terraform auth_error ai_generated true

Error: error configuring provider: no valid credential sources found

ID: terraform/tf-provider-authentication

Also available as: JSON · Markdown

88%Fix Rate

90%Confidence

110Evidence

2023-01-01First Seen

Version Compatibility

Version	Status	Introduced	Deprecated	Notes
1	active	—	—	—

Terraform provider cannot authenticate with the cloud provider due to missing or invalid credentials.

generic

90% success Set credentials via environment variables or shared credentials file
```
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=xxx AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=yyy, or use ~/.aws/credentials with a profile
```
Sources: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/language/providers/configuration
88% success Use IAM roles for authentication (instance profile, OIDC, or assume role)
```
Configure assume_role in provider block or use EC2 instance profile / ECS task role for automatic credential rotation
```
Sources: https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs#authentication-and-configuration

Common approaches that don't work:

Hardcode credentials in the provider block 85% fail
Credentials in code are a security risk and often get committed to version control
Use root account credentials for Terraform 90% fail
Root credentials are a critical security risk and should never be used for programmatic access

Preceded by: