AWS S3 credential/certificate error - amazon-web-services

Question

Im totally new to AWS. Im trying to use the AWS S3 notification API's. Im receiving the following error.
com.amazonaws.services.sns.model.AmazonSNSException: The security token included in the request is invalid. (Service: AmazonSNS; Status Code: 403; Error Code: InvalidClientTokenId; ...
I have NO idea what's wrong. For my accessID and secretID. Im using the main AWS codes for authentication. Am I supposed to use the main AWS credentials, or something else. Im not using any type of certificate. I dont know if they are even required.
Im using the example code supplied by AWS with some modifications to read a property file instead of hard coding the accessID and secretID.
Can someone please steer me in the right direction? I am completely confused.
public class AmazonSNSReceiver {
// AWS credentials -- replace with your credentials
static String ACCESS_KEY;
static String SECRET_KEY;
// Shared queue for notifications from HTTP server
static BlockingQueue<Map<String, String>> messageQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Map<String, String>>();
// Receiver loop
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
AmazonSNSReceiver sns = new AmazonSNSReceiver();
sns.getPropertyValues();
if (args.length == 1) {
sns.SNSClient(args[0]);
} else {
sns.SNSClient("8989");
}
}
// Create a client
public void SNSClient(String thisport) throws Exception{
AmazonSNSClient service = new AmazonSNSClient(new BasicAWSCredentials(ACCESS_KEY, SECRET_KEY));
// Create a topic
CreateTopicRequest createReq = new CreateTopicRequest().withName("MyTopic");
CreateTopicResult createRes = service.createTopic(createReq);
// Get an HTTP Port
int port = thisport == null ? 8989 : Integer.parseInt(thisport);
// Create and start HTTP server
Server server = new Server(port);
server.setHandler(new AmazonSNSHandler());
server.start();
// Subscribe to topic
SubscribeRequest subscribeReq = new SubscribeRequest()
.withTopicArn(createRes.getTopicArn())
.withProtocol("http")
.withEndpoint("http://" + InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress() + ":" + port);
service.subscribe(subscribeReq);
for (;;) {
// Wait for a message from HTTP server
Map<String, String> messageMap = messageQueue.take();
// Look for a subscription confirmation Token
String token = messageMap.get("Token");
if (token != null) {
// Confirm subscription
ConfirmSubscriptionRequest confirmReq = new ConfirmSubscriptionRequest()
.withTopicArn(createRes.getTopicArn())
.withToken(token);
service.confirmSubscription(confirmReq);
continue;
}
// Check for a notification
String message = messageMap.get("Message");
if (message != null) {
System.out.println("Received message: " + message);
}
}
}
public void getPropertyValues() throws IOException {
Properties prop = new Properties();
InputStream properties = getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("SNS.properties");
prop.load(properties);
ACCESS_KEY = prop.getProperty("ACCESS_KEY");
SECRET_KEY = prop.getProperty("SECRET_KEY");
}
// HTTP handler
static class AmazonSNSHandler extends AbstractHandler {
// Handle HTTP request
public void handle(String target, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, int dispatch) throws IOException {
// Scan request into a string
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(request.getInputStream());
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
sb.append(scanner.nextLine());
}
// Build a message map from the JSON encoded message
InputStream bytes = new ByteArrayInputStream(sb.toString().getBytes());
Map<String, String> messageMap = new ObjectMapper().readValue(bytes, Map.class);
// Enqueue message map for receive loop
messageQueue.add(messageMap);
// Set HTTP response
response.setContentType("text/html");
response.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_OK);
((Request) request).setHandled(true);
}
}
}

Answer 1

Your application needs to provide AWS credentials. These credentials can be obtained by several methods:
Create an IAM User and generate an Access Key and Secret Key. Include the credentials in a configuration file (it is not a good idea to put them in your application, since they could accidentally be published elsewhere).
If running the code on an Amazon EC2 instance, create an IAM Role and assign the role to the instance when it is launched. Credentials will then be automatically provided to applications running on that instance.
It is also necessary to assign permissions to the IAM User/Role. These permissions grant the right to call various AWS API calls. The fact that you receive an AuthorizationError suggests that the credentials in use do not have sufficient permissions.
See: Managing Access to Your Amazon SNS Topics