List and get service account keys

This page explains how to list and get 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: If you need to access resources from a workload that runs outside of Google Cloud, such as on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure, consider using workload identity federation instead of service account keys. Federation lets your workloads access resources directly, using a short-lived access token, and eliminates the maintenance and security burden associated with service account keys.

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

  You can use the gcloud CLI samples on this page from either of the following development environments:

  • Cloud Shell: To use an online terminal with the gcloud CLI already set up, activate Cloud Shell.

    At the bottom of this page, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.

  • Local shell: To use the gcloud CLI in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI.

  C++

  To use the C++ samples on this page from 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. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

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

  C#

  To use the .NET samples on this page from 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. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

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

  Go

  To use the Go samples on this page from 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. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

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

  Java

  To use the Java samples on this page from 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. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

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

  Python

  To use the Python samples on this page from 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. Create local authentication credentials for your Google Account:

     gcloud auth application-default login

  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

• Understand service account credentials.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to list and get service account keys, ask your administrator to grant you the View Service Accounts (roles/iam.serviceAccountViewer) IAM role on either the project or the service account whose keys you want to manage. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access.

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.

List service account keys

You can list the service account keys for a service account using the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, the serviceAccount.keys.list() method, or one of the client libraries.

The serviceAccount.keys.list() method is commonly used to audit service accounts and keys, or to build custom tooling for managing service accounts.

To find out which project your key belongs to, you can download the key as a JSON file and look at that file.

You might see keys listed that you did not create. These are keys created by Google and used by the Service Account Credentials API. To learn more, see Google-managed key pairs.

Console

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service accounts page.

   Go to Service accounts

   The remaining steps will appear automatically in the Google Cloud console.

2. Select a project.
3. On the Service accounts page, click the email address of the service account whose keys you want to list.
4. Click Keys. The Google Cloud console displays a list of keys for the service account.

gcloud

Execute the gcloud iam service-accounts keys list command to list service account keys.

Replace the following values:

• SA_NAME: The name of the service account to list keys for.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.

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

Output:

KEY_ID	CREATED_AT	EXPIRES_AT	DISABLED
8e6e3936d7024646f8ceb39792006c07f4a9760c	2021-01-01T21:01:42Z	9999-12-31T23:59:59Z
937c98f870f5c8db970af527aa3c12fd88b1c20a	2021-01-01T20:55:40Z	9999-12-31T23:59:59Z	True

C++

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

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

namespace iam = ::google::cloud::iam_admin_v1;
[](std::string const& service_account_name,
   std::vector<std::string> const& key_type_labels) {
  iam::IAMClient client(iam::MakeIAMConnection());
  std::vector<google::iam::admin::v1::ListServiceAccountKeysRequest::KeyType>
      key_types;
  for (auto const& type : key_type_labels) {
    if (type == "USER_MANAGED") {
      key_types.push_back(google::iam::admin::v1::
                              ListServiceAccountKeysRequest::USER_MANAGED);
    } else if (type == "SYSTEM_MANAGED") {
      key_types.push_back(google::iam::admin::v1::
                              ListServiceAccountKeysRequest::SYSTEM_MANAGED);
    }
  }
  auto response =
      client.ListServiceAccountKeys(service_account_name, key_types);
  if (!response) throw std::move(response).status();
  std::cout << "ServiceAccountKeys successfully retrieved: "
            << response->DebugString() << "\n";
}

C#

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

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

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

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

        var response = service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys
            .List($"projects/-/serviceAccounts/{serviceAccountEmail}")
            .Execute();
        foreach (ServiceAccountKey key in response.Keys)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Key: " + key.Name);
        }
        return response.Keys;
    }
}

Go

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

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

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

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

// listKey lists a service account's keys.
func listKeys(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
	response, err := service.Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.List(resource).Do()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Projects.ServiceAccounts.Keys.List: %w", err)
	}
	for _, key := range response.Keys {
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Listing key: %v", key.Name)
	}
	return response.Keys, nil
}

