EC2 Ubuntu Instance - UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE

Question

I just created an Ubuntu instance on EC2, but when I try and SSH into the machine, I get:

UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!  

permissions 0644 for 'xxxxx.pem' are too open.

It is recommended that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.

This private key will be ignored.

bad permissions: ignore key: xxxxx.pem

Permission denied (publickey).

In creating the key, you only enter a name (without the option of adding a password).

How can I SSH into the machine without this warning popping up?

Answer 1

The private keys should only be readable to the owner. Do the below command on the machine which you want to connect:

chmod 400 yourkeypair.pem