ALKS CLI

About

CLI for working with the ALKS service.

Prerequisites

To install and use the ALKS CLI, you will need Node.js (version 10 or greater) and NPM (nodejs.org).

Installing

ALKS CLI is meant to be installed via NPM.

npm install -g alks

Configuring

The ALKS CLI requires some basic environment information to get started. Simply run the configuration command and you'll be prompted for the necessary configuration settings.

alks developer configure

• ALKS Server: The full URL to your ALKS server (ex: https://alks.company.com/rest)
• Network Username: Your network username. Note: This is not your email prefix and can be found on the ALKS Users tab for an account at alks.coxautoinc.com
• Network Password: Your network password (needed for loading list of accounts/roles)
• Save Network Password: Whether or not to save your network password, we suggest saving your password for ease of use
• Default Account/Role: Select the default ALKS account/role to use
• Default Output Format: Select the default format to use when printing information such as ALKS Keys

Some commands will also work without configuration if the ALKS_SERVER, ALKS_USERID, and either ALKS_PASSWORD or ALKS_REFRESH_TOKEN environment variables are set, although you may be required to specify the output format, account, or role to use explicitly via CLI flags since no default configuration is set in this case.

Running

After installing the ALKS CLI it will be available on your path. Simply run the following to see a list of supported commands:

alks

Options

To see a what options are available to a command ask for help on it:

alks sessions help open

Password

Since ALKS requires you to pass your credentials, we've made the CLI provide multiple ways of handling this.

1. Recommended: Store your password in the keychain. We offer the ability to store your password securely using built in OS functionality. On MacOS we use Keychain, on Windows we use Credential Vault and on Linux we use netrc. To store your password simply run alks developer login and follow the prompt. You can remove your password at any time by running alks developer logout.
2. Provide your password as an argument, simply pass -p 'my pass!'. Note this will appear in your Bash history.
3. Create an environment variable called ALKS_PASSWORD whose value is your password.
4. Type your password. If we do not find a password we will prompt you on each use.

Password Priority

We will attempt to lookup your password in the following order:

1. CLI argument
2. Environment variable
3. Keystore
4. Prompt user

Two Factor Authentication

The preferred authentication mechanism is two-factor authentication. Simply log into the ALKS GUI and get your refresh token which we will securely store just like your password.

Note: Credential authentication will be removed in a future release of the ALKS CLI.

Docker

If you would rather run the ALKS CLI as a Docker container, simply run the following:

docker run -it -v ~:/root coxauto/alks-cli

If you are on a windows host and need SET instead of export then add a PLATFORM env:

docker run -it -e PLATFORM=windows -v %USERPROFILE%:/root coxauto/alks-cli sessions open -a %AWS_ACCT% -r %AWS_ROLE% -o env

Commands

Developer

developer configure

alks developer configure - Configures ALKS

developer login

alks developer login - Store your login credentials in the OS keychain.

developer logout

alks developer logout - Remove your login credentials from the OS keychain.

developer login2fa

alks developer login2fa - Store your 2FA refresh token in the OS keychain.

developer logout2fa

alks developer logout2fa - Remove your 2FA refresh token from the OS keychain.

developer info

alks developer info - Show your current developer configuration

developer accounts

alks developer accounts - Show all available ALKS accounts (both Standard and IAM)

developer favorites

alks developer favorites - Configure which accounts are favorites

Sessions

sessions open

alks sessions open Creates/resumes an ALKS session, this is the preferred way of using ALKS as it automates the underlying ALKS session for you. If you don't provide an account/role you'll be prompted for the one you'd like to use. Alternative you can use your default account/role by passing -d.

This will create your sessions with the maximum life and automatically renew them when necessary. If you would like to do IAM/Admin work you'll need to pass the -i flag.

