Create and delete service account keys

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This page explains how to create and delete service account keys using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, the Identity and Access Management API, or one of the Google Cloud Client Libraries.

Before you begin

• Enable the IAM API.

  Enable the API

• Set up authentication.

  Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

  Console

  When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

  gcloud

  In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.

  Activate Cloud Shell

  At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.

  C#

  To use the .NET samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  4. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

     If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

  C++

  To use the C++ samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  4. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

     If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

  Go

  To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  4. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

     If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

  Java

  To use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  4. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

     If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

  Python

  To use the Python samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command:

     gcloud init

  4. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

     You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

     If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up ADC for a local development environment in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

  REST

  To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

  After installing the Google Cloud CLI, initialize it by running the following command:

  gcloud init

  If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

• Understand service account credentials.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create and delete service account keys, ask your administrator to grant you the Service Account Key Admin (roles/iam.serviceAccountKeyAdmin) IAM role on the project, or the service account whose keys you want to manage. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

For more information, see Service Accounts roles.

Depending on your organization policy configuration, you might also need to allow service account keys to be created in your project before creating a key.

To get the permissions that you need to allow service account keys to be created in a project, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on your organization:

• Organization Policy Administrator (roles/orgpolicy.policyAdmin)
• Organization Viewer (roles/resourcemanager.organizationViewer)
• Tag Administrator (roles/resourcemanager.tagAdmin)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to allow service account keys to be created in a project. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Allow service account key creation

Before you create a service account key, make sure that the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation organization policy constraint isn't enforced for your project. If this constraint is enforced for your project, you can't create service account keys in that project.

We recommend enforcing this constraint for most projects and only exempting projects that truly require service account keys. For more information about alternative authentication methods, see Choose the right authentication method for your use case.

To exempt a project from the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation organization policy constraint, ask an organization policy administrator to do the following:

1. At the organization level, create a tag key and tag value that you will use to define whether a resource should be exempt from the organization policy. We recommend creating a tag with the key disableServiceAccountKeyCreation and the values enforced and not_enforced.

   To learn how to create tag keys and tag values, see Creating and defining a new tag.

2. Attach the disableServiceAccountKeyCreation tag to the organization and set its value to enforced. All resources in the organization inherit this tag value, unless it's overwritten with a different tag value.

   To learn how to attach tags to resources, see Attaching tags to resources.

3. For each project or folder that you want to exempt from the organization policy, attach the disableServiceAccountKeyCreation tag and set its value to not_enforced. Setting a tag value for a project or folder in this way overrides the tag value inherited from the organization.

4. Create or update the organization policy that prevents the creation of service account keys so that it doesn't enforce the constraint for exempt resources. This policy should have the following rules:

   • Configure the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation constraint to not be enforced on any resources with the disableServiceAccountKeyCreation: not_enforced tag. The condition in this rule should look like the following:

     "resource.matchTag('ORGANIZATION_ID/disableServiceAccountKeyCreation', 'not_enforced')"
     

   • Configure the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation constraint to be enforced on all other resources.

Create a service account key

To use a service account from outside of Google Cloud, such as on other platforms or on-premises, you must first establish the identity of the service account. Public/private key pairs provide a secure way of accomplishing this goal. When you create a service account key, the public portion is stored on Google Cloud, while the private portion is available only to you. For more information about public/private key pairs, see Service account keys.

You can create a service account key using the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, the serviceAccounts.keys.create() method, or one of the client libraries. A service account can have up to 10 keys.

By default, service account keys never expire. You can use an organization policy constraint to specify the length of time for which a service account key is valid. For details, see Expiry times for user-managed keys.

In the examples below, SA_NAME is the name of your service account, and PROJECT_ID is the ID of your Google Cloud project. You can retrieve the SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com string from the Service Accounts page in the Google Cloud console.

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "PROJECT_ID",
  "private_key_id": "KEY_ID",
  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nPRIVATE_KEY\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
  "client_email": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL",
  "client_id": "CLIENT_ID",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL"
}

gcloud iam service-accounts keys create KEY_FILE \
    --iam-account=SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

created key [e44da1202f82f8f4bdd9d92bc412d1d8a837fa83] of type [json] as
[/usr/home/username/KEY_FILE] for
[SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com]

