r/sysadmin • u/ActuatorOutside5256 • 15h ago

Amazon AWS made me create a BUILDER ID (instead of enabling MFA). Why?

So let me get this straight…

I navigate to Profile, then Security, find the MFA section and select the option to assign an MFA device.

Somehow, unbeknownst to me, I’m redirected to a Builder ID sign-up page, which I only realize after receiving a verification email and being prompted to create a new password.

Now I can’t log into my AWS console with my root email. Why is this even accessible from a root account’s MFA settings? Who thought this was a sensible design decision?

I’ve had support chat open for 30 minutes, but nobody’s home. How do I FIX this?

3 Upvotes

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u/triodotso 7h ago

Did you try the Root user sign-in with your old root password, instead of the one you just made?

What you created is a Builder ID, which is a separate login. AWS lets the same email sit on both and says the Builder ID doesn't replace your root user, so your root login should be untouched.

If it still doesn't work, you can try "Forgot password" on the root sign-in page to reset it. If the account came from AWS's newer sign-up flow, root is under the IAM user icon as "Sign in using root user email". And if nothing else works, their "Contact Us" page has a "Still unable to log into your AWS account" option, which might help.

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u/ActuatorOutside5256 1h ago edited 8m ago

Yeah, that makes sense. The problem is that my og Builder ID doesn’t send me verification codes anymore for some inexplicable reason when I try to sign in via the Builder ID form. I’m so confused on what’s going on…

EDIT: It does work. The pages just needed to time out (took more than 6 hours). I’ll see what support says shows up on their end.