diff --git a/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c3819875a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/builder/amazon/common/access_config.go
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+package common
+
+import (
+	"github.com/mitchellh/goamz/aws"
+)
+
+// AccessConfig is for common configuration related to AWS access
+type AccessConfig struct {
+	AccessKey string `mapstructure:"access_key"`
+	SecretKey string `mapstructure:"secret_key"`
+}
+
+// Auth returns a valid aws.Auth object for access to AWS services, or
+// an error if the authentication couldn't be resolved.
+func (c *AccessConfig) Auth() (aws.Auth, error) {
+	return aws.GetAuth(c.AccessKey, c.SecretKey)
+}
+
+func (c *AccessConfig) Validate() []error {
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go b/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
index 6063f995a..6b39a37ca 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/ebs/builder.go
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mitchellh/goamz/aws"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/goamz/ec2"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/multistep"
+	awscommon "github.com/mitchellh/packer/builder/amazon/common"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/packer/builder/common"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/packer/packer"
 	"log"
@@ -22,9 +23,7 @@ import (
 const BuilderId = "mitchellh.amazonebs"
 
 type config struct {
-	// Access information
-	AccessKey string `mapstructure:"access_key"`
-	SecretKey string `mapstructure:"secret_key"`
+	awscommon.AccessConfig `mapstructure:",squash"`
 
 	// Information for the source instance
 	Region          string
@@ -123,7 +122,7 @@ func (b *Builder) Run(ui packer.Ui, hook packer.Hook, cache packer.Cache) (packe
 		panic("region not found")
 	}
 
-	auth, err := aws.GetAuth(b.config.AccessKey, b.config.SecretKey)
+	auth, err := b.config.AccessConfig.Auth()
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/builder/amazon/instance/builder_test.go b/builder/amazon/instance/builder_test.go
index ac214051f..76c72f772 100644
--- a/builder/amazon/instance/builder_test.go
+++ b/builder/amazon/instance/builder_test.go
@@ -12,4 +12,3 @@ func TestBuilder_ImplementsBuilder(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("Builder should be a builder")
 	}
 }
-