because the location where the awscli is installed is not listed in the WSL's PATH before the location of a Windows install of awscli:
-bash: /mnt/c/Python39/Scripts/aws: c:\python39\python.exe^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
To remedy this issue please ensure that the location where the awscli is installed in the WSL comes before the location of the Windows install in the WSL PATH environment variable.