Manage passwords for IAM users - Amazon Identity and Access Management
Creating, changing, or deleting an IAM user password (console)
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Manage passwords for IAM users

IAM users who use the Amazon Web Services Management Console to work with Amazon resources must have a password in order to sign in. You can create, change, or delete a password for an IAM user in your Amazon account.

After you have assigned a password to a user, the user can sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console using the sign-in URL for your account, which looks like this: 

https://12-digit-Amazon-account-ID or alias.signin.amazonaws.cn/console

For more information about how IAM users sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console, see How to sign in to Amazon in the Amazon Sign-In User Guide.

Even if your users have their own passwords, they still need permissions to access your Amazon resources. By default, a user has no permissions. To give your users the permissions they need, you assign policies to them or to the groups they belong to. For information about creating users and groups, see IAM Identities . For information about using policies to set permissions, see Change permissions for an IAM user.

You can grant users permission to change their own passwords. For more information, see Permit IAM users to change their own passwords. For information about how users access your account sign-in page, see How to sign in to Amazon in the Amazon Sign-In User Guide.

Creating, changing, or deleting an IAM user password (console)

You can use the Amazon Web Services Management Console to manage passwords for your IAM users.

The access needs of your users can change over time. You might need to enable a user intended for CLI access to have console access, change a user's password because they receive the email with their credentials, or delete a user when they leave your organization or no longer need Amazon access.

To create an IAM user password (console)

Use this procedure to give a user console access by creating a password that is associated with the username.

IAM console

  1. Follow the sign-in procedure appropriate to your user type as described in the topic How to sign in to Amazon in the Amazon Sign-In User Guide.

  2. On the Console Home page, select the IAM service.

  3. In the navigation pane, choose Users.

  4. Choose the name of the user whose password you want to create.

  5. Choose the Security credentials tab, and then under Console sign-in, choose Enable console access.

  6. In the Enable console access dialog box, select Reset password, then choose whether to have IAM generate a password or create a custom password:

    • To have IAM generate a password, choose Autogenerated password.

    • To create a custom password, choose Custom password, and type the password.

      Note

      The password that you create must meet the account's password policy.

  7. To require the user to create a new password when signing in, choose Require password change at the next sign-in.

  8. To require the user to use the new password immediately, select Revoke active console sessions. This attaches an inline policy to the IAM user that denies the user access to resources if their credentials are older than the time specified by the policy.

  9. Choose Reset password

  10. The Console passworddialog informs you that yoiu have enabled the user's new password. To view the password so you can share it with the user, choose Show in the Console password dialog box. Select Download .csv file to download a file with the user's credentials.

    Important

    For security reasons, you cannot access the password after completing this step, but you can create a new password at any time.

The console displays a status message informing you that console access has been enabled.

To change the password for an IAM user (console)

Use this procedure to update a password that is associated with the username.

IAM console

  1. Follow the sign-in procedure appropriate to your user type as described in the topic How to sign in to Amazon in the Amazon Sign-In User Guide.

  2. On the Console Home page, select the IAM service.

  3. In the navigation pane, choose Users.

  4. Choose the name of the user whose password you want to change.

  5. Choose the Security credentials tab, and then under Console sign-in, choose Manage console access.

  6. In the Manage console access dialog box, select Reset password, then choose whether to have IAM generate a password or create a custom password:

    • To have IAM generate a password, choose Autogenerated password.

    • To create a custom password, choose Custom password, and type the password.

      Note

      The password that you create must meet the account's password policy.

  7. To require the user to create a new password when signing in, choose Require password change at the next sign-in.

  8. To require the user to use the new password immediately, select Revoke active console sessions. This attaches an inline policy to the IAM user that denies the user access to resources if their credentials are older than the time specified by the policy.

  9. Choose Reset password

  10. The Console passworddialog informs you that yoiu have enabled the user's new password. To view the password so you can share it with the user, choose Show in the Console password dialog box. Select Download .csv file to download a file with the user's credentials.

    Important

    For security reasons, you cannot access the password after completing this step, but you can create a new password at any time.

The console displays a status message informing you that console access has been updated.

To delete (disable) an IAM user password (console)

Use this procedure to delete a password that is associated with the username, removing console access for the user.

Important

You can prevent an IAM user from accessing the Amazon Web Services Management Console by removing their password. This prevents them from signing in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console using their sign-in credentials. It does not change their permissions or prevent them from accessing the console using an assumed role. If the user has active access keys, they continue to function and allow access through the Amazon CLI, Tools for Windows PowerShell, Amazon API, or the Amazon Console Mobile Application.

