# Using credentials providers in the AWS SDK for Java 2.x
<a name="credentials"></a>

The role of a credentials provider in the AWS SDK for Java 2.x is to source and supply credentials to the SDK's AWS service clients. The SDK uses the credentials it sources to authenticate with the service by cryptographically signing each request. Credentials usually consist of access keys—an access key ID and a secret access key together. 

When you use temporary credentials, which are used when you setup [SSO token provider configuration](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkref/latest/guide/feature-sso-credentials.html#sso-token-config) or configure your runtime to [assume an IAM (AWS Identity and Access Management) role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkref/latest/guide/access-assume-role.html#credOrSourceAssumeRole) as examples, a session token is added to the access keys, providing time-limited access to AWS resources.

This topic discusses several ways that you enable the SDK to access credentials.

**Topics**
+ [Interactive development work](credentials-temporary.md)
+ [Default credentials provider chain](credentials-chain.md)
+ [Credentials caching](credential-caching.md)
+ [Specify a specific credentials provider](credentials-providers.md)
+ [Use shared configuration profiles](credentials-profiles.md)
+ [Use an external process](credentials-process.md)
+ [Supply credentials in code](credentials-explicit.md)
+ [Read IAM role credentials on Amazon EC2](ec2-iam-roles.md)