Get a Secrets Manager secret value using the .NET Amazon SDK

In applications, you can retrieve your secrets by calling GetSecretValue or BatchGetSecretValuein any of the Amazon SDKs. However, we recommend that you cache your secret values by using client-side caching. Caching secrets improves speed and reduces your costs.

For .NET applications, use the Secrets Manager .NET-based caching component or call the SDK directly with GetSecretValue or BatchGetSecretValue.

The following code examples show how to use GetSecretValue.

Required permissions: secretsmanager:GetSecretValue

    using System;
    using System.IO;
    using System.Threading.Tasks;
    using Amazon.SecretsManager;
    using Amazon.SecretsManager.Model;

    /// <summary>
    /// This example uses the Amazon Web Service Secrets Manager to retrieve
    /// the secret value for the provided secret name.
    /// </summary>
    public class GetSecretValue
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main method initializes the necessary values and then calls
        /// the GetSecretAsync and DecodeString methods to get the decoded
        /// secret value for the secret named in secretName.
        /// </summary>
        public static async Task Main()
        {
            string secretName = "<<{{MySecretName}}>>";
            string secret;

            IAmazonSecretsManager client = new AmazonSecretsManagerClient();

            var response = await GetSecretAsync(client, secretName);

            if (response is not null)
            {
                secret = DecodeString(response);

                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(secret))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine($"The decoded secret value is: {secret}.");
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("No secret value was returned.");
                }
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieves the secret value given the name of the secret to
        /// retrieve.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="client">The client object used to retrieve the secret
        /// value for the given secret name.</param>
        /// <param name="secretName">The name of the secret value to retrieve.</param>
        /// <returns>The GetSecretValueReponse object returned by
        /// GetSecretValueAsync.</returns>
        public static async Task<GetSecretValueResponse> GetSecretAsync(
            IAmazonSecretsManager client,
            string secretName)
        {
            GetSecretValueRequest request = new GetSecretValueRequest()
            {
                SecretId = secretName,
                VersionStage = "AWSCURRENT", // VersionStage defaults to AWSCURRENT if unspecified.
            };

            GetSecretValueResponse response = null;

            // For the sake of simplicity, this example handles only the most
            // general SecretsManager exception.
            try
            {
                response = await client.GetSecretValueAsync(request);
            }
            catch (AmazonSecretsManagerException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error: {e.Message}");
            }

            return response;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Decodes the secret returned by the call to GetSecretValueAsync and
        /// returns it to the calling program.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="response">A GetSecretValueResponse object containing
        /// the requested secret value returned by GetSecretValueAsync.</param>
        /// <returns>A string representing the decoded secret value.</returns>
        public static string DecodeString(GetSecretValueResponse response)
        {
            // Decrypts secret using the associated AWS Key Management Service
            // Customer Master Key (CMK.) Depending on whether the secret is a
            // string or binary value, one of these fields will be populated.
            if (response.SecretString is not null)
            {
                var secret = response.SecretString;
                return secret;
            }
            else if (response.SecretBinary is not null)
            {
                var memoryStream = response.SecretBinary;
                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(memoryStream);
                string decodedBinarySecret = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(reader.ReadToEnd()));
                return decodedBinarySecret;
            }
            else
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }
        }
    }