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Using AWS Honey Tokens

docs/documentation/platform/honey-tokens/aws/usage.mdx

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<Note> Before creating honey tokens, an organization admin must complete the [one-time setup](/documentation/platform/honey-tokens/aws/setup). </Note>

Creating a Honey Token

<Steps> <Step title="Open the Secrets Dashboard"> Navigate to your project's Secret Manager dashboard and select the environment and secret path where you want to plant the honey token. </Step> <Step title="Add a Honey Token"> Click the **Add Honey Token** button to open the creation dialog.
![Add Honey Token](/images/platform/honey-tokens/create-honey-token.png)
</Step> <Step title="Select the honey token type"> Choose the type of honey token you want to create.
![Select Honey Token Type](/images/platform/honey-tokens/honey-token-type.png)
</Step> <Step title="Environment Configuration"> Configure where the honey token and it's credentials will be planted within your project:
- **Environment** — choose the target environment.

<Note>
  The secret path is automatically determined based on which secret path you are currently in while creating the honey token.
</Note>

![Honey Token Environment Step](/images/platform/honey-tokens/honey-token-environment.png)
</Step> <Step title="Configure Secret Mappings"> Configure the secret mappings. This dictates the secret keys in your selected environment and secret path will be created and contain the honey token credentials.
- **Access Key ID** — secret name for the AWS access key ID (for example: `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`).
- **Secret Access Key** — secret name for the AWS secret access key (for example: `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`).

![Honey Token Mapping Step](/images/platform/honey-tokens/honey-token-mapping.png)
</Step> <Step title="Configure Details"> Add the honey token details to help you better identify it in the future:
- **Name** — a slug-friendly identifier (must be unique within the selected folder).
- **Description** (optional) — context for this honey token.

Click **Create**. Infisical provisions the decoy credentials in your AWS account and stores them as secrets in the selected environment and path.

![Honey Token Details Step](/images/platform/honey-tokens/honey-token-create.png)
</Step> </Steps>

The honey token is now Active. The decoy secrets appear alongside your real secrets and are included in any secret syncs or integrations.

Notifications

When someone uses a honey token's credentials to make any AWS API call, Infisical detects the activity, marks the honey token as Triggered, and sends an email alert to all organization admins with:

  • The name of the triggered honey token and its project
  • The AWS API call that was made (e.g., GetUser, ListBuckets)
  • The source IP address and AWS region
  • The time of the event
  • A direct link to the honey token in the Infisical dashboard
<Note> To avoid alert fatigue, Infisical sends at most one email notification per honey token every 24 hours. All trigger events are still recorded and viewable in the event log. </Note>

Managing Honey Tokens

Viewing Events

Open a honey token's detail page to see a chronological log of all trigger events since the last reset. Each event shows the AWS API call, source IP, region, and timestamp.

Resetting a Triggered Token

If a honey token is in Triggered status and you've addressed the incident, click Reset to return it to Active status. This hides previous events from the event log view (events are still stored in the database) and re-enables email notifications.

Revoking a Honey Token

To permanently deactivate a honey token, click Revoke. This will:

  • Delete the IAM user and access key from AWS
  • Remove the decoy secrets from the project
  • Mark the honey token as Revoked

Revocation is irreversible.