WSL AWS Pem Permissions

### Step-by-Step Solution

#### 1. **Locate Your `.pem` File in WSL**
Make sure your `.pem` file is saved within your WSL file system (e.g., under `/home/username/`). If it's currently saved in your Windows file system (e.g., `C:UsersusernameDownloads`), you can move it into WSL.

# Move to your WSL home directory
cd ~

# Copy the .pem file from your Windows file system to WSL
cp /mnt/c/Users/your-windows-username/Downloads/your-key.pem ./

#### 2. **Set the Correct Permissions for the `.pem` File**
AWS requires that your `.pem` file has specific permissions, typically `400` or `600`. You can set this with the `chmod` command.

# Navigate to the directory where your .pem file is located
cd ~

# Set the correct permissions
chmod 400 your-key.pem

#### 3. **Verify the Permissions**
To confirm that the permissions are set correctly, use:

ls -l your-key.pem

You should see output similar to:

-r-------- 1 your-username your-group 1692 Nov 12 10:00 your-key.pem

#### 4. **Connect to Your EC2 Instance Using SSH**
Now, try to connect to your EC2 instance using the `.pem` file:

ssh -i "your-key.pem" ec2-user@your-ec2-instance-ip

### Troubleshooting Tips
– **Permission Denied Errors**: If you still get a permission denied error, try using `chmod 600` instead of `chmod 400`.

chmod 600 your-key.pem

– **Windows File Path Issues**: Make sure you're not using a Windows file path like `C:…` directly within WSL, as it can cause permission issues.

### Optional: Disable Inheritance (if needed)
If you suspect permission issues are related to Windows file system inheritance:

1. **Right-click** on the `.pem` file in Windows.
2. Go to **Properties** > **Security** > **Advanced**.
3. **Disable inheritance** and **remove all inherited permissions**.

This ensures the file permissions are fully controlled by WSL.

### Conclusion
These steps should resolve any `.pem` file permission issues in WSL on Windows 11 when connecting to AWS EC2 instances. Let me know if you encounter further issues!

Permissions 0555 for 'shareyourthoughts.pem' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
Load key "shareyourthoughts.pem": bad permissions
ubuntu@ec2-13-53-193-53.eu-north-1.compute.amazonaws.com: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).

indicates that the permissions on your `.pem` file are too open. For security reasons, SSH requires that private key files are not accessible by anyone other than the owner.

### Solution: Set Correct Permissions for the `.pem` File

1. **Open WSL and Navigate to Your `.pem` File**

cd /path/to/your

2. **Change the Permissions of the `.pem` File**
Set the file permission to `400` to ensure that only the file owner can read it:

chmod 400 shareyourthoughts.pem

3. **Verify the Permissions**
Check the permissions to ensure they are set correctly:

ls -l shareyourthoughts.pem

You should see something like this:

-r-------- 1 your-username your-group 1692 Nov 12 10:00 shareyourthoughts.pem

This confirms that only the file owner can read the `.pem` file.

4. **Try Connecting to Your EC2 Instance Again**
Now, try using SSH to connect to your AWS EC2 instance:

ssh -i "shareyourthoughts.pem" ubuntu@ec2-13-53-193-53.eu-north-1.compute.amazonaws.com

### Additional Tips

– If you still get permission errors, try using `chmod 600` instead:

chmod 600 shareyourthoughts.pem

– **Ensure You're in WSL**: If you're using the Windows file system path (like `/mnt/c/…`), make sure you've copied the `.pem` file into your WSL home directory and are accessing it from there.

– **Check Ownership**: If you're still encountering issues, ensure that the `.pem` file is owned by your current WSL user:

sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) shareyourthoughts.pem

These steps should resolve the permission issues with your `.pem` file.

When you're using WSL, files located in `/mnt/c/…` (or any other Windows-mounted directories) can have their permissions overridden by the Windows file system, which causes issues with SSH private keys.

