AWS was not able to validate the provided access credentials

Question

I have been trying to create Security Group using AWS SDK, but somehow it fails to authenticate it. For the specific Access Key and Secret Key, i have provided the Administrative rights, then also it fails to validate. On the other side, I tried the same credentials on AWS S3 Example, it successfully executes.

Getting following error while creating security group:

com.amazonaws.AmazonServiceException: AWS was not able to validate the provided access credentials (Service: AmazonEC2; Status Code: 401; Error Code: AuthFailure; Request ID: 1584a035-9a88-4dc7-b5e2-a8b7bde6f43c)
    at com.amazonaws.http.AmazonHttpClient.handleErrorResponse(AmazonHttpClient.java:1077)
    at com.amazonaws.http.AmazonHttpClient.executeOneRequest(AmazonHttpClient.java:725)
    at com.amazonaws.http.AmazonHttpClient.executeHelper(AmazonHttpClient.java:460)
    at com.amazonaws.http.AmazonHttpClient.execute(AmazonHttpClient.java:295)
    at com.amazonaws.services.ec2.AmazonEC2Client.invoke(AmazonEC2Client.java:9393)
    at com.amazonaws.services.ec2.AmazonEC2Client.createSecurityGroup(AmazonEC2Client.java:1146)
    at com.sunil.demo.ec2.SetupEC2.createSecurityGroup(SetupEC2.java:84)
    at com.sunil.demo.ec2.SetupEC2.main(SetupEC2.java:25)

Here is the Java Code:

public class SetupEC2 {
    AWSCredentials credentials = null;
    AmazonEC2Client amazonEC2Client ;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SetupEC2 setupEC2Instance = new SetupEC2();
        setupEC2Instance.init();
        setupEC2Instance.createSecurityGroup();
    }

    public void init(){
        // Intialize AWS Credentials
        try {
            credentials = new BasicAWSCredentials("XXXXXXXX", "XXXXXXXXX");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new AmazonClientException(
                    "Cannot load the credentials from the credential profiles file. " +
                            "Please make sure that your credentials file is at the     correct " +
                            "location (/home/sunil/.aws/credentials), and is in valid format.",
                            e);
        }

        // Initialize EC2 instance
        try {
            amazonEC2Client = new AmazonEC2Client(credentials);
            amazonEC2Client.setEndpoint("ec2.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com");
            amazonEC2Client.setRegion(Region.getRegion(Regions.AP_SOUTHEAST_1));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public boolean createSecurityGroup(){
        boolean securityGroupCreated = false;
        String groupName = "sgec2securitygroup";
        String sshIpRange = "0.0.0.0/0";
        String sshprotocol = "tcp";
        int sshFromPort = 22;
        int sshToPort =22;

        String httpIpRange = "0.0.0.0/0";
        String httpProtocol = "tcp";
        int httpFromPort = 80;
        int httpToPort = 80;

        String httpsIpRange = "0.0.0.0/0";
        String httpsProtocol = "tcp";
        int httpsFromPort = 443;
        int httpsToProtocol = 443;

        try {
            CreateSecurityGroupRequest createSecurityGroupRequest =  new CreateSecurityGroupRequest();
            createSecurityGroupRequest.withGroupName(groupName).withDescription("Created from AWS SDK Security Group");
            createSecurityGroupRequest.setRequestCredentials(credentials);

            CreateSecurityGroupResult csgr = amazonEC2Client.createSecurityGroup(createSecurityGroupRequest);

            String groupid = csgr.getGroupId();
            System.out.println("Security Group Id : " + groupid);

            System.out.println("Create Security Group Permission");
            Collection<IpPermission> ips = new ArrayList<IpPermission>();
            // Permission for SSH only to your ip
            IpPermission ipssh = new IpPermission();
        ipssh.withIpRanges(sshIpRange).withIpProtocol(sshprotocol).withFromPort(sshFromPort).withToPort(sshToPort);
            ips.add(ipssh);

            // Permission for HTTP, any one can access
            IpPermission iphttp = new IpPermission();
        iphttp.withIpRanges(httpIpRange).withIpProtocol(httpProtocol).withFromPort(httpFromPort).withToPort(httpToPort);
            ips.add(iphttp);

            //Permission for HTTPS, any one can accesss
            IpPermission iphttps = new IpPermission();
            iphttps.withIpRanges(httpsIpRange).withIpProtocol(httpsProtocol).withFromPort(httpsFromPort).withToPort(httpsToProtocol);
            ips.add(iphttps);

            System.out.println("Attach Owner to security group");
            // Register this security group with owner
            AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngressRequest authorizeSecurityGroupIngressRequest = new AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngressRequest();
            authorizeSecurityGroupIngressRequest.withGroupName(groupName).withIpPermissions(ips);
            amazonEC2Client.authorizeSecurityGroupIngress(authorizeSecurityGroupIngressRequest);
        securityGroupCreated = true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            // TODO: handle exception
            e.printStackTrace();
            securityGroupCreated = false;
        }
        System.out.println("securityGroupCreated: " + securityGroupCreated);
        return securityGroupCreated;
    }
}

Have permission in S3 doesn't mean you have permission in ec2 and security group. You need check the key again. — BMW
Yes i checked the key and also checked on the Policy Simulator for access rights. It shows proper. — Sunil Gulabani

M. Röthenmund M. Röthenmund · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-23T07:00:04

Try to update your Systemtime.

When the diffrence between AWS-datetime and your datetime are too big, the credentials will not accepted.

For Debian/Ubuntu Users:

when you never set your time-zone you can do this with

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Stop the ntp-Service, because too large time diffrences, cannot be changed by running service.

sudo /etc/init.d/ntp stop

Syncronize your time and date (-q Set the time and quit / Run only once) (-g Allow the first adjustment to be Big) (-x Slew up to 600 seconds / Adjuste also time witch large diffrences) (-n Do not fork / process will not going to background)

sudo ntpd -q -g -x -n

Restart service

sudo /etc/init.d/ntp start

check actual system-datetime

sudo date

set system-datetime to your hardware-datetime

sudo hwclock --systohc

show your hardware-datetime

sudo hwclock

AWS was not able to validate the provided access credentials

4 Answers