Cannot SSH into Amazon EC2 instance

Question

I have spent almost 24hours trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but I can't figure this out. Starting to feel there is something wrong with my local setup.

I've made sure to chmod 400 erik-keypair.pem
I've stored erik-keypair.pem in my user .ssh folder, AND relocated the other id_rsa files just so they don't interfere (trying to remove any variables)
Ec2 instance security has ssh enabled

Here's the response

$ ssh -v -v -i erik-keypair.pem [email protected]
OpenSSH_5.2p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8l 5 Nov 2009
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to ec2-XX-XX-XX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com [XX.XX.XX.XXX] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug2: key_type_from_name: unknown key type '-----BEGIN'
debug2: key_type_from_name: unknown key type '-----END'
debug1: identity file erik-keypair.pem type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.1p1 Debian-5ubuntu1
debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.1p1 Debian-5ubuntu1 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.2
debug2: fd 3 setting O_NONBLOCK
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: reserved 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour128,arcfour256,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,[email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour128,arcfour256,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,[email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: none,[email protected]
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: kex_parse_kexinit: reserved 0 
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug2: mac_setup: found hmac-md5
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug2: dh_gen_key: priv key bits set: 124/256
debug2: bits set: 502/1024
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host 'ec2-XX-XX-XX-XXX.compute-1.amazonaws.com' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/erik/.ssh/known_hosts:1
debug2: bits set: 523/1024
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug2: kex_derive_keys
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug2: key: erik-keypair.pem (0x0)
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: erik-keypair.pem
debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

Does anyone spot what I'm doing wrong?

I have the exact same problem. I had an EC2 instance, I rebooted it (due to AWS hardware problems) and when the instance came back, I was not able to connect to it through ssh and I get the same error as Erik. Any idea? Up to now I must create a new instance, connect the old volume to it, copy the files to the instance and reconfigure everything. The whole process is quite annoying and expensive (2 instences instead of one, a snapshot, 2 volumes instead of one). Any idea to fix it? — Davide Vernizzi
– Davide Vernizzi, Commented Jun 13, 2012 at 21:37

Sarge · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-12 16:53:58Z

2

Rodney Quillo's answer is very likely correct. I would expand it by saying that the official Ubuntu distributions also have the default user as ubuntu.

answered Apr 12, 2011 at 16:53

Sarge

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1 Comment

Erik Lott Over a year ago

Rodney and Sarge are both correct in that there was a custom default user name. thanks all

Mercurious · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-12 13:15:23Z

0

If I'm not mistaken you should use ec2-user rather than root.

answered Apr 12, 2011 at 13:15

Mercurious

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2 Comments

Erik Lott Over a year ago

same response using $ssh -v -v -i erik-keypair.pem [email protected]

Rodney Quillo Over a year ago

if your using ubuntu AMI's from alestic.com, use ubuntu user.

clearscreen · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-14 06:42:32Z

0

I'm adding this answer in case others have the same issue. I needed my private key to have the .pem extension. Not having that extension was causing my issues.

answered Oct 14, 2013 at 6:42

clearscreen

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Comments

ravi ranjan · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-04 08:37:54Z

0

Are you sure your Amazon EC2 instance is SUSE Linux thants why you are using 'root' user. Check which kind of instance you create. the user depnds on the type of ec2 instance

details

OS Type usename

Amazon Linux ec2-user RHEL5 ec2-user/ec2-user Ubuntu ubuntu SUSE Linux root

further details are at http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstancesLinux.html

answered Apr 4, 2014 at 8:37

ravi ranjan

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ravi ranjan · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-04 08:41:34Z

0

Are you sure your Amazon EC2 instance is SUSE Linux thants why you are using 'root' user. Check which kind of instance you create. the user depnds on the type of ec2 instance

details

OS Type ---------- usename

Amazon Linux ---------- ec2-user
RHEL5 ---------- ec2-user/ec2-user
Ubuntu ---------- ubuntu
SUSE Linux ---------- root

further details are at http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstancesLinux.html

answered Apr 4, 2014 at 8:41

ravi ranjan

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