IAM console

  1. Follow the sign-in procedure appropriate to your user type as described in the topic How to sign in to Amazon in the Amazon Sign-In User Guide.

  2. On the Console Home page, select the IAM service.

  3. In the navigation pane, choose Users.

  4. Choose the name of the user whose password you want to delete.

  5. Choose the Security credentials tab, and then under Console sign-in, choose Manage console access.

  6. To require the user to stop using the console immediately, select Revoke active console sessions. This attaches an inline policy to the IAM user that denies the user access to resources if their credentials are older than the time specified by the policy.

  7. Choose Disable access

The console displays a status message informing you that console access has been disabled.

Creating, changing, or deleting an IAM user password (Amazon CLI)

You can use the Amazon CLI API to manage passwords for your IAM users.

To create a password (Amazon CLI)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, run this command: aws iam get-login-profile

  2. To create a password, run this command: aws iam create-login-profile

To change a user's password (Amazon CLI)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, run this command: aws iam get-login-profile

  2. To change a password, run this command: aws iam update-login-profile

To delete (disable) a user's password (Amazon CLI)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, run this command: aws iam get-login-profile

  2. (Optional) To determine when a password was last used, run this command: aws iam get-user

  3. To delete a password, run this command: aws iam delete-login-profile

Important

When you delete a user's password, the user can no longer sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console. If the user has active access keys, they continue to function and allow access through the Amazon CLI, Tools for Windows PowerShell, or Amazon API function calls. When you use the Amazon CLI, Tools for Windows PowerShell, or Amazon API to delete a user from your Amazon Web Services account, you must first delete the password using this operation. For more information, see Deleting an IAM user (Amazon CLI).

To revoke a user's active console sessions before a specified time (Amazon CLI)

  1. To embed an inline policy that revokes an IAM user's active console sessions before a specified time, use the following inline policy and run this command: aws iam put-user-policy

    This inline policy denies all permissions and includes the aws:TokenIssueTime condition key. It revokes the user's active console sessions before the specified time in the Condition element of the inline policy. Replace the aws:TokenIssueTime condition key value with your own value.

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": {
    "Effect": "Deny",
    "Action": "*",
    "Resource": "*",
    "Condition": {
      "DateLessThan": {
        "aws:TokenIssueTime": "2014-05-07T23:47:00Z"
      }
    }
  }
}

  2. (Optional) To list the names of the inline policies embedded in the IAM user, run this command: aws iam list-user-policies

  3. (Optional) To view the named inline policy embedded in the IAM user, run this command: aws iam get-user-policy

Creating, changing, or deleting an IAM user password (Amazon API)

You can use the Amazon API to manage passwords for your IAM users.

To create a password (Amazon API)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, call this operation: GetLoginProfile

  2. To create a password, call this operation: CreateLoginProfile

To change a user's password (Amazon API)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, call this operation: GetLoginProfile

  2. To change a password, call this operation: UpdateLoginProfile

To delete (disable) a user's password (Amazon API)

  1. (Optional) To determine whether a user has a password, run this command: GetLoginProfile

  2. (Optional) To determine when a password was last used, run this command: GetUser

  3. To delete a password, run this command: DeleteLoginProfile

Important

When you delete a user's password, the user can no longer sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console. If the user has active access keys, they continue to function and allow access through the Amazon CLI, Tools for Windows PowerShell, or Amazon API function calls. When you use the Amazon CLI, Tools for Windows PowerShell, or Amazon API to delete a user from your Amazon Web Services account, you must first delete the password using this operation. For more information, see Deleting an IAM user (Amazon CLI).

To revoke a user's active console sessions before a specified time (Amazon API)

  1. To embed an inline policy that revokes an IAM user's active console sessions before a specified time, use the following inline policy and run this command: PutUserPolicy

    This inline policy denies all permissions and includes the aws:TokenIssueTime condition key. It revokes the user's active console sessions before the specified time in the Condition element of the inline policy. Replace the aws:TokenIssueTime condition key value with your own value.

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": {
    "Effect": "Deny",
    "Action": "*",
    "Resource": "*",
    "Condition": {
      "DateLessThan": {
        "aws:TokenIssueTime": "2014-05-07T23:47:00Z"
      }
    }
  }
}

  2. (Optional) To list the names of the inline policies embedded in the IAM user, run this command: ListUserPolicies

  3. (Optional) To view the named inline policy embedded in the IAM user, run this command: GetUserPolicy