Use CreateLoginProfile with an Amazon SDK or command line tool

To create a password for an IAM user

To create a password for an IAM user, we recommend using the --cli-input-json parameter to pass a JSON file that contains the password. Using this method, you can create a strong password with non-alphanumeric characters. It can be difficult to create a password with non-alphanumeric characters when you pass it as a command line parameter.

To use the --cli-input-json parameter, start by using the create-login-profile command with the --generate-cli-skeleton parameter, as in the following example.

aws iam create-login-profile \
    --generate-cli-skeleton > create-login-profile.json

The previous command creates a JSON file called create-login-profile.json that you can use to fill in the information for a subsequent create-login-profile command. For example:

{
    "UserName": "Bob",
    "Password": "&1-3a6u:RA0djs",
    "PasswordResetRequired": true
}

Next, to create a password for an IAM user, use the create-login-profile command again, this time passing the --cli-input-json parameter to specify your JSON file. The following create-login-profile command uses the --cli-input-json parameter with a JSON file called create-login-profile.json.

aws iam create-login-profile \
    --cli-input-json file://create-login-profile.json

Output:

{
    "LoginProfile": {
        "UserName": "Bob",
        "CreateDate": "2015-03-10T20:55:40.274Z",
        "PasswordResetRequired": true
    }
}

If the new password violates the account password policy, the command returns a PasswordPolicyViolation error.

To change the password for a user that already has one, use update-login-profile. To set a password policy for the account, use the update-account-password-policy command.

If the account password policy allows them to, IAM users can change their own passwords using the change-password command.

For more information, see Managing passwords for IAM users in the Amazon IAM User Guide.

Example 1: This example creates a (temporary) password for the IAM user named Bob, and sets the flag that requires the user to change the password the next time Bob signs in.

New-IAMLoginProfile -UserName Bob -Password P@ssw0rd -PasswordResetRequired $true

Output:

CreateDate                    PasswordResetRequired                UserName
----------                    ---------------------                --------
4/14/2015 12:26:30 PM         True                                 Bob