Turn on KMS key encryption of session data (console) - Amazon Systems Manager
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Turn on KMS key encryption of session data (console)

Use Amazon Key Management Service (Amazon KMS) to create and manage encryption keys. With Amazon KMS, you can control the use of encryption across a wide range of Amazon Web Services and in your applications. You can specify that session data transmitted between your managed nodes and the local machines of users in your Amazon Web Services account is encrypted using KMS key encryption. (This is in addition to the TLS 1.2 encryption that Amazon already provides by default.) To encrypt Session Manager session data, create a symmetric KMS key using Amazon KMS.

Amazon KMS encryption is available for Standard_Stream, InteractiveCommands, and NonInteractiveCommands session types. To use the option to encrypt session data using a key created in Amazon KMS, version 2.3.539.0 or later of Amazon Systems Manager SSM Agent must be installed on the managed node.

Note

You must allow Amazon KMS encryption in order to reset passwords on your managed nodes from the Amazon Systems Manager console. For more information, see Reset a password on a managed node.

You can use a key that you created in your Amazon Web Services account. You can also use a key that was created in a different Amazon Web Services account. The creator of the key in a different Amazon Web Services account must provide you with the permissions needed to use the key.

After you turn on KMS key encryption for your session data, both the users who start sessions and the managed nodes that they connect to must have permission to use the key. You provide permission to use the KMS key with Session Manager through Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies. For information, see the following topics:

For more information about creating and managing KMS keys, see the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

For information about using the Amazon CLI to turn on KMS key encryption of session data in your account, see Create a Session Manager preferences document (command line) or Update Session Manager preferences (command line).

Note

There is a charge to use KMS keys. For information, see Amazon Key Management Service pricing.

To turn on KMS key encryption of session data (console)

  1. Open the Amazon Systems Manager console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/systems-manager/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Session Manager.

  3. Choose the Preferences tab, and then choose Edit.

  4. Select the check box next to Enable KMS encryption.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • Choose the button next to Select a KMS key in my current account, then select a key from the list.

      -or-

      Choose the button next to Enter a KMS key alias or KMS key ARN. Manually enter a KMS key alias for a key created in your current account, or enter the key Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for a key in another account. The following are examples:

      • Key alias: alias/my-kms-key-alias

      • Key ARN: arn:aws-cn:kms:us-west-2:111122223333:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-12345EXAMPLE

      -or-

      Choose Create new key to create a new KMS key in your account. After you create the new key, return to the Preferences tab and select the key for encrypting session data in your account.

    For more information about sharing keys, see Allowing External Amazon Web Services accounts to Access a key in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

  6. Choose Save.