The Problem

Hello, and welcome to “Continuous Improvement,” the podcast where we explore tips, tricks, and solutions for everyday problems. I’m your host, Victor. In today’s episode, we’ll be discussing a common issue encountered when attempting to SSH into an AWS instance. We’ll explore the error message and provide step-by-step instructions to resolve it. So let’s dive right in!

Have you ever come across the following error message when trying to SSH into your AWS instance?

“WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE! Permissions 0640 for ‘blog.pem’ are too open. It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others. This private key will be ignored. Bad permissions: ignore key: blog.pem Permission denied (publickey).”

This error message may seem complex at first, but fear not! I have a simple solution for you. By following a few steps, we can quickly resolve this issue.

Step one, open your terminal, and navigate to the location of your .pem file.

Step two, once you’re in the correct directory, run the following command:

“ssh -i xxx.pem root@52.74.3.53”

Make sure to replace xxx.pem with the name of your specific .pem file.

This command will modify the permissions on the keys, making them readable only by you. Once you’ve done that, you should be able to SSH into your AWS instance without any issues.

And just like that, you’ve successfully resolved the pesky permissions error that was preventing you from accessing your AWS instance. Remember, continuous improvement is all about finding solutions to everyday problems and making our lives easier.

I hope you found this episode helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, feel free to reach out. Thank you for tuning in to “Continuous Improvement.” I’m your host, Victor, and until next time, keep learning, keep improving. Goodbye!