Is there a way to figure out the way to access hosting if I have admin privilege?

Question

My WordPress site recently moved from a shared hosting to AWS EC2, and with that, from usual FTP login to SSH with key. However, I cannot access it. Since he is busy and cannot support me much (we are just volunteering), I think I need to figure out as best as I can.

When we just moved to a new hosting, WordPress required me to have FTP account to install plugins:

Now, he has turn off something (I suppose open full permission for me), and I can install plugins whatever I want without filling in any credential. So, if WordPress doesn't require me anymore, does that mean there is a way for me to figure out how to access my hosting? I have the IP address of the hosting of course.

^{See also: How to write files in hosting in admin dashboard?}

Answer 1

No, there's no simple connection between your WordPress and FTP access and access to your hosting, whether you mean either shell access to the EC2 instance or access to the AWS dashboard.

• Even if your FTP account is a real Linux user account, EC2 instances won't accept password SSH logins by default.
• You do have permission to upload arbitrary plugins, meaning you can run any PHP code as the web server user, which is a theoretical route to getting access assuming there are unpatched Linux vulnerabilities on the box. But please don't go down this route.

Your best bet is to talk to your technician again about setting you up with the right access: check he's OK with you having access and not ignoring you because he doesn't want to grant it; ask if he's got anywhere figuring out what has gone wrong, check the username you need to use on the new host, suggest he sets up a new temporary key pair for you that definitely works and send you the private key, etc. If he's not responding to emails try giving him a call instead.