bug(go) AuthFailure when performing static credential rotation

**Problem**
* While adding e2e tests for AssumeRole functionality, it was noticed that some of the static credential e2e tests were flaky.
* The tests would sometimes fail with an AuthFailure.

**Solution**
* It was discovered that this error happened sometimes after a static credential rotation and that AuthFailure occurs if EC2 is invoked with the wrong credentials.
* Due to IAM's eventual consistency model, it can take some time (up to several seconds) for changes, including rotated credentials, to get propagated to all AWS services, including EC2.
* The tests were intermittently failing because sometimes the credentials would be propagated in time before invoking EC2 and other times they were not propagated in time.
* The fix is to add a retry mechanism when calling DescribeInstances. A 30 second window is defined in which the retries can take place.
* The retries happen only for AuthFailures. Any other failure will not trigger a retry.

**Testing**
* After making this change, the intermittent failures were no longer seen for the e2e tests
* The e2e tests cover updating/creating catalogs and sets as well us updating the host list. All pass.
* New unit tests were added to test the retry mechanism. Support had to be added to mock a series of DescribeInstances calls vs a single call
* New and existing unit tests passed

internal/errors/error.go

@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
+	// AwsErrorAuthFailure is returned by EC2 when credentials exist in IAM
+	// but have not yet propagated to EC2. This is a transient eventual
+	// consistency issue that can resolve itself by retrying the request.
+	AwsErrorAuthFailure = "AuthFailure"
+
 	// awsErrorAccessDenied is returned when the credentials do not have
 	// the required permissions to do a specific action on a resource.
 	// This error will persist until the IAM Role Policy is updated by

plugin/service/host/plugin.go

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	goerrors "errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/aws"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/credentials/stscreds"
@@ -828,10 +829,18 @@ func ec2ClientForTarget(
 	return ec2.NewFromConfig(targetCfg, ec2Opts...), nil
 }
 
+// dryRunValidationTimeout is the maximum time to wait for credentials to
+// propagate across AWS services after rotation before giving up.
+const dryRunValidationTimeout = 30 * time.Second
+
 // dryRunValidation performs an AWS DescribeInstances call to verify the state's
 // credentials, the host listing functionality as well as the filters, if any
 // are passed in. This function can therefore be used for both host catalog and
 // host set validation.
+//
+// After credential rotation, IAM keys may be valid for STS (GetCallerIdentity)
+// but not yet propagated to EC2. This function retries on AuthFailure to
+// tolerate that eventual consistency window.
 func dryRunValidation(ctx context.Context, state *awsCatalogPersistedState, ec2Opts []ec2Option, filters ...types.Filter) *status.Status {
 	if state == nil {
 		return status.New(codes.InvalidArgument, "persisted state is required")
@@ -842,12 +851,34 @@ func dryRunValidation(ctx context.Context, state *awsCatalogPersistedState, ec2O
 		return status.New(codes.InvalidArgument, fmt.Sprintf("error getting EC2 client: %s", err))
 	}
 
+	deadline := time.Now().Add(dryRunValidationTimeout)
+	delay := time.Second
+	for {
 		_, err = ec2Client.DescribeInstances(ctx, &ec2.DescribeInstancesInput{Filters: filters})
-	if err != nil {
+		if err == nil {
-		return status.New(codes.FailedPrecondition, fmt.Sprintf("aws describe instances failed: %s", err))
+			return nil
 		}
 
-	return nil
+		// AuthFailure indicates the credentials exist but haven't propagated
+		// to EC2 yet — a transient eventual consistency issue after rotation.
+		// Retry until the deadline.
+		if strings.Contains(err.Error(), errors.AwsErrorAuthFailure) && time.Now().Before(deadline) {
+			select {
+			case <-time.After(delay):
+				// Wait before retrying to give credentials time to propagate.
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				// The caller cancelled — break out of the select.
+				break
+			}
+			if ctx.Err() != nil {
+				break
+			}
+			continue
+		}
+
+		break
+	}
+	return status.New(codes.FailedPrecondition, fmt.Sprintf("aws describe instances failed: %s", err))
 }
 
