cassandra-sigv4

What it is and what it does

cassandra-sigv4 is an authentication plugin that bridges the DataStax Python Driver for Cassandra with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). It implements the AWS Signature Version 4 signing process, allowing applications to authenticate to Amazon Keyspaces using temporary or permanent AWS credentials instead of traditional username/password pairs. The plugin works by accepting a boto3 Session or raw AWS credentials, then signing each Cassandra request with the appropriate SigV4 signature for the target region.

The typical workflow is to configure an SSL context with Amazon's root CA certificate, instantiate a SigV4AuthProvider with your AWS credentials or session, and pass it to the Cassandra Cluster constructor. The driver then handles authentication transparently. This is useful for teams already using AWS IAM for access control, as it eliminates the need to manage separate Cassandra credentials and integrates with existing AWS credential management (environment variables, instance profiles, temporary tokens).

Use it for:

• Authenticate Python applications to Amazon Keyspaces using AWS IAM roles instead of hardcoded credentials.
• Enable temporary credential rotation by leveraging boto3's credential chain and STS session tokens.
• Integrate Cassandra access into AWS-native applications that already use boto3 for other AWS services.
• Simplify multi-region deployments by configuring region-specific SigV4 signatures per endpoint.
• Audit and control Cassandra access through AWS IAM policies and CloudTrail logs.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Adds AWS Signature Version 4 authentication to the DataStax Python Driver for Apache Cassandra, enabling IAM-based access to Amazon Keyspaces.

Yes, if you are using Amazon Keyspaces and need IAM-based authentication. The plugin is stable (Production/Stable classifier), has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. However, maintenance is aging—last release was October 2020—so verify compatibility with your current versions of cassandra-driver and boto3 before adopting. Suitable for production use in AWS-native environments.

Install

cassandra-sigv4 on PyPI

pip install cassandra-sigv4

uv add cassandra-sigv4

poetry add cassandra-sigv4

Installing cassandra-sigv4

Before you install

Low install friction; ships as a pure-Python wheel. Maintenance is aging—last release was 2020-10-30 and last commit 2025-07-15, but the repository remains active and unarchived. Depends on cassandra-driver, boto3, and six.

License in practice

Licensed under Apache Software License (permissive). No restrictions on commercial or private use.

Quickstart

pip install cassandra-sigv4

from cassandra_sigv4 import SigV4AuthProvider
import boto3

boto_session = boto3.Session(region_name="us-east-2")
auth_provider = SigV4AuthProvider(boto_session)
cluster = Cluster(['cassandra.us-east-2.amazonaws.com'], auth_provider=auth_provider, port=9142)
session = cluster.connect()

Requires an SSL context configured with Amazon's CA certificate and a valid AWS region matching the Keyspaces endpoint.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works reliably with modern Python versions beyond 3.8, given the aging maintenance status.
• Current compatibility with recent versions of cassandra-driver and boto3.

Package facts

Evidence: cassandra_sigv4-4.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: cassandra, cql, aws, sigv4, authentication, auth

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