Aug 11, 2020
AWS Workspaces: “auth code invalid”
Fixing the registration code in the configuration files
This is just a quick blog post to solve a problem I’ve had more than once with Amazon Workspaces. Sometimes when you start the Workspaces client you may have issues with the registration code for the workspace. You can find the registration code when you expand the details for the AWS Workspace in the console.
I recently performed and update of the AWS client and then when I launched it, it told me my registration code was invalid. I knew this because I had recently restarted my AWS Workspace. I client the link in the client to reset the registration code. That didn’t work. Next I went to the menu at the top of the screen and reset the registration code that way. Still didn’t work.
I turned on logging and checked the logs. The logs give a different error which tells you there is an authentication problem but does not say it’s due to the registration code, but I figured that must be the problem. I looked at the files in the directory above the logs directory. On a Mac those files are located here:
/Users/[your username]/Library/Application Support/Amazon Web Services/Amazon WorkSpacesIn this directory you’ll see these two files:
RegistrationList.json UserSettings.json
In both of these files you’ll see the following settings:
"RegistrationCode": "[value]","CustomDescription": "[value]",
In my case, the application was setting the CustomDescription to the registration code I was entered, but not updating the Registration code value. I updated the RegistrationCode to what it was supposed to be in both files and then it worked again.
Teri Radichel
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2020 Cybersecurity and Cloud Security Podcasts
Cybersecurity for Executives in the Age of Cloud with Teri Radichel
Teri Radichel on Bring Your Own Security Podcast
Understanding What Cloud Security Means with Teri Radichel on The Secure Developer Podcast
2020 Cybersecurity and Cloud Security Conference Presentations
RSA 2020 ~ Serverless Attack Vectors
Prior Podcasts and Presentations
RSA 2018 ~ Red Team vs. Blue Team on AWS with Kolby Allen
AWS re:Invent 2018 ~ RedTeam vs. Blue Team on AWS with Kolby Allen
Microsoft Build 2019 ~ DIY Security Assessment with SheHacksPurple
AWS re:Invent and AWS re:Inforce 2019 ~ Are you ready for a Cloud Pentest?
Masters of Data ~ Sumo Logic Podcast
Azure for Auditors ~ Presented to Seattle ISACA and IIA
OWASP AppSec Day 2019 — Melbourne, Australia
Bienvenue au congrès ISACA Québec 2019 — Keynote — Quebec, Canada (October 7–9)
Cloud Security and Cybersecurity Presentations
White Papers and Research Reports
Securing Serverless: What’s Different? What’s Not?
Create a Simple Fuzzer for Rest APIs
Improve Detection and Prevention of DOM XSS
Balancing Security and Innovation with Event-Driven Automation
Critical Controls that Could have Prevented the Target Breach