### Solution: Move the `.pem` File to Your WSL Home Directory

The best way to handle this is to move your `.pem` file to your WSL's native Linux file system (e.g., `/home/your-username`). Here’s how you can do it:

#### 1. **Copy the `.pem` File to Your WSL Home Directory**

# Create a directory to store your AWS keys if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/aws-keys

# Copy the .pem file from the Windows file system to your WSL home directory
cp /mnt/c/Users/your-windows-username/Downloads/shareyourthoughts.pem ~/aws-keys/

#### 2. **Set the Correct Permissions in the New Location**

# Navigate to the directory where you copied the .pem file
cd ~/aws-keys

# Set the permissions to 400
chmod 400 shareyourthoughts.pem

#### 3. **Verify the Permissions**

ls -l shareyourthoughts.pem

You should see:

-r-------- 1 your-username your-group 1692 Nov 12 10:00 shareyourthoughts.pem

#### 4. **Connect to Your EC2 Instance**

ssh -i "~/aws-keys/shareyourthoughts.pem" ubuntu@ec2-13-53-193-53.eu-north-1.compute.amazonaws.com

### Explanation

– By moving the `.pem` file to your WSL home directory, you're using the native Linux file system, which properly respects the permissions set by `chmod`.
– Files located in Windows-mounted directories (`/mnt/c/…`) often don't support traditional Linux permissions, which is why you were seeing `0555` despite using `chmod`.

This should resolve your issue. Let me know if it works!

### Step-by-Step Guide to Reset Your WSL Password

#### 1. **Open PowerShell as Administrator**
– Press `Win + X` and select **Windows Terminal (Admin)** or **PowerShell (Admin)**.
– Alternatively, search for "PowerShell" in the Start Menu, right-click, and select **Run as administrator**.

#### 2. **List Available WSL Distributions**
To find out which WSL distributions you have installed, run:

wsl --list --all

This will show a list of installed distributions, such as:

Ubuntu-20.04
Ubuntu
Debian

Take note of the exact name of the distribution you want to reset.

#### 3. **Run WSL with the Root User**
Replace `Ubuntu` with your specific distribution's name:

wsl -d Ubuntu -u root

This will open your WSL distribution as the `root` user, which doesn't require a password.

#### 4. **Reset Your Password**
Once you're in the root shell, run the following command to reset your password:

passwd your-username

– Replace `your-username` with your actual WSL username.
– You'll be prompted to enter a new password and confirm it.

#### 5. **Exit the Root Shell**

exit

#### 6. **Open WSL Normally**
Now, you should be able to open your WSL terminal and log in with the new password.

### Alternative Method: Change Default User to Root (if needed)

If the above steps don't work, you can temporarily set your default user to `root`:

# Set default user to root
wsl -d Ubuntu config --default-user root

Then, open your WSL terminal, reset the password as shown above, and revert the default user back to your normal user:

# Revert back to your normal user
wsl -d Ubuntu config --default-user your-username

### That's it!
You should now have access to your WSL environment with your new password.

### Method 1: Using the `root` User to List Home Directories

1. **Open PowerShell as Administrator**:
– Press `Win + X` and select **Windows Terminal (Admin)** or **PowerShell (Admin)**.

2. **Run WSL as the `root` User**:
– Replace `Ubuntu` with the name of your WSL distribution:

wsl -d Ubuntu -u root

3. **List Home Directories**:
– Once you're in the WSL shell as `root`, list the home directories:

ls /home

– The output will display a list of usernames (each one is a directory), for example:

your-username

### Method 2: Check the Default User in the WSL Config File

1. **Open PowerShell as Administrator**.

2. **Locate the WSL Config File**:
– Use the `cat` command to check the `/etc/wsl.conf` file for the default user:

wsl -d Ubuntu -u root cat /etc/wsl.conf

– Look for a line like:

[user]
     default=your-username

– If the file exists, it will show the default username.

### Method 3: Using `whoami` Command as Root

1. **Open PowerShell as Administrator**:

wsl -d Ubuntu -u root

2. **Switch to Default User and Check Username**:

su - $(ls /home)
   whoami

This command switches to your default user's home directory and outputs the username.

### Method 4: Check `/etc/passwd` File

1. **Open WSL as Root**:

wsl -d Ubuntu -u root

2. **List All Users from `/etc/passwd`**:

cat /etc/passwd

– Look for lines at the bottom that look like:

your-username:x:1000:1000::/home/your-username:/bin/bash

– The username is the first part of the line before `:x:1000`.

### That's it!
These methods should help you find your forgotten WSL username. Let me know if you have any issues!