Secure a Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2 created from a Lightsail snapshot - Amazon Lightsail

Secure a Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2 created from a Lightsail snapshot

Amazon Lightsail, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), use public–key cryptography to encrypt and decrypt login information. Public–key cryptography uses a public key to encrypt a piece of data, such as a password, then the recipient uses the private key to decrypt the data. The public and private keys are known as a key pair.

When you export a Linux or Unix Lightsail instance to EC2, the new EC2 instance will contain residual keys from the Lightsail service. As a security best practice, you should remove unused keys from your instance.

To improve the security of a Linux or Unix instance in EC2 that was created from a Lightsail snapshot, we recommend that you perform the following actions after creating the instance:

  • Remove and replace the Lightsail default key if you used it to connect to the source instance in Lightsail. The Lightsail default key is not present in your Amazon EC2 instance if you used your own key to connect to your instance, or you created a key for your instance in the Lightsail console.

  • Remove the Lightsail system key, also known as the lightsail_instance_ca.pub key. This key on Linux and Unix instances enables the Lightsail browser-based SSH client to connect. The lightsail_instance_ca.pub key is automatically removed when an EC2 instance is created using the Create an Amazon EC2 instance page in the Lightsail console or the Lightsail API.

Contents

Create a private key using Amazon EC2

Use the Amazon EC2 console to create a new key pair that you can use to replace the Lightsail default key pair.

To create a private key using Amazon EC2
  1. Sign in to the Amazon EC2 console.

  2. From the left navigation pane, choose Key Pairs.

  3. Choose Create key pair.

    
            Key pairs in the Amazon EC2 console.
  4. Enter a name for the key into the Key pair name text box, then choose Create.

    The new private key is automatically downloaded. Make note of where the private key is saved. You need it in the following Create the public key using PuTTYgen section of this guide to create a public key.

    
            Create key pairs in the Amazon EC2 console.

Create the public key using PuTTYgen

PuTTYgen is a tool that is included with PuTTY. Use PuTTYgen to generate the public key text that you add to your instance later in this guide.

Note

For more information about how to configure PuTTY to connect to your Linux or Unix instance, see Connect to an Amazon EC2 Linux or Unix instance that was created from a Lightsail snapshot.

To create the public key using PuTTYgen
  1. Start PuTTYgen.

    For example, choose the Windows Start menu, choose All Programs, choose PuTTY, and choose PuTTYgen.

    
            PuTTY Key Generator.
  2. Choose Load.

    By default, PuTTYgen displays only files with the .PPK extension. To locate your .PEM file, select the option to display files of all types.

    
            Load the Lightsail private key to the PuTTY Key Generator.
  3. Navigate to the location of your private key that was created earlier in this guide. Choose the private key, and then choose Open.

  4. After PuTTYgen confirms that you successfully imported the key, choose OK.

  5. Highlight the contents of the Public key text box and copy it to your clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C if you’re using Windows, or Cmd+C if you’re using macOS.

    Open a text editor, such as Notepad or TextEdit, and paste the public key text into it by pressing Ctrl+V if you're using Windows, or Cmd+V if you're using macOS. Save the file with your public key text; you will need it later in this guide.

    
            PuTTY key generator.
  6. Continue to the Connect to your Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2 section of this guide to connect to your EC2 instance and add the public key.

Connect to your Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2

Connect to your Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2 using SSH to remove the Lightsail default key and system key. For more information, see Connect to a Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2 created from an Amazon Lightsail snapshot.

Continue to the Add the public key to your instance and test the connection section of this guide after you’re connected to your instance in Amazon EC2.

Add the public key to your instance and test the connection

Public key content is saved in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on Linux and Unix instances. Edit the file to remove and replace the Lightsail default key from your Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2.

To add the public key to your instance and test the connection
  1. After you establish an SSH connection to your instance, enter the following command to edit the authorized_keys file using the Vim text editor.

    sudo vim ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
    Note

    These steps use Vim for demonstration purposes. However, you can use any text editor for these steps.

    
            Lightsail default key.
  2. Press the I key to enter the insert mode in the Vim editor.

  3. Enter an extra line after the Lightsail default key.

  4. Copy and paste the public key text that you saved earlier in this guide.

    The result should look like the following:

    
            Lightsail default key.
  5. Press the ESC key, and then enter :wq! to save your edits, and quit Vim.

  6. Enter the following command to restart the Open SSH server:

    sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart

    You should see a result similar to the following:

    
            Lightsail default key.

    Your new public key is now added to your instance. To test the new key pair, disconnect from your instance. Configure PuTTY to use your new private key instead of the Lightsail default key. If you’re able to successfully connect to your instance using your new key pair, continue to the Remove the Lightsail default key section of this guide to remove the Lightsail default key.

Remove the Lightsail default key

Remove the Lightsail default key after you’ve added a new public key to your instance, and successfully connected to it using the new key pair.

To remove the Lightsail default key
  1. After you establish an SSH connection to your instance, enter the following command to edit the authorized_keys file using the Vim text editor.

    sudo vim ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  2. Press the I key to enter the insert mode in the Vim editor.

  3. Delete the line that ends with LightsailDefaultKeyPair. This is the Lightsail default key.

    
            Lightsail default key.
  4. Press the ESC key, and then enter :wq! to save your edits, and quit Vim.

  5. Enter the following command to restart the Open SSH server:

    sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart

    You should see a result similar to the following:

    
            Lightsail default key.

    The Lightsail default key is now removed from your instance. Your instance will now refuse connections that use the Lightsail default key. Continue to the Remove the Lightsail system key section of this guide to remove the Lightsail system key.

Remove the Lightsail system key

The Lightsail system key, also known as the lightsail_instance_ca.pub key, on Linux and Unix instances enables the Lightsail browser-based SSH client to connect. Perform the following steps to remove the lightsail_instance_ca.pub key from your Linux or Unix instance in Amazon EC2, and edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. The /etc/ssh/sshd_config file defines parameters for SSH connections to your instance.

To remove the Lightsail system key
  1. In an SSH terminal window connected to your instance, enter the following command to remove the lightsail_instance_ca.pub key:

    sudo rm –r /etc/ssh/lightsail_instance_ca.pub
  2. Enter the following command to edit the sshd_config file using the Vim text editor.

    sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  3. Press the I key to enter the insert mode in the Vim editor.

  4. Delete the following text from the file, if it's present:

    TrustedUserCAKeys /etc/ssh/lightsail_instance_ca.pub
  5. Press the ESC key, and then enter :wq! to save your edits, and quit Vim.

  6. Enter the following command to restart the Open SSH server:

    sudo /etc/init.d/sshd restart

    You should see a result similar to the following:

    
            Lightsail default key.

    The lightsail_instance_ca.pub key is now removed from your instance. The associated sshd_config file is updated to exclude that key.