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Security Token Service (STS)

  • Allows to grant limited and temporary access to AWS resources
  • Token is valid for up to one hour (must be refreshed)
  • Is the service that you can use to create and provide trusted users with temporary security credentials that can control access to your AWS resources.
  • Temporary security credentials work almost identically to the long-term access key credentials that your IAM users can use.
  • You can use the AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) to create and provide trusted users with temporary security credentials that can control access to your AWS resources.
  • Temporary security credentials work almost identically to the long-term access key credentials that your IAM users can use, with the following differences:
    • Temporary security credentials are short-term, as the name implies. They can be configured to last for anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
    • After the credentials expire, AWS no longer recognizes them or allows any kind of access from API requests made with them.
    • Temporary security credentials are not stored with the user but are generated dynamically and provided to the user when requested.
    • When (or even before) the temporary security credentials expire, the user can request new credentials, as long as the user requesting them still has permissions to do so.

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