EC2-GET-PASSWORD(1)

📦 version 1.6.14.1, in ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

🦋 EC2-GET-PASSWORD 💖

okay bestie, so this is ec2-get-password, aka ec2gpass, from the EC2 API command line tools — a lil user command that goes and fetches the admin password for a Windows instance. yeah. we're doing Windows today. slay. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ec2gpass ([ec2-get-password])
ec2gpass [GENERAL OPTIONS] INSTANCE -k KEYFILE

🎀 GENERAL NOTES 🎀

okay real talk, this one's important and it's giving "small print but make it fashion":

  • Any command option/parameter may be passed a value of - to indicate that values for that option should be read from stdin.

that's it. that's the note. stdin girlies rise up 🫶

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So what does it do? It fetches and decrypts the Administrator password for a Windows instance. no cap.

Here's the vibe: the password is encrypted with the private key used when launching the instance. The result is Base64-encoded and emitted to the console output when the instance boots. This command retrieves the last such data emitted by the instance and decrypts the password. so like, it's not guessing — it's grabbing what the instance already spat out and unlocking it. 🔓✨

And the KEYFILE parameter? That's a file containing the unencrypted PEM encoded PKCS#8 private key portion of the keypair specified when launching the instance. keep that file safe bestie, it's literally the whole point. 🗝️

🌸 GENERAL OPTIONS 🌸

one bullet per option, exactly as promised, no skipping, no summarising, we don't do that here:

  • -O, --aws-access-key KEY — AWS Access Key ID. Defaults to the value of the AWS_ACCESS_KEY environment variable (if set).
  • -W, --aws-secret-key KEY — AWS Secret Access Key. Defaults to the value of the AWS_SECRET_KEY environment variable (if set).
  • -T, --security-token TOKEN — AWS delegation token. Defaults to the value of the AWS_DELEGATION_TOKEN environment variable (if set).
  • -K, --private-key KEY — [DEPRECATED] Specify KEY as the private key to use. Defaults to the value of the EC2_PRIVATE_KEY environment variable (if set). Overrides the default.
  • -C, --cert CERT — [DEPRECATED] Specify CERT as the X509 certificate to use. Defaults to the value of the EC2_CERT environment variable (if set). Overrides the default.
  • -U, --url URL — Specify URL as the web service URL to use. Defaults to the value of 'https://ec2.amazonaws.com' (us-east-1) or to that of the EC2_URL environment variable (if set). Overrides the default.
  • --region REGION — Specify REGION as the web service region to use. This option will override the URL specified by the "-U URL" option and EC2_URL environment variable. This option defaults to the region specified by the EC2_URL environment variable or us-east-1 if this environment variable is not set.
  • -D, --auth-dry-run — Check if you can perform the requested action rather than actually performing it.
  • -v, --verbose — Verbose output.
  • -?, --help — Display this help.
  • -H, --headers — Display column headers.
  • --debug — Display additional debugging information.
  • --show-empty-fields — Indicate empty fields.
  • --hide-tags — Do not display tags for tagged resources.
  • --connection-timeout TIMEOUT — Specify a connection timeout TIMEOUT (in seconds).
  • --request-timeout TIMEOUT — Specify a request timeout TIMEOUT (in seconds).
⚠️ heads up queen: -K/--private-key and -C/--cert are marked [DEPRECATED]. they still work, but the manpage is telling you they're old news. 💀

🧚 SPECIFIC OPTIONS 🧚

the one that's actually about this command, the main character of the option list:

  • -k, --priv-launch-key — file containing the unencrypted PEM encoded PKCS#8 private key portion of the keypair specified when launching the instance.

this is the -k KEYFILE from the synopsis. it's giving "you literally cannot do this without me." 💖

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read the docs bestie, iykyk:

okay that's the whole page, you ate it, you're obsessed, periodt. 🎀

this lil masterpiece is brought to you by the EC2 API command line tools, version 1.6.14.1, api=2014-05-01 — so if you're out here living in 2014-era EC2 land, this one's for you. mwah. 💜✨

📦 where this page comes from