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Connector Improvement: Aurora PrivateLink – Support for IAM Database Authentication

Planned
Renu Verma User

Summary

Support Aurora connectivity over AWS PrivateLink using IAM database authentication (short‑lived tokens), without requiring static database usernames and passwords.

Description

We are setting up Amazon Aurora connectivity via AWS PrivateLink. While the PrivateLink setup is supported, the Aurora connector currently requires a static database username and password.

We moved away from password‑based authentication for Aurora some time ago and now rely exclusively on IAM database authentication with short‑lived tokens, generated via IAM role assumption. This aligns with AWS security best practices and our internal security standards.

Our requirement is to:

Use Aurora IAM database authentication (short‑lived tokens) in combination with AWS PrivateLink, without relying on static database usernames or passwords.

Ideally, the connector would assume an IAM role and generate authentication tokens dynamically, rather than storing long‑lived database credentials.

Why this is important

  • Long‑lived database passwords are no longer acceptable within our platform
  • IAM authentication provides:
    • Short‑lived credentials
    • Centralized access control via IAM
    • Reduced credential management and rotation risk
  • PrivateLink already addresses network‑level security; IAM auth is required to complete the security posture at the authentication layer

Impact

Without this capability:

  • We are forced to reintroduce static credentials solely for Fivetran
  • This creates an exception to our security baseline
  • It increases operational and audit overhead for credential storage and rotation

Requested outcome

  • Native support for Aurora IAM database authentication
  • Compatibility with AWS PrivateLink
  • Authentication via IAM role assumption, not static credentials

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Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Valentin Kulichenko Fivetranner

    Hi Renu,

    We are investigating the level of effort required for this. My current tentative expectation is that we can deliver it sometime in Q2 this year, but that's contingent of the result of the current testing. I will keep this thread updated with any changes.

    To clarify - do you use MySQL in Aurora, or Postgres as well? Any other sources for which you might need this functionality?

    Thanks,
    Val Kulichenko, Fivetran Product Team

  • Renu Verma User

    Hi Val,

    Thanks for the update.

    To clarify, we are using Amazon Aurora MySQL. At the moment, this is the primary source where we would need IAM database authentication support over PrivateLink.

    Happy to provide more details or participate in testing if that would be helpful.

    Thanks,
    Renu