Unable to copy images to non-default regions with AssumeRole

[william00179]

Overview of the Issue

I'm able to successfully assume a role and copy images to multiple regions that are enabled by default in AWS. If I try to copy a region to a non-default region, for example Hong Kong, I will get the following error

* Error Copying AMI (ami-0d68130680fad52b4) to region (ap-east-1): AuthFailure: AWS was not able to validate the provided access credentials

It seems that Packer is calling the global STS endpoint which issues version 1 tokens which can not be used in non-default regions, see https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/iam-validate-access-credentials

Reproduction Steps

Create a configuration with AssumeRole and attempt to copy an image to a non-default region, ie one you must enable explicitly like Hong Kong (ap-east-1)

Plugin and Packer version

Latest and 1.3.1

Packer should use the regional STS endpoint to ensure version 2 tokens are used

[william00179]

This can be worked around by setting the env var AWS_STS_REGIONAL_ENDPOINTS=regional

Perhaps this should be added to the documentation or set as the default as this is the default the SDKs are being moved to in their next major releases.

[lbajolet-hashicorp]

Hi @william00179,

Thanks for reporting this!
I wasn't aware that regional STS endpoints were a thing, good to know.
I'll read some docs on that subject, and will probably open some PRs to address this however is relevant for the plugin/Packer.

Thanks again!

[lbajolet-hashicorp]

Hey @william00179,

Did you have a chance to test the related PR I pushed?
For reference I had started to work on acceptance tests, but my scenario (build on us-east-1 and copy to eu-central-2) works with or without my patch, despite us-east-1 being a default region and eu-central-2 not being a default region, which leads me to believe I either did not understand the problem, or there's something on my account/settings that lets me do that copy for some reason.

Let me know if you need a hand regarding testing, I can probably help you with that.

Thanks!

cc: @hferreira23 since you reacted on the workaround comment, are you experiencing this issue as well? Would you be able to test a pre-release of the plugin to see if this helps in your situation?