chef-server "Failed to authenticate."

If your chef GUI suddenly stops working and you see something like the following exception in both server.log and server-webui.log:

merb : chef-server (api) : worker (port 4000) ~ Failed to authenticate. Ensure that your client key is valid. - (Merb::ControllerExceptions::Unauthorized)
/usr/share/chef-server-api/app/controllers/application.rb:56:in `authenticate_every'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:352:in `send'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:352:in `_call_filters'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:344:in `each'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:344:in `_call_filters'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:286:in `_dispatch'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:284:in `catch'
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:284:in `_dispatch'
[...]

Then try stopping all chef processes, remove

/etc/chef/webui.pem
/etc/chef/validation.pem

and start everything again. It will regenerate the keys.

The downside is that you have to

knife configure -i

all you knife setup locations again.