Using OpenID Connect Tokens in Jobs
Cloud In jobs using a context, CircleCI provides an OpenID Connect ID (OIDC) token in an environment variable. A job can use this to access compatible cloud services without a long-lived credential stored in CircleCI.
OpenID Connect ID token availability
In CircleCI jobs that use at least one context, the OpenID Connect ID token is available in the environment variable CIRCLE_OIDC_TOKEN.
Add a context to a job by adding the context key to the workflows section of your circleci/config.yml file:
workflows:
my-workflow:
jobs:
- run-tests:
context:
- my-contextSetting up your cloud service
Consult your cloud service’s documentation for how to add an identity provider. For example, AWS’s Creating OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity providers, or Google Cloud Platform’s Configuring workload identity federation.
The OpenID Provider is unique to your organization. The URL is https://oidc.circleci.com/org/<organization-id>, where <organization-id> is the Organization ID (universally unique identifier) that represents your organization.
You can find your CircleCI organization ID by navigating to Organization Settings > Overview on the CircleCI web app, and looking for your Organization ID at the top of the page.
The OpenID Connect ID tokens issued by CircleCI have a fixed audience (see aud in the table below), which is also the Organization ID.
Format of the OpenID Connect ID token
The OpenID Connect ID token contains the following standard claims:
| Claims | Description |
|---|---|
| The issuer. The issuer is specific to the CircleCI organization in which the job is being run. Its value is |
| The subject. This identifies who is running the CircleCI job and where. Its value is |
| The audience. Currently, this is a fixed value |
| The time of issuance. This is the time the token was created, which is shortly before the job starts. |
| The expiration time. Its value is one hour after the time of issuance. |
The OpenID Connect ID token also contains some additional claims with extra metadata about the job:
| Additional claims | Metadata |
|---|---|
| The ID of the project in which the job is running. Its value is a string containing a UUID identifying the CircleCI project. |
| An array of strings containing UUIDs that identify the context(s) used in the job. Currently, just one context is supported. |
Authenticate jobs with cloud providers
The following instructions are for:
-
A one-time configuration of your AWS account to trust CircleCI’s OIDC tokens
-
Running a job that uses the OIDC token to interact with AWS
Setting up AWS
You will need to allow your AWS account to trust CircleCI’s OpenID Connect tokens. To do this, create an Identity and Access Management(IAM) identity provider, and an IAM role in AWS (this is a one time configuration).
| At this time, CircleCI’s built-in AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR) authentication for pulling images does not support OIDC. |
Visit the Creating OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity providers page of the AWS docs and follow the instructions. You will need your CircleCI Organization ID, which you can find by navigating to Organization Settings > Overview on the CircleCI web app. Copy your Organization ID for the next step.
When asked for the Provider URL, enter: https://oidc.circleci.com/org/<organization-id>, where <organization-id> is the ID of your CircleCI organization. Provide the same CircleCI Organization ID for the Audience.
Next, you will need to create an IAM role. Visit the Creating a role for web identity or OIDC section of the AWS docs.
For the trusted entity, select Web Identity, then choose the identity provider that you created earlier. For Audience, choose the only option. Then, click on NEXT, which will take you to the Add Permissions page. This allows you to specify what your CircleCI jobs can and cannot do. Choose only permissions that your job will need, which is an AWS best practice.
Note: You may find it useful to create your own policy.
Interacting with AWS from a CircleCI job
Now you are ready to choose the CircleCI jobs in your workflow that you want to receive an OpenID Connect token. Since the OpenID Connect token is only available to jobs that use at least one context, make sure each of the jobs you want to receive an OIDC token uses a context (the context may have no environment variables).
In your job, use the OpenID Connect token to do AWS STS’s AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity. Have the following information ready:
-
AWS region that you want to operate in
-
ARN of the IAM role that you created earlier
Here is an example config that uses the AWS CLI’s assume-role-with-web-identity subcommand to authenticate with AWS. It then performs a trivial interaction (aws sts get-caller-identity) with AWS, demonstrating that the authentication worked. Replace that demonstration with whatever you want, such as uploading to an S3 bucket, pushing to ECR, or interacting with EKS.
jobs:
deploy:
docker:
- image: amazon/aws-cli
environment:
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: <your AWS region here>
AWS_ROLE_ARN: <your role ARN here>
steps:
- run:
name: authenticate-and-interact
command: |
# use the OpenID Connect token to obtain AWS credentials
read -r AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY AWS_SESSION_TOKEN \<<< \
$(aws sts assume-role-with-web-identity \
--role-arn ${AWS_ROLE_ARN} \
--role-session-name "CircleCI-${CIRCLE_WORKFLOW_ID}-${CIRCLE_JOB}" \
--web-identity-token $CIRCLE_OIDC_TOKEN \
--duration-seconds 3600 \
--query 'Credentials.[AccessKeyId,SecretAccessKey,SessionToken]' \
--output text)
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY AWS_SESSION_TOKEN
# interact with AWS
aws sts get-caller-identityAdvanced Usage
You can take advantage of the format of the claims in CircleCI’s OIDC token to limit what your CircleCI jobs can do in AWS. For example, if certain projects should only be able to access certain AWS resources, you can restrict your IAM role so that only CircleCI jobs in a specific project can assume that role.
To do this, edit your IAM role’s trust policy so that only an OIDC token from your chosen project can assume that role. The trust policy determines under what conditions the role can be assumed.
To do this, go to an individual project’s page on CircleCI web app and navigate to Project Settings > Overview to find your Project ID.
Next, add the following condition to your role’s trust policy, so that only jobs in your chosen project can assume that role. Enter your Organization ID for <organization-id> and your Project ID for <project-id>.
"StringLike": {
"oidc.circleci.com/org/<organization-id>:sub": "org/<organization-id>/project/<project-id>/user/*"
}This uses StringLike to match the sub claim of CircleCI’s OIDC token in your chosen project. Now, jobs in your other projects cannot assume this role.
Help make this document better
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- Suggest an edit to this page (please read the contributing guide first).
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