[Bug]: Empty "assume_role.role_arn" results in provider error and fails to plan/apply

[evan-cleary]

Terraform Core Version

1.4.7

AWS Provider Version

5.67.0

Affected Resource(s)

• all

Expected Behavior

Provider previously ignored assume role blocks when role_arn was left as empty string "" or null.

We depend on this as we optionally configure assume_role in our terraform using configurations like:

  assume_role {
    role_arn = var.assume_role
    ...
  }

and

assume_role {
   role_arn = var.assume_role
   duration = "15m"
}

Actual Behavior

Provider now fails to plan/apply saying the role_arn is required.

Relevant Error/Panic Output Snippet

Error: Missing required argument 
  with provider["registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws"], 
  on main.tf line 11, in provider "aws": 
  11: provider "aws" { 
The argument "role_arn" is required, but no definition was found.

Terraform Configuration Files

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      version = "5.67.0"
      source = "hashicorp/aws"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
  assume_role {
    role_arn = ""
  }
}

data "aws_region" "current" {}

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      version = "5.67.0"
      source = "hashicorp/aws"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
  assume_role {
    role_arn = null
    duration = "15m"
  }
}

data "aws_region" "current" {}

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run the above configuration(s)

Debug Output

No response

Panic Output

No response

Important Factoids

The majority of our terraform configurations support conditionally using an assume_role to support our local development and the CI pipelines, this change has broken conditional assume roles for any configuration set up prior to the introduction of dynamics.

References

This appears to be the result of: #39255

Comments within the schema change show intentional of backwards compatibility with empty assume_role.role_arn attributes
https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-aws/pull/39255/files#diff-cddd9e71748414f0ca51a47f3c35f8c45522d41c9477d3cfae3374dd656610f1R192

But then in implementation requirement of that property is enforced
https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-aws/pull/39255/files#diff-58d6a027753b50994deb7e11e4a99dde423f35844986019bd9cea5e0c94aba22R793-R798

Would you like to implement a fix?

None

[github-actions]

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[macetw]

This issue was well documented by @evan-cleary. My team has experienced the same problem.

[quentin9696]

Hi,

To have a cleaner TF syntax, this works with 5.67.0

dynamic "assume_role" {
    for_each = var.aws_assume_role != null ? [1] : []

    content {
      role_arn = var.aws_assume_role
    }
  }

[gdavison]

This will be resolved by #39328. We're planning to release a bug fix update this Monday, 16 September.

In addition to the workarounds listed above, you can also set the value of var.aws_assume_role to null instead of "". For example:

variable "var.aws_assume_role" {
  type    = string
  default = null
}

[iNoahNothing]

I am getting the same error even with with following config that defaults role_arn to null

provider "aws" {
  profile                  = var.aws_profile
  region                   = var.region
  shared_credentials_files = [pathexpand(var.shared_credentials_file)]

  assume_role {
    role_arn = var.role_arn

    # Inherit session tags from the configure-aws-credentials action
    transitive_tag_keys = [
      "GitHub",
      "Repository",
      "Workflow",
      "Action",
      "Actor",
      "Branch",
      "Commit"
    ]
  }

  default_tags {
    tags = local.tags
  }
}

variable "aws_profile" {
  type    = string
  default = null
}
variable "role_arn" {
  type    = string
  default = null
}
variable "shared_credentials_file" {
  type    = string
  default = "~/.aws/credentials"
}
variable "vault_address" {
  default = null
}

[github-actions]

Warning

This issue has been closed, meaning that any additional comments are hard for our team to see. Please assume that the maintainers will not see them.

Ongoing conversations amongst community members are welcome, however, the issue will be locked after 30 days. Moving conversations to another venue, such as the AWS Provider forum, is recommended. If you have additional concerns, please open a new issue, referencing this one where needed.

[selzoc]

This will be resolved by #39328. We're planning to release a bug fix update this Monday, 16 September.

Is this bug fix release still planned?

[github-actions]

This functionality has been released in v5.68.0 of the Terraform AWS Provider. Please see the Terraform documentation on provider versioning or reach out if you need any assistance upgrading.

For further feature requests or bug reports with this functionality, please create a new GitHub issue following the template. Thank you!

[github-actions]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.
If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.