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.api.client.googleapis.javanet.GoogleNetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.gson.GsonFactory;
import com.google.api.services.iam.v1.Iam;
import com.google.api.services.iam.v1.IamScopes;
import com.google.api.services.iam.v1.model.ServiceAccountKey;
import com.google.auth.http.HttpCredentialsAdapter;
import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.security.GeneralSecurityException;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

public class ListServiceAccountKeys {

  // Lists all keys for a service account.
  public static void listKeys(String projectId, String serviceAccountName) {
    // String projectId = "my-project-id";
    // String serviceAccountName = "my-service-account-name";

    Iam service = null;
    try {
      service = initService();
    } catch (IOException | GeneralSecurityException e) {
      System.out.println("Unable to initialize service: \n" + e.toString());
      return;
    }

    String serviceAccountEmail = serviceAccountName + "@" + projectId + ".iam.gserviceaccount.com";
    try {
      List<ServiceAccountKey> keys =
          service
              .projects()
              .serviceAccounts()
              .keys()
              .list("projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + serviceAccountEmail)
              .execute()
              .getKeys();

      for (ServiceAccountKey key : keys) {
        System.out.println("Key: " + key.getName());
      }
    } catch (IOException e) {
      System.out.println("Unable to list service account keys: \n" + e.toString());
    }
  }

  private static Iam initService() throws GeneralSecurityException, IOException {
    // Use the Application Default Credentials strategy for authentication. For more info, see:
    // https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production#finding_credentials_automatically
    GoogleCredentials credential =
        GoogleCredentials.getApplicationDefault()
            .createScoped(Collections.singleton(IamScopes.CLOUD_PLATFORM));
    // Initialize the IAM service, which can be used to send requests to the IAM API.
    Iam service =
        new Iam.Builder(
                GoogleNetHttpTransport.newTrustedTransport(),
                GsonFactory.getDefaultInstance(),
                new HttpCredentialsAdapter(credential))
            .setApplicationName("service-account-keys")
            .build();
    return service;
  }
}

Python

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

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

import os

from google.oauth2 import service_account
import googleapiclient.discovery  # type: ignore

def list_keys(service_account_email: str) -> None:
    """Lists all keys for a service account."""

    credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
        filename=os.environ["GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS"],
        scopes=["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform"],
    )

    service = googleapiclient.discovery.build("iam", "v1", credentials=credentials)

    keys = (
        service.projects()
        .serviceAccounts()
        .keys()
        .list(name="projects/-/serviceAccounts/" + service_account_email)
        .execute()
    )

    for key in keys["keys"]:
        print("Key: " + key["name"])

REST

The projects.serviceAccounts.keys.list method lists all of the service account keys for a service account.

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 keys you want to list.
• KEY_TYPES: Optional. A comma-separated list of key types that you want to include in the response. The key type indicates whether a key is user-managed (USER_MANAGED) or system-managed (SYSTEM_MANAGED). If left blank, all keys are returned.

HTTP method and URL:

GET https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys?keyTypes=KEY_TYPES

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 GET \
     -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?keyTypes=KEY_TYPES"

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 GET `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys?keyTypes=KEY_TYPES" | 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:

{
  "keys": [
    {
      "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[e-mail]/keys/90c48f61c65cd56224a12ab18e6ee9ca9c3aee7c",
      "validAfterTime": "2020-03-04T17:39:47Z",
      "validBeforeTime": "9999-12-31T23:59:59Z",
      "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048",
      "keyOrigin": "GOOGLE_PROVIDED",
      "keyType": "USER_MANAGED"
    },
    {
      "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[e-mail]/keys/e5e3800831ac1adc8a5849da7d827b4724b1fce8",
      "validAfterTime": "2020-03-31T23:50:09Z",
      "validBeforeTime": "9999-12-31T23:59:59Z",
      "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048",
      "keyOrigin": "GOOGLE_PROVIDED",
      "keyType": "USER_MANAGED"
    },
    {
      "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[e-mail]/keys/b97699f042b8eee6a846f4f96259fbcd13e2682e",
      "validAfterTime": "2020-05-17T18:58:13Z",
      "validBeforeTime": "9999-12-31T23:59:59Z",
      "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048",
      "keyOrigin": "GOOGLE_PROVIDED",
      "keyType": "USER_MANAGED",
      "disabled": true
    }
  ]
}

