diff --git a/builtin/credential/aws/cli.go b/builtin/credential/aws/cli.go
index 7096f6cb4f..75046ec0d2 100644
--- a/builtin/credential/aws/cli.go
+++ b/builtin/credential/aws/cli.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/sts"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/errwrap"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/go-hclog"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/vault/api"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/vault/sdk/helper/awsutil"
 )
@@ -40,7 +41,8 @@ func GenerateLoginData(creds *credentials.Credentials, headerValue, configuredRe
 	// Use the credentials we've found to construct an STS session
 	region, err := awsutil.GetRegion(configuredRegion)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+		hclog.Default().Warn(fmt.Sprintf("defaulting region to %q due to %s", awsutil.DefaultRegion, err.Error()))
+		region = awsutil.DefaultRegion
 	}
 	stsSession, err := session.NewSessionWithOptions(session.Options{
 		Config: aws.Config{
diff --git a/sdk/helper/awsutil/region.go b/sdk/helper/awsutil/region.go
index 7ab0c21e1c..727c3b9104 100644
--- a/sdk/helper/awsutil/region.go
+++ b/sdk/helper/awsutil/region.go
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ import (
 // is a widely used region, and is the most common one for some services like STS.
 const DefaultRegion = "us-east-1"
 
-var ec2MetadataBaseURL = "http://169.254.169.254"
+// This is nil by default, but is exposed in case it needs to be changed for tests.
+var ec2Endpoint *string
 
 /*
 It's impossible to mimic "normal" AWS behavior here because it's not consistent
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ func GetRegion(configuredRegion string) (string, error) {
 	}
 
 	metadata := ec2metadata.New(sess, &aws.Config{
-		Endpoint:                          aws.String(ec2MetadataBaseURL + "/latest"),
+		Endpoint:                          ec2Endpoint,
 		EC2MetadataDisableTimeoutOverride: aws.Bool(true),
 		HTTPClient: &http.Client{
 			Timeout: time.Second,
@@ -68,6 +69,5 @@ func GetRegion(configuredRegion string) (string, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", errwrap.Wrapf("unable to retrieve region from instance metadata: {{err}}", err)
 	}
-
 	return region, nil
 }