如何获取 AWS EC2 密钥对创建日期？

Question

To access ec2 instances, we need to create a ssh key-pair . I need to extract the date on which the key-pair was created ? Is it possible using aws sdk apis ?

Answer 1

The AWS SDK does not provide a way to get the dates from a key pair generated. There is no API to retrieve the Private Key. The Public key can be retrieved via some languages SDK's. However it is only accessable if running inside of an ec2 instance because they run a command such as curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-keys/0/openssh-key to obtain the key and the metadata is only available from within EC2.

That being said I've never heard of being able to get a date from an ssh key pair. If you can show me how this is accomplished I can maybe whip something up that works for you. The EC2 ssh key pair is no different than any other key pair. The answer to your question remains the same, the SDK does not provide this function.

Answer 2

1 way to get an idea of when the key pair was initially generated, is to look at the Launch Time of the EC2 Instance(s) using it. This will not give you the actual creation date, especially if your EC2 Instances are very ephemeral but it may help narrow it down. Another way to get an idea of when the key pair was initially generated is to look at when the AMI was created that is used to spin up your EC2 Instances using that key pair. Assuming you've used your own AMI to create Instances from.