Get a service account key

You can use the gcloud CLI or the REST API to get the public key data for a service account key. In addition, you can use the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, or the REST API to get metadata for the key, such as the algorithm that the key uses and whether the key is managed by you or by Google.

Note: You cannot get the private key data for a service account key. This data is available only when the key is created.

Console

To get the public key data for a service account key:

Use the gcloud CLI or the REST API. This data is not available in the Google Cloud console.

To get metadata for a service account key:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Service accounts page.

   Go to Service accounts

   The remaining steps will appear automatically in the Google Cloud console.

2. Select a project.
3. On the Service accounts page, click the email address of the service account whose keys you want to list.
4. Click Keys. The Google Cloud console displays a list of keys for the service account, including metadata for each key.

gcloud

To get the public key data for a service account key:

Run the gcloud beta iam service-accounts keys get-public-key command:

gcloud beta iam service-accounts keys get-public-key KEY_ID \
    --iam-account=SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
    --output-file=FILENAME

Provide the following values:

• KEY_ID: The ID of the public key you want to get. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to get, and then copy its ID.
• SA_NAME: The name of the service account whose public key you want to get.
• PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.
• FILENAME: The file in which to save the public key data.

By default, the public key data is saved in X.509 PEM format. To get the raw public key, run the command with the additional flag --type=raw.

For example, the following command gets the public key data for the key c97cc34494c07c9b483701f28368f20145b9ef97, which belongs to the service account [e-mail], then saves the public key data to the file public_key.pem:

gcloud beta iam service-accounts keys get-public-key \
    c97cc34494c07c9b483701f28368f20145b9ef97 \
    --iam-account=[e-mail] \
    --output-file=public_key.pem

To get metadata for a service account key:

Run the gcloud iam service-accounts keys list command:

gcloud iam service-accounts keys list --iam-account=SA_NAME \
    --filter="name~KEY_ID" --format=json

Provide the following values:

• SA_NAME: The name of the service account for which you want key metadata.
• KEY_ID: The ID of the key for which you want metadata.

For example, the following command gets metadata for the key c97cc34494c07c9b483701f28368f20145b9ef97, which belongs to the service account [e-mail]:

gcloud iam service-accounts keys list \
    --iam-account=[e-mail] \
    --filter="name~c97cc34494c07c9b483701f28368f20145b9ef97" --format=json

REST

The projects.serviceAccounts.keys.get method returns information about a public key for a service account.

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 public key you want to get.
• KEY_ID: The ID of the public key you want to get. To find the key's ID, list all keys for the service account, identify the key that you want to get, and then copy its ID from the end of the name field. The key's ID is everything after keys/.
• KEY_TYPE: The format in which to return the public key. Use TYPE_X509_PEM_FILE for X.509 PEM format or TYPE_RAW_PUBLIC_KEY for the raw public key. If you omit this query parameter, the method returns metadata for the key, but it does not return the public key data.

