pem file permissions on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

Question

I am attempting to login to my box using my .pem file however I get the error

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions 0555 for './arete-server.pem' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
bad permissions: ignore key: ./arete-server.pem
Permission denied (publickey).

chmod 400 doesn't work on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows and the best permissions I can give it is -r-xr-xr-x

Any idea how to get permissions to a point where I can use this pem file?

Answer 1

On WSL, chmod donesn't work on NTFS partitions used by Windows. You need to move your .pem file to a partition in Linux container (for example the home folder), then chmod 400 will work.

1. Navigate to a NTFS folder, example: cd /mnt/c/keyfiles
2. Move .pem file to your home folder: mv key.pem ~
3. Navigate to your folder: cd ~
4. Apply the permission: chmod 400 key.pem

Answer 2

sudo ssh -i mykey.pem ec2-user@ip works for me

Answer 3

use PowerShell:

1. icacls.exe key.pem /reset
2. icacls.exe key.pem /grant:r "$($env:username):(r)"
3. icacls.exe key.pem /inheritance:r