# Create service-specific credentials for programmatic access to Amazon Keyspaces
<a name="programmatic.credentials.ssc"></a>

Service-specific credentials are similar to the traditional username and password that Cassandra uses for authentication and access management. Service-specific credentials enable IAM users to access a specific Amazon service. These long-term credentials can't be used to access other Amazon services. They are associated with a specific IAM user and can't be used by other IAM users.

**Important**  
Service-specific credentials are long-term credentials associated with a specific IAM user and can only be used for the service they were created for. To give IAM roles or federated identities permissions to access all your Amazon resources using temporary credentials, you should use [Amazon authentication with the SigV4 authentication plugin for Amazon Keyspaces](access.credentials.md).

Use one of the following procedures to generate service-specific credentials.

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#### [ Console ]

**Create service-specific credentials using the console**

1. Sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console and open the Amazon Identity and Access Management console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/home](https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/home).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Users**, and then choose the user that you created earlier that has Amazon Keyspaces permissions (policy attached). 

1. Choose **Security Credentials**. Under **Credentials for Amazon Keyspaces**, choose **Generate credentials** to generate the service-specific credentials.

   Your service-specific credentials are now available. This is the only time you can download or view the password. You cannot recover it later. However, you can reset your password at any time. Save the user and password in a secure location, because you'll need them later.

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#### [ CLI ]

**Create service-specific credentials using the Amazon CLI**

 Before generating service-specific credentials, you need to download, install, and configure the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI):

1. Download the Amazon CLI at [http://www.amazonaws.cn/cli](http://www.amazonaws.cn/cli). 
**Note**  
The Amazon CLI runs on Windows, macOS, or Linux. 

1. Follow the instructions for [Installing the Amazon CLI](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/installing.html) and [Configuring the Amazon CLI](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html) in the *Amazon Command Line Interface User Guide*.

1. Using the Amazon CLI, run the following command to generate service-specific credentials for the user `alice`, so that she can access Amazon Keyspaces.

   ```
   aws iam create-service-specific-credential \
       --user-name alice \
       --service-name cassandra.amazonaws.com
   ```

The output looks like the following.

```
{
    "ServiceSpecificCredential": {
        "CreateDate": "2019-10-09T16:12:04Z",
        "ServiceName": "cassandra.amazonaws.com",
        "ServiceUserName": "alice-at-111122223333",
        "ServicePassword": "wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY",
        "ServiceSpecificCredentialId": "ACCAYFI33SINPGJEBYESF",
        "UserName": "alice",
        "Status": "Active"
    }
}
```

In the output, note the values for `ServiceUserName` and `ServicePassword`. Save these values in a secure location, because you'll need them later.

**Important**  
This is the only time that the `ServicePassword` will be available to you.

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