{
  "type": "service_account",
  "project_id": "PROJECT_ID",
  "private_key_id": "KEY_ID",
  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nPRIVATE_KEY\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n",
  "client_email": "SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL",
  "client_id": "CLIENT_ID",
  "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
  "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
  "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
  "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL"
}

namespace iam = ::google::cloud::iam_admin_v1;
return [](std::string const& name) {
  iam::IAMClient client(iam::MakeIAMConnection());
  auto response = client.CreateServiceAccountKey(
      name,
      google::iam::admin::v1::ServiceAccountPrivateKeyType::
          TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE,
      google::iam::admin::v1::ServiceAccountKeyAlgorithm::KEY_ALG_RSA_2048);
  if (!response) throw std::move(response).status();
  std::cout << "ServiceAccountKey successfully created: "
            << response->DebugString() << "\n"
            << "Please save the key in a secure location, as they cannot "
               "be downloaded later\n";
  return response->name();
}

using System;
using System.Text;
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
using Google.Apis.Iam.v1;
using Google.Apis.Iam.v1.Data;

public partial class ServiceAccountKeys
{
    public static ServiceAccountKey CreateKey(string serviceAccountEmail)
    {
        var credential = GoogleCredential.GetApplicationDefault()
            .CreateScoped(IamService.Scope.CloudPlatform);
        var service = new IamService(new IamService.Initializer
        {
            HttpClientInitializer = credential
        });

        var key = service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Create(
            new CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest(),
            "projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + serviceAccountEmail)
            .Execute();

        // The PrivateKeyData field contains the base64-encoded service account key
        // in JSON format.
        // TODO(Developer): Save the below key (jsonKeyFile) to a secure location.
        //  You cannot download it later.
        byte[] valueBytes = System.Convert.FromBase64String(key.PrivateKeyData);
        string jsonKeyContent = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(valueBytes);

        Console.WriteLine("Key created successfully");
        return key;
    }
}

import (
	"context"
	// "encoding/base64"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	iam "google.golang.org/api/iam/v1"
)

// createKey creates a service account key.
func createKey(w io.Writer, serviceAccountEmail string) (*iam.ServiceAccountKey, error) {
	ctx := context.Background()
	service, err := iam.NewService(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("iam.NewService: %w", err)
	}

	resource := "projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + serviceAccountEmail
	request := &iam.CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest{}
	key, err := service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Create(resource, request).Do()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Create: %w", err)
	}
	// The PrivateKeyData field contains the base64-encoded service account key
	// in JSON format.
	// TODO(Developer): Save the below key (jsonKeyFile) to a secure location.
	// You cannot download it later.
	// jsonKeyFile, _ := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(key.PrivateKeyData)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Key created successfully")
	return key, nil
}

import com.google.cloud.iam.admin.v1.IAMClient;
import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.iam.admin.v1.CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest;
import com.google.iam.admin.v1.ServiceAccountKey;
import java.io.IOException;

public class CreateServiceAccountKey {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(Developer): Replace the below variables before running.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String serviceAccountName = "your-service-account-name";

    ServiceAccountKey key = createKey(projectId, serviceAccountName);
    Gson gson = new Gson();

    // System.out.println("Service account key: " + gson.toJson(key));
  }

  // Creates a key for a service account.
  public static ServiceAccountKey createKey(String projectId, String accountName)
          throws IOException {
    String email = String.format("%s@%s.iam.gserviceaccount.com", accountName, projectId);

    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests.
    // This client only needs to be created once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (IAMClient iamClient = IAMClient.create()) {
      CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest req = CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest.newBuilder()
              .setName(String.format("projects/%s/serviceAccounts/%s", projectId, email))
              .build();
      ServiceAccountKey createdKey = iamClient.createServiceAccountKey(req);
      System.out.println("Key created successfully");

      return createdKey;
    }
  }
}

from google.cloud import iam_admin_v1
from google.cloud.iam_admin_v1 import types


def create_key(project_id: str, account: str) -> types.ServiceAccountKey:
    """
    Creates a key for a service account.

    project_id: ID or number of the Google Cloud project you want to use.
    account: ID or email which is unique identifier of the service account.
    """

    iam_admin_client = iam_admin_v1.IAMClient()
    request = types.CreateServiceAccountKeyRequest()
    request.name = f"projects/{project_id}/serviceAccounts/{account}"

    key = iam_admin_client.create_service_account_key(request=request)

    # The private_key_data field contains the stringified service account key
    # in JSON format. You cannot download it again later.
    # If you want to get the value, you can do it in a following way:
    # import json
    # json_key_data = json.loads(key.private_key_data)
    # key_id = json_key_data["private_key_id"]

    return key

POST https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys

{
  "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALGORITHM"
}

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys"

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys" | Select-Object -Expand Content

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL/keys/KEY_ID",
  "privateKeyType": "TYPE_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_FILE",
  "privateKeyData": "ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY",
  "validAfterTime": "DATE",
  "validBeforeTime": "DATE",
  "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048"
}

echo 'ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY' | base64 --decode > PATH

echo 'ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY' | base64 --decode > PATH

Delete a service account key

Deleting a service account key permanently prevents you from using the key to authenticate with Google APIs.

