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Signing AWS API requests¶

When you call the AWS HTTP API, you sign the request so that AWS can identify you, using your AWS credentials (access key & secret key)
Note: some requests to Amazon S3 don't need to be signed
If you use the SDK or CLI, the HTTP requests are signed for you
You should sign an AWS HTTP request using Signature v4 (SigV4)

SigV4 Request examples¶

HTTP HEADER Option

GET https://iam.amazonaws.com/?Action=ListUsers&Version=2010-05-08 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=..., SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-amz-date, Signature-...

Query String Option (ex: S3 pre-signed URLs)

GET https://iam.amazonaws.com/?Action=ListUsers&Version=2010-05-08&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=...&X-Amz-Date=...&X-Amz-Signature=...