 // appendDistinct will append the elements to the slice

plugin/service/host/plugin_test.go

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	iamTypes "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/iam/types"
 	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/boundary-plugin-aws/internal/credential"
+	pluginErrors "github.com/hashicorp/boundary-plugin-aws/internal/errors"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/boundary/sdk/pbs/controller/api/resources/hostcatalogs"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/boundary/sdk/pbs/controller/api/resources/hostsets"
 	pb "github.com/hashicorp/boundary/sdk/pbs/plugin"
@@ -3121,4 +3122,66 @@ func TestDryRunValidation(t *testing.T) {
 		}, []ec2Option{})
 		require.Nil(t, st)
 	})
+
+	t.Run("authFailureThenSuccess", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// Simulates the IAM eventual consistency window: EC2 returns AuthFailure
+		// twice before the credentials propagate and the call succeeds.
+		state := &testMockEC2State{}
+		st := dryRunValidation(context.Background(), &awsCatalogPersistedState{
+			AwsCredentialPersistedState: &credential.AwsCredentialPersistedState{
+				CredentialsConfig: &awsutil.CredentialsConfig{
+					AccessKey: "AKIAfoo",
+					SecretKey: "baz",
+				},
+			},
+			testEC2APIFunc: newTestMockEC2(state,
+				testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesErrorSequence(
+					fmt.Errorf("%s: credentials not yet propagated", pluginErrors.AwsErrorAuthFailure),
+					fmt.Errorf("%s: credentials not yet propagated", pluginErrors.AwsErrorAuthFailure),
+				),
+				testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesOutput(&ec2.DescribeInstancesOutput{}),
+			),
+		}, []ec2Option{})
+		require.Nil(t, st)
+		require.Equal(t, 3, state.DescribeInstancesCallCount)
+	})
+
+	t.Run("authFailureContextCancelled", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// If the context is cancelled while waiting to retry, the function should
+		// return a FailedPrecondition error immediately rather than hanging.
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+		cancel() // cancel immediately so the first retry select hits ctx.Done()
+		st := dryRunValidation(ctx, &awsCatalogPersistedState{
+			AwsCredentialPersistedState: &credential.AwsCredentialPersistedState{
+				CredentialsConfig: &awsutil.CredentialsConfig{
+					AccessKey: "AKIAfoo",
+					SecretKey: "baz",
+				},
+			},
+			testEC2APIFunc: newTestMockEC2(nil,
+				testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesError(fmt.Errorf("%s: credentials not yet propagated", pluginErrors.AwsErrorAuthFailure)),
+			),
+		}, []ec2Option{})
+		require.NotNil(t, st)
+		require.Equal(t, codes.FailedPrecondition.String(), st.Code().String())
+	})
+
+	t.Run("nonAuthFailureNoRetry", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// A non-AuthFailure error should fail immediately without retrying.
+		state := &testMockEC2State{}
+		st := dryRunValidation(context.Background(), &awsCatalogPersistedState{
+			AwsCredentialPersistedState: &credential.AwsCredentialPersistedState{
+				CredentialsConfig: &awsutil.CredentialsConfig{
+					AccessKey: "AKIAfoo",
+					SecretKey: "baz",
+				},
+			},
+			testEC2APIFunc: newTestMockEC2(state,
+				testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesError(fmt.Errorf("UnauthorizedOperation: access denied")),
+			),
+		}, []ec2Option{})
+		require.NotNil(t, st)
+		require.Equal(t, codes.FailedPrecondition.String(), st.Code().String())
+		require.Equal(t, 1, state.DescribeInstancesCallCount)
+	})
 }

plugin/service/host/testing.go

@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ type testMockEC2 struct {
 
 	DescribeInstancesOutput *ec2.DescribeInstancesOutput
 	DescribeInstancesError  error
+
+	// DescribeInstancesErrorSequence, if set, returns each error in order on
+	// successive calls. Once exhausted, DescribeInstancesOutput is returned.
+	DescribeInstancesErrorSequence []error
 }
 
 type testMockEC2Option func(m *testMockEC2) error
@@ -61,6 +65,16 @@ func testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesError(e error) testMockEC2Option {
 	}
 }
 
+// testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesErrorSequence sets a sequence of errors to
+// return on successive DescribeInstances calls. Once the sequence is exhausted,
+// the mock returns DescribeInstancesOutput (nil error).
+func testMockEC2WithDescribeInstancesErrorSequence(errs ...error) testMockEC2Option {
+	return func(m *testMockEC2) error {
+		m.DescribeInstancesErrorSequence = errs
+		return nil
+	}
+}
+
 func newTestMockEC2(state *testMockEC2State, opts ...testMockEC2Option) ec2APIFunc {
 	return func(cfgs ...aws.Config) (EC2API, error) {
 		m := &testMockEC2{
@@ -96,6 +110,12 @@ func (m *testMockEC2) DescribeInstances(ctx context.Context, input *ec2.Describe
 		m.State.DescribeInstancesInputs = append(m.State.DescribeInstancesInputs, input)
 	}
 
+	if len(m.DescribeInstancesErrorSequence) > 0 {
+		err := m.DescribeInstancesErrorSequence[0]
+		m.DescribeInstancesErrorSequence = m.DescribeInstancesErrorSequence[1:]
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
 	if m.DescribeInstancesError != nil {
 		return nil, m.DescribeInstancesError
 	}