NAME VM::EC2::REST::security_token

SYNOPSIS

 use VM::EC2 qw(:standard);

EC2 REGIONS AND AVAILABILITY ZONES

AWS security tokens provide a way to grant temporary access to resources in your EC2 space without giving them permanent accounts. They also provide the foundation for mobile services and multifactor authentication devices (MFA).

Used in conjunction with VM::EC2::Security::Policy and VM::EC2::Security::Credentials, you can create a temporary user who is authenticated for a limited length of time and pass the credentials to him or her via a secure channel. He or she can then create a credentials object to access your AWS resources.

Here is an example:

 # on your side of the connection
 $ec2 = VM::EC2->new(...);  # as usual
 my $policy = VM::EC2::Security::Policy->new;
 $policy->allow('DescribeImages','RunInstances');
 my $token = $ec2->get_federation_token(-name     => 'TemporaryUser',
                                        -duration => 60*60*3, # 3 hrs, as seconds
                                        -policy   => $policy);
 my $serialized = $token->credentials->serialize;
 send_data_to_user_somehow($serialized);

 # on the temporary user's side of the connection
 my $serialized = get_data_somehow();
 my $token = VM::EC2::Security::Credentials->new_from_serialized($serialized);
 my $ec2   = VM::EC2->new(-security_token => $token);
 print $ec2->describe_images(-owner=>'self');

For temporary users who are not using the Perl VM::EC2 API, you can transmit the required fields individually:

 my $credentials   = $token->credentials;
 my $access_key_id = $credentials->accessKeyId;
 my $secret_key    = $credentials->secretKey;
 my $session_token = $credentials->sessionToken;
 send_data_to_user_somehow($session_token,
                           $access_key_id,
                           $secret_key);

Calls to get_federation_token() return a VM::EC2::Security::Token object. This object contains two sub-objects, a VM::EC2::Security::Credentials object, and a VM::EC2::Security::FederatedUser object. The Credentials object contains a temporary access key ID, secret access key, and session token which together can be used to authenticate to the EC2 API. The FederatedUser object contains the temporary user account name and ID.

See VM::EC2::Security::Token, VM::EC2::Security::FederatedUser, VM::EC2::Security::Credentials, and VM::EC2::Security::Policy.

Implemented: GetFederationToken GetSessionToken

Unimplemented: (none)

$token = $ec2->get_federation_token($username)

$token = $ec2->get_federation_token(-name=>$username,@args)

This method creates a new temporary user under the provided username and returns a VM::EC2::Security::Token object that contains temporary credentials for the user, as well as information about the user's account. Other options allow you to control the duration for which the credentials will be valid, and the policy the controls what resources the user is allowed to access.

Required arguments:

 -name The username

The username must comply with the guidelines described in http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/LimitationsOnEntities.html: essentially all alphanumeric plus the characters [+=,.@-].

Optional arguments:

 -duration_seconds Length of time the session token will be valid for,
                    expressed in seconds. 

 -duration         Same thing, faster to type.

 -policy           A VM::EC2::Security::Policy object, or a JSON string
                     complying with the IAM policy syntax.

The duration must be no shorter than 1 hour (3600 seconds) and no longer than 36 hours (129600 seconds). If no duration is specified, Amazon will default to 12 hours. If no policy is provided, then the user will not be able to execute any actions.

Note that if the temporary user wishes to create a VM::EC2 object and specify a region name at create time (e.g. VM::EC2->new(-region=>'us-west-1'), then the user must have access to the DescribeRegions action:

 $policy->allow('DescribeRegions')

Otherwise the call to new() will fail.

$token = $ec2->get_session_token(%args)

This method creates a temporary VM::EC2::Security::Token object for an anonymous user. The token has no policy associated with it, and can be used to run any of the EC2 actions available to the user who created the token. Optional arguments allow the session token to be used in conjunction with MFA devices.

Required arguments:

none

Optional arguments:

 -duration_seconds Length of time the session token will be valid for,
                    expressed in seconds.

 -duration         Same thing, faster to type.

 -serial_number    The identification number of the user's MFA device,
                     if any.

 -token_code       The code provided by the MFA device, if any.

If no duration is specified, Amazon will default to 12 hours.

See http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/Using_ManagingMFA.html for information on using AWS in conjunction with MFA devices.

SEE ALSO

VM::EC2

AUTHOR

Lincoln Stein <lincoln.stein@gmail.com>.

Copyright (c) 2011 Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

This package and its accompanying libraries is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL (either version 1, or at your option, any later version) or the Artistic License 2.0. Refer to LICENSE for the full license text. In addition, please see DISCLAIMER.txt for disclaimers of warranty.