What is aws sts?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security Token Service (STS) is an AWS web service that enables an organization's administrator to grant users temporary access to AWS resources. STS is designed to grant temporary access to AWS resources for users who have already been authenticated, using either multi-factor authentication or a single sign-on endpoint with direct connection to the internet or a network.

STS does not manage user authentication or provide users with direct access to services. Additionally, it does not directly support user groups or other metadata across environments. STS is usually integrated into the enterprise's AWS architecture to increase the security posture of the enterprise's AWS workloads.

AWS STS provides the following services:

• Temporary security credentials for users accessing AWS resources.
• Access to AWS resources for authenticated users with policies configured by the administrator.
• Generate temporary AWS access keys for CLI or SDK usage.
• Multi-factor authentication of users accessing AWS resources.

AWS STS provides short-lived (up to 12 hours) Security Tokens that are associated with temporary credentials. These credentials are used to access Amazon S3, Amazon SES, Amazon SQS or any other AWS service. These temporary credentials are usually generated by the administrator using AWS STS, and are widely used in the enterprise industry.