Arguments:

• -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -r [role] The ALKS role to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -i Specifies you wish to work as an IAM/Admin user. This flag is deprecated since it is no longer needed and will not make a difference in the generated session credentials
• -o [output] Output format. Supports: env, json, docker, creds, idea, export, set, powershell, aws, fishshell, terraformenv, terraformarg
• -n If output is set to creds, use this named profile (defaults to default)
• -N Forces a new session to be generated
• -d Uses your default account from alks developer configure
• -f If output is set to creds, force overwriting of AWS credentials if they already exist
• -F Filters favorite accounts
• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)

Output values:

• AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
• AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
• AWS_SESSION_TOKEN

Example:

Creating a new session under the default profile in your ~/.aws/credentials file. (Note: if you still get errors saying access is denied after generating a new session like this, you may need to clear any environment variables prefixed with AWS_ since credentials found in those variables, even if they are expired, will take precedence over your ~/.aws/credentials file)

alks sessions open -a 'awstest123' -r 'Admin' --duration 1  -o creds -f

Creating a new session by using environment variables (Note: due to a limitation with shell commands, the ALKS CLI is only able to output the commands used to set environment variables but it cannot set them for you. That is why you have to wrap a call like this with eval)

eval $(alks sessions open -a 'awstest123' -r 'Admin' --duration 1 -o env)

sessions console

alks sessions console - Open the AWS console in the default browser for the specified ALKS session.

Arguments:

• -p [password] Your password
• -u [url] Print the URL
• -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -r [role] The ALKS role to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -i Specifies you wish to work as an IAM/Admin user
• -o [appName] Open with an alternative app (safari, google-chrome, etc)
• -N Forces a new session to be generated
• -d Uses your default account from alks developer configure
• -p [password] Your password
• -F Filters favorite accounts

sessions list

alks sessions list - List active ALKS sessions, this includes both IAM and non-IAM sessions.

Arguments:

• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)

IAM

iam createrole

alks iam createrole Creates a new IAM role for the requested type in the specified AWS account.

Arguments:

• -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -r [role] The ALKS login role to use to create your role, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -n [roleName] The name of the role, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-
• -p [trustPolicy] A trust policy as a JSON string. Must include trustPolicy or roleType, but not both
• -t [roleType] The role type, to see available roles: alks iam roletypes, be sure to wrap in quotes. Must include roleType or trust policy, but not both. We recommend specifying the trust policy instead since role types are a legacy feature and no new role types are being created for new AWS services
• -d: Include default policies, defaults to false
• -F Filters favorite accounts
• -k [tags] A list of resource tags. Can either be a JSON representation '[{"Key":"string","Value":"string"},{"Key":"string","Value":"string"}]' or shorthand Key=string,Value=string Key=string,Value=string
• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)

Outputs the created role's ARN.

Example:

alks iam createrole -a 'awstest123' -r 'Admin' -n 'MyRole' -p '{"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Action":"sts:AssumeRole","Effect":"Allow","Principal":{"Service":"ec2.amazonaws.com"}}]}'

iam createtrustrole

DEPRECATED: we recommend using iam createrole instead since you can use it to create all the same types of roles as this command and more

alks iam createtrustrole Creates a new IAM Trust role for the requested type in the specified AWS account.

Arguments:

• -T [trustarn] Your trust arn
• -n [roleName] The name of the role, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-
• -t [roleType] The role type Cross Account or Inner Account, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -a [alksAccount]: ALKS account to use
• -r [alksRole]: ALKS role to use
• -k [tags] A list of resource tags. Can either be a JSON representation '[{"Key":"string","Value":"string"},{"Key":"string","Value":"string"}]' or shorthand Key=string,Value=string Key=string,Value=string
• -F Filters favorite accounts

Outputs the created role's ARN.

iam deleterole

alks iam deleterole Deletes a previously created IAM role in the specified AWS account. Note this only works for IAM roles that were created with ALKS.

Arguments:

• -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -r [role] The ALKS login role to use to create your role, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -n [roleName] The name of the role, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-
• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)

alks iam deleterole -a 'awstest123' -r 'Admin' -n 'MyRole'

iam roletypes

alks iam roletypes - List the available IAM role types. We recommend specifying the trust policy when creating roles instead since role types are a legacy feature and no new role types are being created for new AWS services

Arguments:

• -o [output] Output format. Supports: json, list

Outputs a list of available role types.

iam createltk

alks iam createltk Creates a new long term key in the specified AWS account.

