AWS CDK-Typescript Keypair

[mustafasafariny]

Hi Guys,

I have created a key pair within a typescript stack, the public key was created and located on the ubuntu server in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. I need to connect via an openSSH client to the server using the private key which I could not locate on my local machine. Can you guys help me on where the private key is located?

Thanks all for your help
Mustafa

[peterwoodworth]

How did you create the key pair exactly? Could you provide clear steps as to how you did this?

[mustafasafariny]

Hi Peter and thanks for looking into this.
Using CDK/TypeScript:. I know where the public key is located (~/.ssh/authorized_keys). But I need the private key for openSSH connection.

This is the Construct within the stack:

    const MusCdkkeyPair = new ec2.CfnKeyPair(this, 'MusCdkTestKeyPair', {
      keyName: 'mus-cdk-test-key-pair',
      keyFormat: 'pem', //Default
      keyType: 'rsa'   // Default
    });

Thanks again

[peterwoodworth]

It looks like they're going to be stored in SSM https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-resource-ec2-keypair.html

When you create a new key pair, the private key is saved to AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, using a parameter with the following name: /ec2/keypair/{key_pair_id}. For more information about retrieving private key, and the required permissions, see Create a key pair using AWS CloudFormation in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

[mustafasafariny]

Thanks Peter for your great help. I managed to get the private key and could SSH connect. Based on your attached AWS doc: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/create-key-pairs.html#create-key-pair-cloudformation, I followed the steps and I will summarize here:

1. Use the describe-key-pairs command as follows to get the ID of the key pair.
   aws ec2 describe-key-pairs --filters Name=key-name,Values=new-key-pair --query KeyPairs[*].KeyPairId --output text
2. Use the get-parameter command as follows to get the parameter for your key and save the key material in a .pem file.
   PowerShell: aws ssm get-parameter --name /ec2/keypair/key-05abb699beEXAMPLE --with-decryption --query Parameter.Value --output text > new-key-pair.pem OR
   Bash: aws ssm get-parameter --name '//ec2\keypair\key-05abb699beEXAMPLE' --with-decryption --query Parameter.Value --output text > new-key-pair.pem

Thank you so much Peter.

[mustafasafariny]

I just realized that the Private key is actually sitting in the parameter store ec2/keypair/ and I could view the key and create a private key .pem file. But it was a good learning for me. Thank you

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