Key-Based Authentication for AI Development Environments

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Key-based authentication is a method for securing access to servers and services where a pair of cryptographic keys are used: a private key, which is kept confidential, and a public key, which can be shared widely. This kind of authentication is common when securing SSH connections to Linux servers, for instance.

Below is a simple Pulumi program that demonstrates how to set up a key-based authentication mechanism for an AI development environment hosted on a Linux server in AWS. We will be using an EC2 instance (a virtual server) and injecting an SSH public key to allow key-based logins.

For simplicity, the program assumes that you already have a SSH public key available at `~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`. This public key will be used to create the EC2 instance such that you can securely access it using SSH with your corresponding private key.

### Pulumi Program Explained

1. **Import dependencies** - We need the necessary modules from Pulumi's AWS SDK.
2. **Read SSH public key** - The public key content must be read as it will be injected into the EC2 instance.
3. **Create Security Group** - We create a security group to define networking access rules for our EC2 instance, allowing SSH traffic.
4. **Create EC2 Instance** - We create an AWS EC2 instance specifying the necessary properties.

The program uses an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) for Ubuntu, which is a common choice for development environments, especially in AI where Linux-based tooling is predominant.

### Pulumi Program

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_aws as aws

# Load the public key from an existing file
with open('~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub', 'r') as keyfile:
    public_key = keyfile.read()

# Create a new security group for port 22 (SSH)
security_group = aws.ec2.SecurityGroup('security-group',
    description='Allow SSH inbound traffic',
    ingress=[
        {'protocol': 'tcp', 'from_port': 22, 'to_port': 22, 'cidr_blocks': ['0.0.0.0/0']}
    ]
)

# Create an EC2 instance with the public key embedded
ec2_instance = aws.ec2.Instance('ai-dev-instance',
    instance_type='t2.micro',  # This is cost-effective and sufficient for basic development needs
    security_groups=[security_group.name],
    ami='ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0',  # Replace with the AMI ID of your preferred region and OS
    key_name=pulumi.Output.all(public_key).apply(lambda key: aws.ec2.KeyPair('keypair', public_key=key).key_name)
)

# Export the public DNS of the EC2 instance
pulumi.export('instance_public_dns', ec2_instance.public_dns)
```

In the above code, `ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0` is a placeholder value for the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID, which is tied to specific regions and your preferred OS. You'll need to replace it with the actual AMI ID that you intend to use for your Ubuntu instance within the region you're operating in.

After running this program with Pulumi, you'd have an AI development environment ready on AWS, where you can only access the server via SSH using your private key. This secures your environment and ensures that it is accessible only to users who have the corresponding private key to the public key used when creating the instance.