AWS Launches IAM Outbound Identity Federation for Secure, Credential-less Access
Executive Summary
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced IAM Outbound Identity Federation, a new capability designed to enhance security and simplify credential management for applications integrating with external services. This feature allows AWS IAM principals, such as roles and users, to exchange their AWS credentials for short-lived, cryptographically signed JSON Web Tokens (JWTs). These tokens can then be used to authenticate with third-party providers, SaaS platforms, and on-premises applications, eliminating the need to store and manage long-term static credentials like API keys.
Key Takeaways
* Product Name: AWS IAM Outbound Identity Federation.
* Primary Function: Enables AWS identities to securely access external services by generating short-lived JWTs, removing the need for static, long-term credentials.
* Key Capabilities:
* Workloads call the `sts:GetWebIdentityToken` API to obtain a signed JWT asserting their AWS identity.
* External services can verify the token's authenticity by using the public JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) endpoint provided for each AWS account.
* Administrators can use IAM policies and new condition keys to control token generation, including permitted audiences, signing algorithms (`ES384` or `RS256`), and token duration (60 to 3600 seconds).
* Tokens can be enriched with custom claims via AWS tags.
* Target Audience: Developers and administrators building applications on AWS that integrate with external or on-premises services.
* Availability: Immediately available in all AWS commercial Regions, AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, and China Regions.
* Pricing: The feature is available at no additional cost.
Strategic Importance
This announcement significantly improves the security posture for customers building hybrid or multi-cloud applications by abstracting away the risk and operational overhead of managing static secrets. It positions AWS as a more secure and central identity hub for workloads that need to interact with a broader ecosystem of services beyond the AWS cloud.