Introducing AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS)

AWS STS is a web service that allows you to request temporary, limited privilege credentials (lasting from 15 minutes to 36 hours) for AWS IAM users or federated users:

Figure 2.2 – AWS STS

The application makes an API request to AWS STS for credentials; STS generates these credentials dynamically. Once the credentials expire, new ones may be requested (as long as the user has permission to do so).

Advantages of AWS STS

The advantages of AWS STS are as follows:

• Provides temporary security credentials.
• Short-term credentials lasting from 15 minutes to 36 hours.
• Credentials are dynamically assigned as requested.
• No need to rotate/revoke password or access keys.

Use cases

Here are some of the use cases of AWS STS:

• Identity federation (grants users from outside AWS access to the service)
• Cross-account access (users or services from other accounts are granted...