Activate MFA and change password in AWS

Miguel Pazo Sánchez
2 min readSep 5, 2021

Activate MFA

First you need to install some app for generate MFA code like:

  1. Go to AWS console login and type your credentials

2. Click in username section on top right and click on My Security Credentials

3. Click on Assign MFA device

4. Enter device name and select MFA type to use. For “Device name” you need to enter same username used to login to AWS Console and on “Select MFA Device”, for this case I will use Virtual MFA Device, you can use tools like Authy o Google Authenticator.

5. Scan QR code with preferred app and insert two consecutive generated codes

Considerations:

  • In case not complete total flow, is possible the MFA configuration will block, for this case, you need to communicate with your AWS administrator for reset you user account.
  • After complete MFA configuration flow, you need to relogging.

Change Password

Is recommended change the initial password, to do this, after activate MFA and relogging using MFA code, you need to do next steps:

  1. Click in username section on top right and click on My Security Credentials

2. Click on Change password

3. Change the password according to the policies established

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Miguel Pazo Sánchez

AWS Solutions Architect, independent cloud technologies consultant and pineapple pizza lover.