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Root accountλ︎

A root account is used for administration of an Amazon Web Service (AWS) account. This includes management of IAM accounts which are used for day to day work and programmatic (code) access.

Credit / Debit card required

A working credit card is required to setup a root account and AWS will charge the card $1 to verify identity and that the card is legitimate. This amount will be returned within 3-5 days.

Apart from the temporary charge, this approach should not incur any charges so long as the account stays within the free plan limits. Recommend using a digital card that can be set to frozen when not explicitly used as a safety precaution.

Create root accountλ︎

Create a root account by singing up for AWS

Enter an email for the root account and a name for the AWS account

AWS Sign up website

An email is sent to the address entered with a verification code. Enter the code and select Verify

AWS sign up website - verify code

Generate a secure password for the root account, e.g. using a Password Manager such as NordPass or 1Password

AWS sign up website - set root account password

Save the account password with your favourite password manager

Select Personal plan as this account is only used for personal projects & hacking (not cracking).

Complete contact information with your actual details (used when AWS confirms the credit card is legitimate) and confirm the AWS Customer Agreement.

AWS sign up website - contact details

Enter details of a valid credit/debit card. AWS will charge $1 to the card, which will be returned in 3-5 days.

AWS sign up - billing information

Confirm identity

NOTE: do not include spaces in the security code even if they are in the image

Select Send SMS

AWS sign up website - select confirm identity method

Confirm identity pin number

4 digit code (dont use the 5 digit phone number by mistake)

AWS sign up website - confirm identity code

Select support plan - Basic support - Free

Select Complete Sign up

AWS sign up website - select basic support plan

Congratulations

An email will be sent to the root account address once the account is ready, which make take a few minutes.

Take a break from the form filling by stretching and taking some deep breaths.

AWS sign up website - congratulations

Multi-factor authenticationλ︎

Visit the IAM dashboard and assign Multi-Factor authentication (MFA) to the root user account for additional security.

Select Assign MFA

AWS IAM Dashboard

Specify MFA device name and select MFA device

Authy Authentication App

Practicalli uses the Authy app to generate Multi-Factor authentication codes for all services

AWS IAM Dashboard

Set up authenticator app

AWS IAM Dashboard

The MFA device is now assigned

AWS IAM Dashboard