How to Find Your AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
In this post, we will explain how to retrieve Amazon Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key. These keys allow you to control your AWS account.
We'll focus on the following topics:
- How to Retrieve Root Access Keys
- How to Retrieve IAM Access Keys
Note: As a best practice, AWS recommends creating an IAM user rather than relying on root access keys. IAM access keys allow you to securely control access to AWS services and resources for your users. (Learn more about AWS IAM identities in our article.)
Below, please find instructions on how to retrieve root access keys and IAM access keys.
How to Retrieve Root Access Keys
1 Go toAmazon Web Services console andclick on the name of your account (it is located in the top right corner of the console). Then, in the expanded drop-down list, select Security Credentials.
2 Click theContinue to Security Credentials button.
3 Expand the Access Keys (Access Key ID and Secret Access Key) option. You will see the list of your active and deleted access keys.Note: You cannot retrieve the existing secret key. You can see the AWS secret access key only once immediately after creating. So, in order to get a secret key, you will need to create a new one.
4 To generatenew access keys, click the Create New Access Key button.
5 Click Show Access Key to have it displayed onthe screen. Note, that you can download it to your machine as a file and open it whenever needed. To download it, just click the Download Key File button. Attention! If you do not write down the key or download the key file to your computer before you press "Close" or "Cancel" you will not be able to retrieve the AWS secret access key in future. Then you'll have to delete the keys which you created and start to create new keys.
FREE WHITEPAPER
Mastering AWS IAM for Amazon S3
Learn how to effectively manage the security of your Amazon S3 account to protect your and your clients' data
How to Retrieve IAM Access Keys
1 Go toAmazon Web Services consoleandclick on the name of your account (it is located in the top right corner of the console). In the expanded drop-down list, select Security Credentials.
2 Click theGet Started with IAM Usersbutton.
3 This will bring youto the IAM Dashboardwhere you can manage IAM users and theirpermissions such as creating new IAM users, adding IAM users to the custom groups, granting them a certain level of permissions,etc.
4 To review the IAM access keys, click on a particular user.
5 Under Security Credentials, you will see alist of Access Keys for the IAM user. Note:You cannot retrieve the existing secret keys. You can see the secret key only once immediately after creating. So, in order to getasecret key, you will need to create a new one.
6 Click Create Access Key to create a new key.The new access keys will be generated and displayed on the screen.Attention!If you do not write down the key or downloadthe key file to your computer before you press "Close" or "Cancel" you will not be able to retrieve the secret key in future. Then you'll have to delete the keys which you created start to create new keys.
AWS and MSP360: A Powerful Combo for Your Data Protection Strategy
- How backing up to S3 works in MSP360
- The advantages of using S3 as a backup destination
- The benefits you get when you pair MSP360 with S3
FAQs
1 Go to Amazon Web Services console and click on the name of your account (it is located in the top right corner of the console). Then, in the expanded drop-down list, select Security Credentials. 2 Click the Continue to Security Credentials button. 3 Expand the Access Keys (Access Key ID and Secret Access Key) option.
How to get AWS access key and secret key using CLI? ›
For Create access key Step 1, choose Command Line Interface (CLI). For Create access key Step 2, enter an optional tag and select Next. For Create access key Step 3, select Download . csv file to save a .
What is the aws_access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key? ›
Boto3 will check these environment variables for credentials: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - The access key for your AWS account. AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - The secret key for your AWS account. AWS_SESSION_TOKEN - The session key for your AWS account. This is only needed when you are using temporary credentials.
What is the difference between access key and secret key in AWS? ›
AWS access key ID is a form of unique user/account identifier. AWS secret key is like private key. When AWS CLI sends a API request, the payload is signed by generating an HMAC with the secret key as the key. The HMAC, AccessKeyID and the payload is sent to AWS service.
How do I find my AWS public key? ›
You can use the AWS Management Console to view, copy, and download the public key from an asymmetric KMS key in your AWS account. To download the public key from an asymmetric KMS key in different AWS account, use the AWS KMS API.
How do I create an access key for my current user in AWS? ›
For an existing user, click on the user, click on the "Security credentials" tab, then click the "Create access key" button. Copy or download the keys. Note: You cannot access previously created access keys. If you have lost the secret access key, then you have to generate new ones.
How do I create an AWS s3 bucket access key and secret key? ›
Click Security credentials, and under Access Keys, click 'Create access key'.
- This takes you to a screen which prompts you to consider use cases and alternatives.
- Click 'Other' (read the best practices for managing the access key).
- Click 'Next'.
Log in to your AWS console and open the AWS CloudTrail service. Click on the “Event History” menu in Cloud Trail. Then you will see the “Event History” table in the opened area. Here, select the “AWS access key” option in the “Lookup attributes” section.
How to create access key and secret key in AWS for Terraform? ›
To do so, browse to the IAM section in the AWS console and click 'create new access key. ' Note that the usual and recommended way to authenticate to AWS when using Terraform is via the AWS CLI, rather than any of the provider options listed above. To do this, first, install the AWS CLI, then type aws configure .
How to get AWS credentials from console? ›
To access and manage your security credentials, sign into your AWS console as an IAM user, then navigate to your user name in the upper right section of the navigation bar. From the drop-down menu, select My Security Credentials, as shown in Figure 1.
To create a new secret access key for your root account, use the security credentials page. Expand the Access Keys section, and then click Create New Root Key. To create a new secret access key for an IAM user, open the IAM console.
How to export AWS access key and secret key? ›
You can also set the environment variables in the command line, as shown here. $ export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE # The access key for your AWS account. $ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY # The secret access key for your AWS account.
How do I get the access key for AWS CLI? ›
Assuming you are signed into the AWS Console, let's go to IAM and click on My security credentials located to the right. Scroll down to access keys and select create access keys. Select Command Line Interface (CLI) > Check off I understand… > add in a tag if you wish.
Where is AWS private key stored? ›
Your private key isn't stored in AWS and can be retrieved only when it's created. You can't recover it later. Instead, if you lose the private key, you must create a new key pair.
How to find ~/AWS credentials? ›
The credentials file is located at ~/. aws/credentials on Linux or macOS, or at C:\Users\ USERNAME \. aws\credentials on Windows.
How do I find my Azure access key and secret key? ›
In the Azure portal, go to your storage account. Under Security + networking, select Access keys. Your account access keys appear, as well as the complete connection string for each key. Select Show keys to show your access keys and connection strings and to enable buttons to copy the values.
What is the access key on the keyboard? ›
An access key is a combination of the Alt key and one or more alphanumeric keys—sometimes called a mnemonic—typically pressed sequentially, rather than simultaneously.
Note: You cannot retrieve the existing secret key. You can see the AWS secret access key only once immediately after creating. So, in order to get a secret key, you will need to create a new one.
Attention! If you do not write down the key or download the key file to your computer before you press "Close" or "Cancel" you will not be able to retrieve the AWS secret access key in future. Then you'll have to delete the keys which you created and start to create new keys.
Note:You cannot retrieve the existing secret keys. You can see the secret key only once immediately after creating. So, in order to getasecret key, you will need to create a new one.
Attention!If you do not write down the key or downloadthe key file to your computer before you press "Close" or "Cancel" you will not be able to retrieve the secret key in future. Then you'll have to delete the keys which you created start to create new keys.