You cannot undelete a deleted key. Before you delete a key, we recommend that you disable the key, then wait until you are sure that the key is no longer needed. You can then delete the key.

As a best practice, rotate your service account keys regularly. To learn more about rotating service account keys, see Service account key rotation.

gcloud iam service-accounts keys delete KEY_ID \
    --iam-account=SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

Deleted key [KEY_ID] for service account
[SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com]

namespace iam = ::google::cloud::iam_admin_v1;
[](std::string const& name) {
  iam::IAMClient client(iam::MakeIAMConnection());
  auto response = client.DeleteServiceAccountKey(name);
  if (!response.ok()) throw std::runtime_error(response.message());
  std::cout << "ServiceAccountKey successfully deleted.\n";
}

using System;
using Google.Apis.Auth.OAuth2;
using Google.Apis.Iam.v1;
using Google.Apis.Iam.v1.Data;

public partial class ServiceAccountKeys
{
    public static void DeleteKey(string fullKeyName)
    {
        var credential = GoogleCredential.GetApplicationDefault()
            .CreateScoped(IamService.Scope.CloudPlatform);
        var service = new IamService(new IamService.Initializer
        {
            HttpClientInitializer = credential
        });

        service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Delete(fullKeyName).Execute();
        Console.WriteLine("Deleted key: " + fullKeyName);
    }
}

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	iam "google.golang.org/api/iam/v1"
)

// deleteKey deletes a service account key.
func deleteKey(w io.Writer, fullKeyName string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()
	service, err := iam.NewService(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("iam.NewService: %w", err)
	}

	_, err = service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Delete(fullKeyName).Do()
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.Delete: %w", err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Deleted key: %v", fullKeyName)
	return nil
}

import com.google.cloud.iam.admin.v1.IAMClient;
import com.google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteServiceAccountKeyRequest;
import com.google.iam.admin.v1.KeyName;
import java.io.IOException;

public class DeleteServiceAccountKey {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace the variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String serviceAccountName = "my-service-account-name";
    String serviceAccountKeyId = "service-account-key-id";

    deleteKey(projectId, serviceAccountName, serviceAccountKeyId);
  }

  // Deletes a service account key.
  public static void deleteKey(String projectId, String accountName,
                               String serviceAccountKeyId) throws IOException {
    //Initialize client that will be used to send requests.
    //This client only needs to be created once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (IAMClient iamClient = IAMClient.create()) {

      //Construct the service account email.
      //You can modify the ".iam.gserviceaccount.com" to match the service account name in which
      //you want to delete the key.
      //See, https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys#deleting

      String accountEmail = String.format("%s@%s.iam.gserviceaccount.com", accountName, projectId);

      String name = KeyName.of(projectId, accountEmail, serviceAccountKeyId).toString();

      DeleteServiceAccountKeyRequest request = DeleteServiceAccountKeyRequest.newBuilder()
              .setName(name)
              .build();

      // Then you can delete the key
      iamClient.deleteServiceAccountKey(request);

      System.out.println("Deleted key: " + serviceAccountKeyId);
    }
  }
}

from google.cloud import iam_admin_v1
from google.cloud.iam_admin_v1 import types


def delete_key(project_id: str, account: str, key_id: str) -> None:
    """Deletes a key for a service account.

    project_id: ID or number of the Google Cloud project you want to use.
    account: ID or email which is unique identifier of the service account.
    key_id: unique ID of the key.
    """

    iam_admin_client = iam_admin_v1.IAMClient()
    request = types.DeleteServiceAccountKeyRequest()
    request.name = f"projects/{project_id}/serviceAccounts/{account}/keys/{key_id}"

    iam_admin_client.delete_service_account_key(request=request)
    print(f"Deleted key: {key_id}")

DELETE https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID

curl -X DELETE \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID"

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method DELETE `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID" | Select-Object -Expand Content

{
}

What's next

• Learn how to list and get service account keys.
• Learn how to upload your own public service account keys.
• Understand the best practices for managing service account keys.
• Learn about alternatives to service account keys for authentication.