Fixed: Cannot SSH in Windows to AWS: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE Error. Permissions for private key are too open. This private key will be ignored.

When I tried to SSH from a Windows machine to a Linux EC2 Instance in AWS, I got a Permissions for private key are too open error.

The Error:

ssh -i "kopicloud-dev-linux.pem" admin@ec2-xx-xxx-xxx-xxx.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com
The authenticity of host 'ec2-xx-xxx-xxx-xxx.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com (xx.xxx.xxx.xxx)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:17indCVlLkDT0s87jTqVqmnoCJ0STal8rSMqkGdamk8.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'ec2-xx-xxx-xxx-xxx.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com,xx.xxx.xxx.xxx' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions for 'kopicloud-dev-linux.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 "kopicloud-dev-linux.pem": bad permissions
admin@ec2-xx-xxx-xxx-xxx.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com: Permission denied (publickey).

The Solution:

Open the Command Prompt and type:

Icacls "kopicloud-dev-linux.pem" /Inheritance:r
Icacls "kopicloud-dev-linux.pem" /Grant:r "%Username%":"(R)"

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