Arguments:

• Required
  • -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
  • -n [iamusername] The name of the IAM user associated with the LTK, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-
• Optional
  • -o [output] Output format. Supports: text, json. Default: text
  • -r [role] The ALKS role to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
  • -F Filters favorite accounts
  • -k [tags] A list of resource tags. Can either be a JSON representation '[{"Key":"string","Value":"string"},{"Key":"string","Value":"string"}]' or shorthand Key=string,Value=string Key=string,Value=string

Outputs the created user's ARN along with the long term access key and long term secret key.

iam updateIamUser

alks iam updateIamUser Updates Tags on IamUser (ltk) with give iamusername.

Arguments:

• Required
  • -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
  • -n [iamusername] The name of the IAM user associated with the LTK, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-
  • -k [tags] A list of resource tags. Can either be a JSON representation '[{"Key":"string","Value":"string"},{"Key":"string","Value":"string"}]' or shorthand Key=string,Value=string Key=string,Value=string
• Optional
  • -o [output] Output format. Supports: text, json. Default: text

Outputs the created user's ARN along with the long term access key and long term secret key.

iam deleteltk

alks iam deleteltk Deletes a previously created LTK in the specified AWS account.

Arguments:

• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)
• -n [iamusername] The name of the IAM user, be sure to wrap in quotes, alphanumeric including: @+=._-

Metadata Server

The metadata server listens on http://169.254.169.254 and mimicks the AWS EC2 Instance Metadata server. If you request credentials from http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/alks it will ensure you have a valid set of up-to-date credentials from ALKS. The account and role used can be changed at any time by running alks server configure.

server configure

alks server configure - Configure the account and role used by the metadata server. This can also be invoked while the server is running.

Arguments:

• -p [password] Your password (only needed if not currently authenticated and using basic authentication)
• -a [account] The ALKS account to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -r [role] The ALKS role to use, be sure to wrap in quotes
• -i Specifies you wish to work as an IAM/Admin user
• -F Filters favorite accounts

server start

alks server start - Start the metadata server.

server stop

alks server stop - Stop the metadata server.

Profile Management

profiles generate

alks profiles generate Creates an AWS profile or multiple profiles. If you pass an account, role, and profile name it will generate a single profile in your ~/.aws/credentials file and if you instead pass the --all flag it will generate profiles for all the account/role pairs that you currently have access to by naming each profile <accountAlias>-<roleName>

Try running alks profiles generate --help for more details on how to use this command

profiles list

Lists the profiles that you have. By default this will only print out the profiles that were created by this tool but you can list all of your profiles by passing the --all flag.

Try running alks profiles list --help for more details on how to use this command

profiles get

Gets the details for a single AWS profile. Essentially this will show you everything in the ~/.aws/credentials file for a single profile

Try running alks profiles get --help for more details on how to use this command

profiles remove

Removes an AWS profile, or multiple AWS profiles. If you specify a profile name this will remove just that single profile, or if you pass the --all flag this will remove all profiles that were generated with this tool

Try running alks profiles remove --help for more details on how to use this command

Output Formats trigger

ALKS CLI will output in a variety of formats, it uses the developer default (set with alks developer configure) and can be overridden by passing a value via -o.

• env: Outputs Bash/Windows environment variable string. You can wrap this call in an eval: eval $(alks sessions open -d)
• json: Outputs a JSON object
• docker: Outputs environment arguments to pass to a Docker run call
• creds: Updates the AWS credentials file
  • By default this will update the default profile, to use another named profile supply: -n namedProfile
  • If the named profile already exists you'll need to supply the overwrite flag: -f
• idea: Outputs environment variables formatted for Intelli-J
• export: Outputs environment variables via export
• set: Outputs environment variables via SET
• powershell: Outputs environment variables for Windows PowerShell
• fishshell: Outputs environment variables for Fishshell
• terraformenv: Outputs environment variables prefixed with ALKS
• terraformarg: Outputs environment arguments to pass to a Docker run call prefixed with ALKS
• aws: Outputs environment arguments to pass to AWS docs