Trying to stop and terminate an instance, but it has a warning: "The instance 'i-0e571b9423e63be86' may not be stopped. Modify its 'disableApiStop' instance attribute and try again."

Question

I accidentally leaked my AWS keys on a git repo (still learning) and someone hacked into my AWS account, I am unable to stop and terminate the instance as it keeps coming up with the following error: The instance 'i-0e571b9423e63be86' may not be stopped. Modify its 'disableApiStop' instance attribute and try again. I tried modifying it through the CLI and the console, but nothing seems to be working. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer

Hi THere
you mentioned that 
> I tried modifying it through the CLI and the console, but nothing seems to be working.

Could you provide a little more detail here?  Are there any error messages when you try to disable stop protection?  If your account credentials were compromised, its possible that your permissions were removed or there is some automated process that is re-enabling stop protection.  Can you check your account for any lambda functions or other services like SNS topics or EventBridge Event Busses that might look unfamiliar?

Answer

Hi,

For information about disabling stop protection ('disableApiStop'), please see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/Stop_Start.html#disable-stop-protection-on-running-or-stopped-instance.

Kind regards,
Marilyn

Trying to stop and terminate an instance, but it has a warning: "The instance 'i-0e571b9423e63be86' may not be stopped. Modify its 'disableApiStop' instance attribute and try again."

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