Disable and enable service account keys

This page explains how to disable and enable 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.

Note: Service account keys are a security risk if not managed correctly. You should choose a more secure alternative to service account keys whenever possible. If you must authenticate with a service account key, you are responsible for the security of the private key and for other operations described by Best practices for managing service account keys. If you are prevented from creating a service account key, service account key creation might be disabled for your organization. For more information, see Managing secure-by-default organization resources.

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:

  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.

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

     gcloud init

  3. 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.

  For more information, see Set up authentication 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.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:

  gcloud init

  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 disable and enable 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.

IAM basic roles also contain permissions to manage service account keys. You should not grant basic roles in a production environment, but you can grant them in a development or test environment.

Disable a service account key

Disabling a service account key prevents you from using the key to authenticate with Google APIs. You can enable a disabled key at any time.

Important: Disabling a service account key does not revoke short-lived credentials that were issued based on the key. To revoke a compromised short-lived credential, you must disable or delete the service account that the credential represents. If you do so, any workload that uses the service account will immediately lose access to your resources.

Before you delete a service account 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.

You can view disabled keys in the Google Cloud console, but you cannot use the Google Cloud console to disable a key. Use the gcloud CLI or the REST API instead.

gcloud

Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts keys disable command to disable a service account key.

Replace the following values:

• KEY_ID: The ID of the key to disable. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to disable, and then copy its ID.
• SA_NAME: The name of the service account that the key belongs to.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

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

Output:

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

Java

To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.

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


public class DisableServiceAccountKey {

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

    disableServiceAccountKey(projectId, serviceAccountName, serviceAccountKeyName);
  }

  // Disables a service account key.
  public static void disableServiceAccountKey(String projectId,
                                              String accountName,
                                              String key) throws IOException {
    // Construct the service account email.
    // You can modify the ".iam.gserviceaccount.com" to match the service account name in which
    // you want to disable the key.
    // See, https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys#disabling
    String email = String.format("%s@%s.iam.gserviceaccount.com", accountName, projectId);
    String name = String.format("projects/%s/serviceAccounts/%s/keys/%s", projectId, email, key);

    // 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()) {
      iamClient.disableServiceAccountKey(name);

      System.out.println("Disabled service account key: " + name);
    }
  }
}

REST

The projects.serviceAccounts.keys.disable method disables a service account key.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.
• SA_NAME: The name of the service account whose key you want to disable.
• KEY_ID: The ID of the key that you want to disable. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to disable, and then copy its ID from the end of the name field. The key's ID is everything after keys/.

HTTP method and URL:

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

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

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

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

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

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

APIs Explorer (browser)

Open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Complete any required fields and click Execute.

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
}

Enable a service account key

After you disable a service account key, you can enable the key at any time, then use the key to authenticate with Google APIs.

You cannot use the Google Cloud console to enable service account keys. Use the gcloud CLI or the REST API instead.

gcloud

Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts keys enable command to enable a service account key.

Replace the following values:

• KEY_ID: The ID of the key to enable. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to enable, and then copy its ID.
• SA_NAME: The name of the service account that the key belongs to.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

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

Output:

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

Java

To learn how to install and use the client library for IAM, see IAM client libraries. For more information, see the IAM Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to IAM, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Before you begin.

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


public class EnableServiceAccountKey {

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

    enableServiceAccountKey(projectId, serviceAccountName, serviceAccountKeyName);
  }

  // Enables a service account key.
  public static void enableServiceAccountKey(String projectId,
                                             String accountName,
                                             String key) throws IOException {
    // Construct the service account email.
    // You can modify the ".iam.gserviceaccount.com" to match the service account name in which
    // you want to enable the key.
    // See, https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/creating-managing-service-account-keys#enabling
    String email = String.format("%s@%s.iam.gserviceaccount.com", accountName, projectId);
    String name = String.format("projects/%s/serviceAccounts/%s/keys/%s", projectId, email, key);

    // 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()) {
      iamClient.enableServiceAccountKey(name);

      System.out.println("Enabled service account key: " + name);
    }
  }
}

REST

The projects.serviceAccounts.keys.enable method enables a service account key.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID. Project IDs are alphanumeric strings, like my-project.
• SA_NAME: The name of the service account whose key you want to enable.
• KEY_ID: The ID of the key that you want to enable. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to enable, and then copy its ID from the end of the name field. The key's ID is everything after keys/.

HTTP method and URL:

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

To send your request, expand one of these options:

curl (Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

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

PowerShell (Windows)

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Execute the following command:

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

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

APIs Explorer (browser)

Open the method reference page. The APIs Explorer panel opens on the right side of the page. You can interact with this tool to send requests. Complete any required fields and click Execute.

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following:

{
}

What's next

• Learn how to delete service account keys.
• Learn how to list and get service account keys.
• Learn how to use service account keys to authenticate as a service account.
• Learn about alternatives to service account keys for authentication.
• Understand the best practices for managing service account keys.

Try it for yourself

If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Get started for free