HTTP method and URL:

GET https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID?publicKeyType=KEY_TYPE

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 GET \
     -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?publicKeyType=KEY_TYPE"

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 GET `
    -Headers $headers `
    -Uri "https://iam.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/serviceAccounts/SA_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com/keys/KEY_ID?publicKeyType=KEY_TYPE" | 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:

{
  "name": "projects/my-project/serviceAccounts/[e-mail]/keys/f4a83933ac07cf52bb74e0e66d99662a09f51a36",
  "validAfterTime": "2021-12-10T17:32:06Z",
  "validBeforeTime": "9999-12-31T23:59:59Z",
  "publicKeyData": "LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZJQ0FURS0tLS0tCk1JSUMvRENDQWVTZ0F3SUJBZ0lJT2lCdm9hR09nV0F3RFFZSktvWklodmNOQVFFRkJRQXdJREVlTUJ3R0ExVUUKQXhNVk1UQXhNVGsxTlRFMk5UWXlPRGszTmpFek1qQXpNQ0FYRFRJeE1USXhNREUzTXpJd05sb1lEems1T1RreApNak14TWpNMU9UVTVXakFnTVI0d0hBWURWUVFERXhVeE1ERXhPVFUxTVRZMU5qSTRPVGMyTVRNeU1ETXdnZ0VpCk1BMEdDU3FHU0liM0RRRUJBUVVBQTRJQkR3QXdnZ0VLQW9JQkFRQzdzeDBFcXVUMGNwSXhlczl1SW0yRy9DS3EKdnc4YTl2a2JkaWZZbDZHSDh1ZUxEWDhGNHVUeEVQMkNzU3JLTHZtOFo2My9IVUxnWjBtQXByb0JlM08vaVR1ZwpmYVZ0NVNtakhvWm9YQ1lpbjR0MS93SkpvdDhrRFdPeDZhOEdieUdqZ215ak8yYk1XdEtaQ2dqeGZ3cUV0MmN3CklnajA5VzJKYTlHTWRsdVA0VGVubTRKSkJoaFpFbTJ1bVAwYVZZdkRnUWF5d0RCYnJuNG8yY0EzSWplRDZGM1gKK0VHRDNKU0s4VW02Sk5sM21adGp6VWNZSHBrYkF0U1A2ZDI5d1RmZkdIRFY0THJRWlM3bG15d3hsb3p5WnpaawpCOFpHckMzSkF1MVNVRTdQOTN6bWtFb1B6MlRUNWhaYXZMWFQ5TGM2SExiRklRVHFnVEJVWHlNMkpIcGZBZ01CCkFBR2pPREEyTUF3R0ExVWRFd0VCL3dRQ01BQXdEZ1lEVlIwUEFRSC9CQVFEQWdlQU1CWUdBMVVkSlFFQi93UU0KTUFvR0NDc0dBUVVGQndNQ01BMEdDU3FHU0liM0RRRUJCUVVBQTRJQkFRQkhPNXlpUDY3NkE4UEN2RjdRSzdFMApYZVljbzdsSStFZkowaGJrWVlmdUtnSENPcXcvd3FBbCtOSithanljT2FPWDFPMlRZN3ZOc05pR2t3eWc2QXdqCklhL1NHVjd3NkxpS2JldFRuSVp4UlhRY25lcnVvZEwycUR5eWphMDJJSXJVTmVKY1o0MVJBNXRTL3NkcTFGNm4KM0NjSXFoZTI1OTA4TUNna3cwaFB1K0VLbFF6R1B5T3pVRHBLdXg0cnRBaHJTYTBUVW1wbEMxdTJnUk1YRkF6aApWUjU0V2dNa2tabURyalBNeWdBS3JmNkd0bHo2VHRTYTVLb1BWdGpsWExUQkxaSnlhdk4zc1F2dFlBK1NFQWpWCnA1N1ZabFBYZmR0dWN4ekJaOC9zS25SOHNyYU5hVWFjamg1NEE1Nm1URTE3b0IyUWkrTHBJUTYvNnVqVnNXaUYKLS0tLS1FTkQgQ0VSVElGSUNBVEUtLS0tLQo=",
  "keyAlgorithm": "KEY_ALG_RSA_2048",
  "keyOrigin": "GOOGLE_PROVIDED",
  "keyType": "USER_MANAGED"
}

What's next

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

Try it for yourself

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