Use the new AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Parameter task to manage secrets and configuration data

You can now use the AWS Systems Manager Parameter task to get, put, and delete a parameter managed by the AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, which provides a centralized store to manage your configuration data, whether plain-text data such as database strings or secrets such as passwords:

This allows you to separate your secrets and configuration data from your code. Parameters can be tagged and organized into hierarchies, helping you manage parameters more easily. For example, you can use the same parameter name, "db-string", with a different hierarchical path, "dev/db-string” or “prod/db-string", to store different values. Systems Manager is integrated with AWS Key Management Service (KMS), allowing you to automatically encrypt the data you store. You can also control user and resource access to parameters using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Parameters can be referenced through other AWS services, such as Amazon Elastic Container Service, AWS Lambda, and AWS CloudFormation.

Integration with AWS Secrets Manager

Besides natively supporting encrypted Secure String Parameters, the AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store is also integrated with the dedicated AWS Secrets Manager and allows Referencing AWS Secrets Manager Secrets from Parameter Store Parameters.